Food and cooking connect people, teach them the art of patience, and allow them to rediscover a part of themselves that would have otherwise remained undiscovered.
“Cooking added meaning to my life. It helped me understand who I was and wanted to become,” said Chef Katherine Lim, a third-generation Hakka Chinese working towards popularising Hakka cuisine.
Lim grew up in Amritsar and has been working towards blending traditional dishes from the Hakka cuisine with global and Indian flavours. In an exclusive conversation with Outlook Traveller Eats, she takes us through her journey, dishes, and ingredients that stand out from her native cuisine.
Lim’s Journey With Cooking
Finding herself inclined towards cooking, Lim started with making fried eggs when she was ten years old. Cooking with her grandfather and uncle not only encouraged her to cook more but also allowed her to experiment more in the kitchen.
“Until 2020, my cooking was limited to preparing dishes for family and friends. The culinary journey took an adventurous turn during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020,” said Lim. She started a cloud kitchen in Kolkata’s Chinatown that shaped her journey as a chef.
People love the comfort of home-cooked food, which stood out in Lim’s kitchen. She then progressed to starting a private supper club and later moved on to organising pop-ups at various hotels across the country. “With my collaboration with Argha Sen, founder of Gormei and Masque in Mumbai, I got a stage to showcase my craft and passion for authentic Hakka cuisine,” added Lim.
Her menu was not limited to chilli chicken and noodles but reflected the authentic home-cooked Hakka food.
Hakkas Are Like Dandelions
“The Hakka people have no homeland; they are known as ‘guest people.’ This fact reflects in their cuisine that blends dishes that stay true to Hakka roots with local ingredients and techniques,” said Lim.
She compares Hakka people to dandelions, which disperse their seeds via wind, and wherever they land, they commune. “When Hakkans land in a place, we not only survive but thrive,” she added.
She mentioned how the ingredients and techniques of the cuisine change according to the region, while retaining the authenticity of the dishes. The Hakka tradition has shaped Lim’s identity as a chef, which has evolved with experimentation and exploration of new flavours.
Lim carries a rich blend of cultures—the Punjabiyat of Amritsar, the authenticity of Kolkata, and the heritage of China. And she aims to embody the best of all worlds. “I used to think I did not fit in anywhere until food came into my life. It was through cooking that I rediscovered myself and began to feel proud of my upbringing and where I come from,” she said.
Memories, Food, And Identity
Recalling her childhood kitchen adventures, Lim said, “making Maggi with a homemade chilli sauce and pork oil is one of my most cherished memories. Similarly, while grinding chillies and rendering pork fat was hard work, it brought my entire family together.”
Regarding her most loved Hakka delicacy, Lim mentioned the Hakka yam abacus beans made with yam, starch, and fried with meat. “The dish is quite nourishing and was believed to be a sign of good luck and prosperity in older times,” she added. Lim presented this dish at a pop-up in Conrad, Bangalore, and it soon became a hit.
Food thus gave Lim a stage to follow her dream and present her land’s cuisine and her people’s stories to the rest of the country and the world.
Read more: Chef Amit Ghorpade On The Art Of Reinventing Lesser-Known Ingredients
Also read: Chef Rukhsaar Sayeed On Kashmiri Cuisine & Dishes That Lie At Its Heart
