DeAille Tam is Named Asia’s Best Female Chef 2021

The title of Asia's Best Female Chef 2021 has been bestowed on DeAille Tam, executive chef and co-founder of Obscura, Shanghai, ahead of the ninth edition of the Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants list.

Tam is recognised for her achievement in gastronomy, in overcoming challenges around traditional gender roles, and for striving to create a new identity for Chinese cuisine that breaks free of the country’s huge history and size, and instead presents a dynamic and adaptable expression of a modern people and culture.

"Obscura means uncertain, limitless – a black hole-type of concept,” she told the World’s 50 Best Restaurants website. “You know there is something interesting happening on the other side of the black hole, something alluring and captivating. That is what we want: a restaurant that pulls you in. And once you’re sucked into that black hole, we want to capture you with our food, to create a feeling like: 'I never thought that the food I knew could take on this new shape, texture or flavour’.”