Tonight a handsome young man came to Sweet Mandarin armed with a CD and an ancient scroll. He’d come to inspect the table – table 3 in the alcove – a table he’d sat at three years ago on a first date.  Tonight, he was going to propose to his girlfriend whom he’d first met at Sweet Mandarin and he wanted it just perfect, just as it was three years ago. Its been raining in hushed whispers all night. Every now and then, a chuckle seems to escape it as the lovers walk into Sweet Mandarin.

The atmosphere was electric – at Sweet Mandarin they escaped from other spaces, which seemed cluttered with superficial concerns and hollow outrage. Here, he could ask the question. In the candle lit space, he could ask for her hand in marriage. He’d planned every course, the music and his proposal  as a creative challenge, composing lucid thoughts to record the event – giving mankind hope of an optimistic outlook on life and love.  I peered around waiting for the signal. He was waiting for that moment to come.  I think we both could sense a pin dropping it was that tense. He gave me the nod and then I delivered the plate with the scroll on it. It was time. I placed it on the table. It shimmered from the waxy paper. Almost hypnotic. It spoke about ‘In my heart is a temple. Sacred, intricate, divine. Cool floors, echoing ceilings.  I want you to be part of my life. You’re the one’.

In this scroll was scribed a promise, a small-scale personal approach – outlining his world where he was inviting her to join, creating a place where love, beauty, wit, and inspiration dominated, and when his girlfriend started to read these poignant words, she cried tears of joy as she was overwhelmed with love. On bended knee, he proposed and virtually built a bridge from himself to his fiancee – because sometimes in life there are rivers to cross on the way.

“Yes. The answer is yes.” she whispered.  At that moment it goes hazy like they are stranded between nothing and everything.

I couldn’t help it. The tears welled in my eyes and I too was overcome with emotion. There’s a little bit of this couple in all of us. They laugh love sing sleep dance ignore fight insist like everyone has been through – I guess we are all filled with nostalgia.

On an innocent night, this young couple’s experience of Sweet Mandarin would change forever. The proposal was inspirational, funny, and wise. It uplifted Sweet Mandarin to a marshmallow floaty existence where dreams really do come true – and has become a precious moment that will always be recorded in their memory and mine.

I realise my raison d’etre now – to cook delicious food for people who appreciate Sweet Mandarin. Through food, interactions can be very deep and meaningful very quickly. There is nothing flippant or superficial in the cuisine I cook, so I attract likeminded people who are looking to share, inspire, validate and enjoy good food.

Tonight, it has been amazing – a vibrant world of wonder that inspires and truly adds value to the surrounding world. In one word, life is ‘Sweet’.

Breathe. Breathe again. I’ve got some news my friends. I’m going to be starring on Iron Chef UK when it airs on Channel 4 on 12th – 17th 12.30pm – 1.30pm. This is like a dream come true for me. Thank you God. You’ve already given me an amazing blessing when Sweet Mandarin received the most prestigious accolade, winning the Gordon Ramsay F Word Best Local Chinese Restaurant award. Deep breath. My heart is racing because I love Iron Chef. I’ve watched all the American versions and am in love with Chef Morimoto and Bobby Flay. I can’t wait to get to Kitchen Stadium – this is an experience of a lifetime.

I am honoured to be invited to cook on Iron Chef and will dedicate my dishes to Manchester, my followers on Twitter and to all my clients at Sweet Mandarin. I’m gonna tweet throughout the cook off so follow me for more of the action http://twitter.com/sweetmandarin.

PRESS RELEASE: 1st December 2010
Lisa Tse to star on Iron Chef UK

Lisa Tse, CEO and head chef of the award winning Sweet Mandarin is to star on Iron Chef UK when it airs on Channel 4 in December. Lisa has already received one of the most prestigious accolades, winning the Gordon Ramsay F Word Best Local Chinese Restaurant award and her cookery school is now fully booked for months. This latest challenge will see Lisa battle against the Iron Chefs in a specially created Kitchen Stadium.

Iron Chef originated from Japan and its American version has received cult status as well as receiving the blessing of Michelle Obama who invited Iron Chef to the White House. In each episode, a new challenger chef battles one of the resident ‘Iron Chefs’ in a one-hour cooking competition based on a theme ingredient. In April/May, the UK will witness Iron Chef which is like no other cooking show before it. It combines haute cuisine, sports broadcasting and martial arts. It is crazy, zany and addictive.

Chef Lisa said “I am honoured to be invited to cook on Iron Chef. My three passions in life are cooking, people and business, and Iron Chef ignites all three. For everyone in Manchester, for my Twitter friends and my customers at Sweet Mandarin, I will rise to this challenge and try my best. I’ve been told that when the secret ingredient is revealed, we are free to choose what to cook and have an hour to produce something amazing. The Japanese call it omikase. I call it omigod — cooking without a net!”

For more of the action follow Lisa on Twitter http://twitter.com/sweetmandarin as she proposes to tweet throughout her cook-off.

About Chef Lisa Tse

Lisa is the CEO and brainchild behind Sweet Mandarin, an award winning Chinese restaurant, cookery school and corporate team building events organizer in Manchester, which she set up with her two sisters in 2004. Lisa won the prestigious award of Best Local Chinese Restaurant 2009/10 on the F Word and Gordon Ramsay was highly impressed with Lisa’s cooking. Sweet Mandarin has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, The Times, on BBC Newsnight and on the front cover of the Shanghai Daily. Lisa is the third generation of women in her family in the restaurant business and their story, self titled Sweet Mandarin was published by Random House in 33 countries and covered in a documentary by the BBC and the Chinese Channel. In 2010, Amoy chose Lisa as their chef of the year to celebrate Chinese New Year. Lisa has been cooking from the age of 11 years old and now cooks at Sweet Mandarin and for celebrities.

When we received the news that we had made it to the Final of the F Word’s Best Chinese Restaurant Competition we were estatic (Watch us battle it out here). Thanks to our wonderful customers who nominated us, we were on the map a la Gordon. However, before Gordon,  we were and still are are the third generation of women restaurateurs and have always had great families follow us generation after generation. Their gran knew our gran (who set up her restaurant before Chinatown was established), their mum knows our mum and now the third generation visit Sweet Mandarin.

Nothing had quite sunk in even when a black car picked us up at our home to drive us to the studios in London. Having not slept the night before didn’t help when we were faced with 50 chicken breasts and about 100 pieces of squid to cut in the F Word kitchen – and we had an hour’s prep time to get through the mountains of ingredients.

I was cutting away in my own little world when suddenly this voice said ‘Hello Lisa!’ It was Gordon Ramsay. He was so tall and I was so shocked that it was the man himself that I nearly cut my hand.  It was at that moment that it finally sunk – I was in the competition headed up by Gordon Ramsay to find the UK’s Best Local Chinese Restaurant and after three generations who have endured rollercoaster after rollercoaster it was a chance for me to restore the family name.  Then I got nervous.   I finally realised that this competition was real and was shocked that Gordon knew my name. I’ve seen him on the TV, but for him to know and praise me was a chef’s dream come true.  It was a true honour to cook with him and a huge accolade to get 82/100 mark for the Mabel’s Claypot Chicken (my mother’s recipe which we serve at Sweet Mandarin). When we won the Best Local Chinese Restaurant Award 2009-2010 I had tears in my eyes.  To my dear customers and to all of Manchester, this trophy is for you.

If you want to pop over for my mum’s claypot chicken, please book a table here