Ritz-Carlton Magazine - Winter 2013 - (Page 26)

CONTRIBUTORS ANDREW ROWAT Based in New York City and Shanghai, Andrew Rowat has been The Ritz-Carlton Magazine’s go-to China correspondent for several years, creating photo essays of Beijing, Hong Kong and Shanghai. But for this issue, we sent Rowat back to his native country of Canada. He only half-joked in suggesting the biggest difference was the absence of jet lag, but he did concede that “there is a real sense of rootedness when you return to your country of origin.” Rowat moved from Montreal to Toronto as a child, but his grandfather built a cottage just north of Montreal, so he would often pass through. He understood from an early age that the city has “always had its own ﬂavor, its own speed and its own unique identity, and I think that has been preserved — through its food, through its strong emphasis on family, and through its appreciation for the great outdoors.” Although Rowat was always tempted by photography growing up, he graduated with a degree in marine biology. After a couple of different turns, he ﬁnally relented and dived into photography after relocating PICTURE PERFECT From left: Montreal in the winter; the photographer; a recent exhibition of Rowat’s Barcelona photography. to China some seven years ago. His work spans many genres; he has shot portraits for Vanity Fair and The New Yorker, travel for Condé Nast Traveler and Travel + Leisure, and architecture for Wallpaper*, Monocle and Dwell. He is an award-winning photographer who has also entered the world of ﬁne art, mounting shows recently in Toronto and Boston. While in Montreal, Rowat spent days exploring the FA L L I N G I N L O V E W I T H … STYLE BEIJING FROM THE HALLS OF THE FORBIDDEN CITY TO BEWILDERINGLY BEAUTIFUL MARKETS, SUSAN CONLEY REVISITS THE RICHES OF THE CHINESE CAPITAL SCOTT SCHUMAN/JED ROOT INC. O 32 reinventinG retro EvEry morning bEforE 9, Paul lau Once upon a time, there was a great Daoist philosopher named Zhuangzi who fell asleep by a river in the vast country that later named itself the People’s Republic. While he was sleeping, Zhuangzi dreamt he was a butterfly. He flitted blissfully from leaf to leaf in the sweet dream. When he woke up, he didn’t know if he was a man dreaming he was a butterfly, or if he was a butterfly dreaming he was a man. But here’s the thing: He didn’t worry about the distinction. He was a Daoist, after all. Which means he subscribed to that most compelling of all Chinese precepts — to let the coursing river of life carry him wherever it would. When I go to Beijing, I try to be the butterfly. And I keep this notion of the Daoist river close in my mind. I walk in the vibrant city that hums with so much history and sheer industry, and then I walk some more, until the wide Communist boulevards and the gritty, ancient alleyways begin to reveal themselves to me. I try not to ever fight the current. And this is how the city has made such a claim on my heart. It’s a capital built in the most unlikely of places — just off the shoulder of the wind-scoured Gobi Desert — sweltering in the summer and bone-cold in the winter, but, oh, the in-between seasons! In the fall and spring, the sky can be big and high like a circus tent and so very blue, with white rafts of cumulus floating by. My husband and two young boys and I had the good fortune to live here during the spate of years before and after the 2008 Olympics, a period of time known as one long adrenalin rush for the city. So many neighborhoods were transformed then — up went PHOTOGRAPHS BY PHILIPP ENGELHORN begins his hourlong journey to work. A serious, determined man who nevertheless flashes a ready and disarming smile, he leaves his apartment in a neat Hong Kong suburb, taking the subway to Kowloon Station and walking to the 118-floor International Commerce Centre. It is the world’s fourth-tallest building — and, at 1,588 feet, Hong Kong’s highest. After zipping up the elevators to the 102nd floor, the 49-year-old walks through the doors of The Ritz-Carlton, Hong Kong just before 10 a.m., ready to begin another 12-hour day as chef de cuisine at the hotel’s