Chef André's Autumn Menu: A Taste of Home

TAIPEI, Sept. 7, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Taiwan's highest fine-dining buffet, A Joy, has partnered with internationally renowned Chef André for its annual theme, A Gastronomic Symphony of Taiwan's Four Seasons, composing the year's flavors into four seasonal chapters. This past spring, Chef André reimagined the dining rhythm of luxury buffets through the lenses of "curation" and "flavor pathways." As autumn sets in, the narrative transitions to "Land" —one of the restaurant's four spatial themes alongside Mountain, Sea, and City.

"Land" represents the taste of warm memories, carrying humanity's deep connection to the land, family, and familiar flavors. Drawing from heat mastery, seasonal ingredients, and a lifetime of culinary experience, Chef André brings the nostalgic tastes he missed most while traveling the globe back to Taiwan's dining tables. This autumn menu will run from September 10 to November 30.

"Chef André established a fresh perspective and dining rhythm for A Joy," said I-Hang Chen, Chairman of Feastogether Group. "This autumn menu takes it a step further by connecting cuisine to personal memories. The abundance we strive for at A Joy isn't just about the variety on the buffet counters; we want our guests to discover new stories, feel the changing seasons, and find a taste that resonates with them personally on every visit."

Chef André shared, "A chef's worldview is shaped by the places they have traveled, but even more so by the flavors they choose to hold onto. The further you travel, the more you realize that what truly stays in your memory is often a simple bowl of soup, a holiday meal, or a dish cooked by family. Autumn's 'Land' theme is expressed through the craft of fire. By combining different fire control techniques, ingredients, and flavor profiles, I hope to reinterpret these warm memories and give familiar tastes a brand-new identity."

Autumn's "Land": The Craft of Fire

Pan-frying, boiling, stir-frying, deep-frying, searing, grilling, baking, and griddling—eight distinct cooking techniques sketch the canvas of autumn's "Land." In this season, fire is both a culinary method and a measure of time. As ingredients transform with heat and time, flavors gradually layer and build, ultimately coming together as an autumn feast filled with warm memories.

Chef André draws on selected ingredients and flavor combinations to express "the flavors missed most after seeing the world." From Mid-Autumn family gatherings and a mother's heirloom slow-cooked soup to culinary memories woven from Taiwanese ingredients, Japanese form, and French technique, the autumn menu unfolds through three clear stages: "Curiosity Discovery, Heart Warming, and Total Satisfaction." It begins with the fresh flavors of the season, moves into the family memories carried within a bowl of soup, and culminates in a rich, indulgent autumn feast.

Autumn • Curiosity Discovery | Handmade Shrimp Noodles with Tiger Prawn A flatbread wrapped with the flavors of the world

For Chef André, who grew up in Shilin, Taipei, "Big Flatbread Wrapped in Small Crispy Cake" was a familiar part of daily life. The soft flatbread wrapped around a crushed, crispy pastry, filled with sweet or savory flavors like peanut, sesame, taro, or red bean, remains one of his most direct taste memories of "home."

After leaving Taiwan, he lived across various cities and immersed himself in different culinary cultures. Years later, returning to recreate this familiar street food, he did not merely replicate his memory. Instead, he preserved the recognizable structure of the dish while completely rethinking its ingredients, flavors, and textures.

A dry-seared Mexican tortilla provides a thin, chewy bite, brushed with a Japanese sweet sauce reduced from eel glaze and mirin. It wraps around shredded cabbage, chervil leaves, and autumn-plump Tiger Prawn—poached and immediately iced—entwined with Hong Kong-style crispy fried shrimp roe noodles. The dish is finished with truffle mayonnaise, mentaiko, grated daikon, and a scallion-ginger oil flash-infused with hot oil.

Taiwanese memories, a Mexican tortilla, Japanese seasoning, and Hong Kong shrimp roe noodles converge in a single bite. The nostalgic flatbread remains true to its memory, now enriched by a worldview gathered along the way.

Autumn • Heart Warming | Silkie Chicken Soup with Sichuan Pepper & Pickled Chili A bowl of Silkie chicken soup: the flavor missed most when far from home

For Asians, soup is not merely a dish on the table—it is a form of self-care. We drink soup when the weather cools, when tired, and as part of the "autumn nourishment" custom before winter sets in.

Growing up drinking his mother's slow-cooked broths, Chef André's earliest culinary memories are tied to those flavors. In his mind, his mother's mastery over ingredients, heat control, and flavor balance remains irreplaceable. This "Green Sichuan Pepper & Peeled Chili Silkie Chicken Soup" stems from that very warmth.

After traveling the world, this familiar soup has taken on a character uniquely his own. Over thirty years of French culinary training brought a strict devotion to broth clarity, concentration, and precise heat control into traditional Chinese slow-cooking. Meanwhile, his deep immersion in Sichuan cuisine in Chengdu introduced tengjiao and green Sichuan peppercorns, releasing a fresh aroma and subtle numbing sensation through controlled heat—adding a bright, refined layer of spice to the comforting chicken soup.

Using an old hen simmered gently as the base, the broth is infused with pickled chili, tengjiao, sichuan pepper, and sichuan pepper oil. Turnips are poached in salted water, flower mushrooms are sautéed then braised, and Silkie chicken drumsticks are blanched and iced. Each ingredient is crafted for optimal texture before being arranged in a soup crock, bathed in broth, and slow-simmered over low heat until the flavors seamlessly harmonize. Today, this familiar home-style soup carries the depth of Chef André's accumulated culinary journey.

Autumn • Total Satisfaction | Bouillabaisse with Genmai Monaka A French-speaking Asian: Ochazuke poured with Bouillabaisse

For Chef André, a single dish often carries memories from multiple places: Taiwan is his birthplace and sensory root; Japan provided his earliest culinary enlightenment during his childhood spent around his mother's restaurant; and Southern France is where he spent over thirty years honing his craft and establishing his culinary language. If he is "a French-speaking Asian," this Ochazuke poured with Bouillabaisse naturally brings those journeys into one bowl.

Grounded in classic Southern French Bouillabaisse, fennel bulb, onion, and celery are sautéed before adding red seabream, sword prawn, white wine, tomato, and saffron, slow-simmered into a rich, vibrant seafood broth. On the other side, the dish draws from familiar Asian rice culture and childhood memories of Japanese home-style monaka wafer Ochazuke. A monaka monaka wafer is paired with wild sea bass, king crab meat, and kelp seafood sushi rice, accompanied by white shrimp, saffron cream, roasted green rice grains, and dill.

Upon serving, piping-hot Bouillabaisse is poured directly into the bowl. The wheat gluten wafer absorbs the broth, transforming from crisp to tender as it melts into the sushi rice and seafood. The rich seafood soup of Southern France meets Asian rice heritage and Japanese childhood memories, allowing distinct places to weave seamlessly into Chef André 's personal culinary language.

From Flavor Pathway to Sensory Homecoming

If the spring "Flavor Pathway" unveiled a sensory map for discovering Taiwan, the autumn chapter follows a chef's personal memory, bringing home the global flavors and techniques gathered across a lifetime to Taiwan's dining table.

With the four seasons as the timeline and "Mountain, Sea, Land, and City" as the coordinates of flavor, autumn uses "the craft of fire" to answer the call of "Land"—a theme rooted in land, family, and memory. Symphony of Four Seasons thus transitions from spring's territorial exploration into autumn's sensory homecoming, progressively fulfilling the year's overarching curatorial promise: "A Gastronomic Symphony of Taiwan's Four Seasons".

The world expands our vision, but home gives every flavor its destination.

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SOURCE A Joy