our story
Our restaurant is proudly named after the owner’s ancestral great, great grandmother who was, as the title refers to, Tai Tai.
Traditionally, Tai Tai (太太) means the head wife of many wives of her husband. Foremost, her responsibilities in the household would be in the kitchen with many cooks. Tai Tai’s helpers would source the best local and regional ingredients.
Together with Tai Tai they would work tirelessly to deliver food with sublime tastes and textures.
Tai Tai was honoured, revered and many sought her favour. In particular, other wives of her merchant husband as she welded much power and influence within the extended family. Her husband travelled away often to trade in commodities and thus the Tai Tai was left to run the household. Tai Tai maintained dominance over the other wives and dictated the entitlements of other wives and family members.
Ones that found favour with Tai Tai would get better portions and better food. Tai Tai was adventurous in her culinary pursuits and experimented widely with new found ingredients into her cooking. She sent her servants to forage unusual yet naturally grown foods such as exotic mushrooms, bamboo shoots, lotus roots, fungus and seeds, mushrooms, medicinal grass, seeds, roots and shoots found in outskirts of the village. Tai Tai’s true passion lay in the experimenting of flavours and textures.
As food was also for health and nutrition, Tai Tai would cook with wellbeing in mind, believing in the life giving properties of food and cooking for the good of the body’s constitution and nourishment. She used medicinal properties of many herbs, leaves and plants to achieve fine harmony and balance in the body. It was believed by Tai Tai that an imperfection of Qi would cause illness.
Tai Tai passed down her many recipes to descendants and today, we are fortunate to have inherited her love of cooking. Over time, Tai Tai’s way of blending flavour and using food for wellbeing has been ingrained in our own cooking pursuits and we understand that Tai Tai wished for not the exclusivity of her recipes but instead for us to embrace the idea of infusing ideas.
Our restaurant is proudly named after the owner’s ancestral great, great grandmother who was, as the title refers to, Tai Tai.
Traditionally, Tai Tai (太太) means the head wife of many wives of her husband. Foremost, her responsibilities in the household would be in the kitchen with many cooks. Tai Tai’s helpers would source the best local and regional ingredients.
Together with Tai Tai they would work tirelessly to deliver food with sublime tastes and textures.
Tai Tai was honoured, revered and many sought her favour. In particular, other wives of her merchant husband as she welded much power and influence within the extended family. Her husband travelled away often to trade in commodities and thus the Tai Tai was left to run the household. Tai Tai maintained dominance over the other wives and dictated the entitlements of other wives and family members.
Ones that found favour with Tai Tai would get better portions and better food. Tai Tai was adventurous in her culinary pursuits and experimented widely with new found ingredients into her cooking. She sent her servants to forage unusual yet naturally grown foods such as exotic mushrooms, bamboo shoots, lotus roots, fungus and seeds, mushrooms, medicinal grass, seeds, roots and shoots found in outskirts of the village. Tai Tai’s true passion lay in the experimenting of flavours and textures.
As food was also for health and nutrition, Tai Tai would cook with wellbeing in mind, believing in the life giving properties of food and cooking for the good of the body’s constitution and nourishment. She used medicinal properties of many herbs, leaves and plants to achieve fine harmony and balance in the body. It was believed by Tai Tai that an imperfection of Qi would cause illness.
Tai Tai passed down her many recipes to descendants and today, we are fortunate to have inherited her love of cooking. Over time, Tai Tai’s way of blending flavour and using food for wellbeing has been ingrained in our own cooking pursuits and we understand that Tai Tai wished for not the exclusivity of her recipes but instead for us to embrace the idea of infusing ideas.
