Golden Flower Opens at Wynn Macau

 After a successful two-year search for Mainland China’s best chefs, an exhaustive multi-million renovation, and months of culinary research, Wynn Macau has launched Golden Flower, its most exclusive restaurant to date. Set in an opulent and exclusive dining room, Golden Flower celebrates the life of the historic Cantonese Qing dynasty official Tan Zongjun with the authentic flavors of China’s interior - Tan, Lu (Shandong), and Sichuan.

Weaved throughout the restaurant’s interior, menu, and ambiance is the spirit of Tan Cuisine’s inventor, Tan Zongjun, a Qing Dynasty official from Canton who took up residence in Beijing, where he discovered Lu (Shandong) cuisine. During his time in Beijing, he developed a school of cuisine that blended the best of China’s north and south, now recognized as one of northern China’s top culinary traditions, Tan cuisine. Golden Flower’s menu also celebrates the later years of Tan’s life, when he moved to Sichuan and was introduced to the spicy, vibrant flavors of Sichuanese cuisine. Wynn Macau commemorates Tan Zongjun by presenting the flavors that this noble Qing Dynasty official experienced in his lifetime.

Tan Zongjun inspired several generations of chefs to uphold the traditions of Tan Cuisine, including Golden Flower’s very own Chinese Executive chef Liu Guo Zhu, who worked for more than a decade in the same kitchen as a chef from the original Tan household. Master Liu, who heads Golden Flower and oversees Wynn Macau’s entire Chinese kitchen operations, was discovered during Wynn Macau’s exhaustive two-year search for China’s best Mainland Chinese chefs. His four decades of work experience include more than twenty years at the legendary Beijing Hotel (where he cooked for Her Royal Highness the Queen of England, US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, and Chinese leader Deng Xiao Ping); Executive Chef at the Beijing Grand Hotel; and Chief Instructor at the Chinese Culinary Institute of Hong Kong.

“Tan cuisine is a school of cooking that can be enjoyed by both northern Chinese and southern Chinese because the flavors are very balanced and the cuisine protects the original flavors of our ingredients. But it is also a cuisine that is very exclusive and hard to truly understand because of the labor-intensive cooking methods involved. Also, few chefs have worked in a kitchen with a chef from the original Tan household,” explained Master Liu.

Master Liu has also enticed six of Northern China’s finest chefs, who include his own son and past apprentices, to join Golden Flower, as they celebrate and revive the culinary traditions of Mainland China.

“At Golden Flower, I have created a very intimate kitchen, with chefs I have known from the very beginning of their careers. We each understand our ways of thinking. We all share the same sense of responsibility. We are a family,” Master Liu added.

Signature dishes include:
- Braised Jinshan shark’s fin in supreme chicken broth
- Braised Yoshihama abalone in brown sauce
- Sweet and sour cabbage with chili vinaigrette
- Stock boiled mandarin fish fillet with ginger
- Imperial dessert
- Stewed fish maw with crab claw
- Braised sea cucumber with Shangdong leeks
- Deep-fried and braised stuffed prawns “two ways”
- Sichuan tea smoked duck

Designed by Roger Thomas Wynn Macau’s Executive Vice President of Wynn Design and Development, Thomas has created a venue that reflects China’s historic influence on the world, including a tea lounge and reception room that is inspired by a room from the home of British tycoon Frederick Leyland known as the “Peacock Room,” on permanent display at Washington D.C.’s Freer Gallery of Art. Other extravagant touches include a red-and-white cloisonné mosaic floor from Ravenna, Italy and Mariano Fortuny light fixtures that borrow the aesthetic of Chinese silk lanterns. Complimenting the opulent interior is tableware by award-winning designer Alan Chan and staff uniforms by Rene Ozorio, the creative director of Jim Thompson, the Bangkok-based silk design house.

Wynn Macau’s tea purveyor and in-house tea sommelier (a first for Macau), present a wide variety of premium teas from China’s best-known tea regions. Working with Golden Flower’s chefs, the tea experts guide Golden Flower’s guests through the extensive selection of teas that best compliment Tan, Lu (Shandong), and Sichuan dishes. Guests may chose to begin their meal with Golden Flower’s unique signature blend of chrysanthemum-infused oolong tea before trying a wide range of teas, from Wu Yi Mountain teas to Iron Buddha Oolong to Aged Pu’er, with each dish or course. Highly recommended are Golden Flower’s vintage pu’er teas, aged between five to thirty years and grown in China’s southwestern Yunnan province, with large leaves often pressed into balls that taste better with age, producing amazing bold, earthly flavors with deep rich aromas. Equally enticing are Golden Flower’s pre-spring and early spring varieties of Dragon Well green tea, which come from Hangzhou’s famed West Lake and produce a wonderfully soothing and refreshing tea with an orchid-like fragrance.

Reflecting the artistic spirit of Tan Zongjun, who appreciated the arts as much as he enjoyed gastronomy, Golden Flower features an in-house calligrapher, who composes original poems and calligraphy for our guests, creating a lasting memento of Golden Flower’s unique dining experience.

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