Chua Lam

Chua Lam 蔡瀾
Hong Kong Book Fair 2008, 25-7-2008
Background information
Chinese name	蔡瀾 (traditional)
Chinese name	蔡澜 (simplified)
Born	(1941-08-18) 18 August 1941 Singapore
Occupation	food critic, producer
Spouse(s)	Cheung King-man 張瓊文
Parents	Chua Boon-suan (1907-1997) Hung Fong-ping

Chua Lam (also known as Mandarin:Tsai Lan, Cantonese: Choi Lan, Teochew: Chùa Lāng) (simplified Chinese: 蔡澜, traditional Chinese: 蔡瀾, born 1941 in Singapore) is a columnist, food critic and occasional television host in Hong Kong and Japan. He was also a movie producer for the Hong Kong movie studio Golden Harvest.

Background

Chua Lam's father, Chua Boon Suan (蔡文玄), hailed from the Jio Mung Chua (蔡門石) village in Chaozhou, and later migrated to Singapore. His father worked in a high-ranking post at the Shaw Brothers Studio and his father died in 1997. Chua Lam is currently based in Hong Kong.

Movie producer

Chua was a producer of several movies for Golden Harvest, including several films for Jackie Chan. Notable films include Mr. Nice Guy (credited as executive producer), Thunderbolt (credited as producer), Sex and Zen and City Hunter (credited as producer).

Writer

Chua was a columnist on Oriental Daily in Hong Kong. Chua later switched to writing columns for the Next Media's publications, namely Next Magazine (on movies and a restaurant guide), Apple Daily and Eat and Travel Weekly. All columns have continued as of 2007.

Tour organizer

In recent years (2005 - current), Chua has organized special tours in Asia and around the world to sample the best local speciality food. Chua often writes, in his newspaper columns, about the tours' organizing trips where he and others sample food from four or five restaurants per day in order to select the best restaurants.

Japan

Chua has written a number of books and restaurant guides on Hong Kong in Japanese. Chua is primarily known in Japan as a judge on the Fuji TV series Iron Chef. Chua studied as a student in Japan and lived there for several years.

Filmography

TV shows

• 2007: Market Trotter (蔡瀾逛菜欄)
• 2007: Ten Years After (拾年)
• 2008: Chu As Choice (蔡瀾歎名菜)
• 2009: Be My Guest (志雲飯局)

Gastronomic philosophy

One of his most beloved dishes is stir fried bean sprout with fried tofu and fish sauce.

Chua is famous to advocate the use of pork dripping in food preparation and as a condiment. He has cited and promoted the pork fat usage in most of his TV shows.

Quotes

"Choose to do something and you have a 50/50 chance of succeeding. Choose to do nothing and you will definitely fail."

"Happiness comes from sacrificing a bit of your health".

"Long live cholesterol!" "膽固醇萬歲!"

Videos

• Chua Lam & Ni Kuang chatted at 2008 Hong Kong Book Fair「蔡瀾與倪匡 - 好友講好友 」 蔡瀾‧倪匡 (15/08/2008, 粵語)

External links

• Chua Lam's official website
• Chua Lam on IMDb
• Goo Movies (Japan)
• Cinemasie
• The New York Times entry
• Chua Lam's ebook website