Silk Road flavors inspire new dining series

The MGM Cotai hotel in Macao has expanded its popular guest-chef dining series with the launch of "Silk Road Art Feast", a new culinary program for 2026 that blends gastronomy with elements of intangible cultural heritage, further reinforcing the city's standing as a UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy.

The inaugural chapter, titled "Taste from Chengdu", debuted last week, drawing inspiration from Chengdu, Sichuan province — the starting point of the Southern Silk Road and a city historically known as the "City of Brocade".

For the opening event, MGM invited renowned chef Zhang Yuanfu, a provincial-level representative inheritor of Sichuan culinary arts, to collaborate with Yang Dengquan, executive sous chef of the one-star Michelin Sichuan restaurant Five Foot Road at MGM Cotai.

Together, the two chefs — both veterans with more than four decades devoted to Sichuan cuisine — presented a three-day limited dining experience showcasing the depth and artistry of traditional Sichuan cooking. The menu combined spices associated with Silk Road trade routes with ingredients from Sichuan while incorporating fresh seafood from Macao, highlighting both classical flavors and heritage techniques.

Among the signature dishes was Zhang's premium fish maw, paired with a velvety milk broth — one of the four classic soups in Sichuan cuisine — and prepared using a slow braising technique that delivered rich, layered flavors.