celebrated Tin Lung Heen restaurant. Lau changes into immaculate chef’s whites and high toque, and heads into the kitchens, where his team of some 25 staffers has been at work for hours, moving between the two main preparation rooms. One is a stainless steel-and-tile space organized around the metal woks essential to Chinese cooking. The other is dominated by bamboo steamers for making dim sum, the bite-sized dumplings and other small dishes that are a cornerstone of classic Cantonese food. Updating classic cantonese cUisine, modern master paUl laU dazzles in Hong Kong. alexandra seno digs in PA R I S tktktktktk Clockwise, from top: Optio veliquibus. Usciet eos ererae si aperecab int volupttate tuscillaccum quos audi volorpores ea dolupta volupiscium ute od ullatius as aut moluptasped eum veliberis dolorei cturent landa dolum, N E W YO R K Dim Sum anD t hen Some Clockwise from left: Chef Paul Lau putting the finishing touches on the Steamed Crab Claw dish in the kitchen of the Tin Lung Heen restaurant at The Ritz-Carlton, Hong Kong; dim sum steamers; dumplings with egg whites and scallops. TREASURE ISLAND t h e r i t z - c a r lt o n m a g a z i n e ON THE BOULEVARDS HORNS OF PLENT Y The Bronze Bull at the Summer Palace looks on as travelers board one of the famous Dragon Boats. 106 33 w w w. r i t z c a r lt o n . c o m 107 Natur al HigHs From left: A hiker on the way to Mount Britton lookout point in El Yunque; the Fajardo Lighthouse in Las Cabezas de San Juan Nature Reserve. Fr om mou n tain t r ails an d en d les s beaches t o s an Ju an ’s kin et ic s t r eet liFe, Pu er t o rico has it all Photo essay by rick lew GLOBE-TROTTING STYLE PHOTOGRAPHER THE SARTORIALIST DISCOVERS ACCIDENTAL FASHION ICONS ON THE STREETS OF THE WORLD’S FASHION HOT SPOTS 45 W W W. R I T Z C A R LT O N . C O M T H E R I T Z - C A R LT O N M A G A Z I N E t h e r i t z - c a r lt o n m a g a z i n e 81 T H E R I T Z - C A R LT O N M A G A Z I N E WRITERS AND PHOTOGRAPHERS SUSAN CONLEY (“Falling PHILIPP ENGELHORN in Love With … Beijing,” page 32) recently published a memoir, The Foremost Good Fortune, chronicling the years she and her family lived in Beijing. Her work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The Paris Review and The Daily Beast. She is a founder and teacher at The Telling Room, a nonproﬁt creative writing lab in Portland, Maine. Her novel “Paris Was the Place” (Knopf) is forthcoming in July 2013. (“Reinventing Retro,” page 106) captured the speed and skill of a Hong Kong kitchen in his story on preparing dim sum. He noted that his subjects often moved too fast to photograph; then there was the noise of the wok’s ﬂame, which “sounds like an airplane engine!” Engelhorn has contributed to The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and Travel + Leisure, among many other publications. RICK LEW (“Treasure Island,” page 80), based in New York City, ventured to Puerto Rico for this issue of the magazine. As a contributing photographer for Condé Nast Traveler, Lew has photographed more than 30 feature stories in more than 25 countries. On this trip, Lew observed that “the music, dancing, drinking and eating does not stop at the Plaza del Mercado. On a weekend night, this is not to be missed!” SCOTT SCHUMAN (“On the Boulevards,” page 45), aka The Sartorialist, began taking photos of well-dressed people on the street as a hobby, a respite from his real job in the fashion business. But the popularity of his work, self-published online, quickly became so popular that he now constantly travels the globe as one of the world’s leading street-fashion photographers, a genre he helped invent. 26 W W W. R I T Z C A R LT O N . C O M ANDREW ROWAT http://WWW.RITZCARLTON.COM

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Ritz-Carlton Magazine - Winter 2013

Ritz-Carlton Magazine - Winter 2013
Contents
Contributors
Editor’s Letter
President's Letter
Falling in Love With ... Beijing
Design
Technology
On the Boulevards
Shopping
Jewelry
Watches
Family
Local Knowledge
Outdoors
Puerto Rico
Montreal
Culinary
Let Us Stay With You
Heritage

Ritz-Carlton Magazine - Winter 2013