Star chefs rediscover gastro-roots

Travels in China yield rare ingredients, cultural reawakening and culinary inspiration

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Chefs Andre Chiang, left, and DeAille Tam draw inspiration from their travels in China and the cultural connections they have made there. (Nikkei montage/Source photos by stargourmet, Alex Yu)  

JOHN KRICH, Contributing writer

SHANGHAI -- When award-winning Canadian-Chinese chef DeAille Tam went into the mountains of Yunnan to help pick highly prized matsutake mushrooms, she found more than the terroir -- the flavors imparted by the local environment.

"It was the hardship," she says. "I spent five hours walking and trying to find those mushrooms, with a group of women, all small so they could make their way through low bushes and brambles, up and down through the trenches. That gave me a new appreciation of what comes into a restaurant and left me with a new emotion."

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