Kadafy Hosenally, a Michelin chef with over 30 years of experience, has traveled all over the world, working in countries such as the United States, Brazil, Egypt, and Dubai.

He has also served athletes from various countries during the Beijing Olympics Games. In recent years, Kadafy has been addicted to Cantonese cuisine and gone deep into rural areas to seek hidden culinary masters among the locals.

Kadafy (R) has been addicted to Cantonese cuisine.

Recently, Kadafy and his friend Maggie Chow went to Baiqi Village in Nanlang, the largest Hakka village in Zhongshan. This village is a well-known chef village. There are more than 400 villagers who have been chefs, accounting for one-sixth of the local population. Nowadays, many villagers have returned to their hometowns and run catering farms. 

Baiqi Village in Nanlang.

Kadafy met two ladies who were doing some deep-fried foods. They taught him how to make Hakka Sesame Balls and Hakka Rice Soup. Both of them can be considered as Hakka Ban. Ban, literally mixing with rice, is a cooking method of Hakka staple food. Hakka people also call this staple food made this way as Ban. There are over 200 kinds ban food in Hakka cuisine.

Hakka also means "guests and newcomers", which indicates the immigration of Hakka people. Kadafy comes from Mauritius, a small island in Africa. Many Chinese in Mauritius are Hakkas. So he also knows a little bit Chinese. This trip brought him wonderful experience. "Today they made me feel like I'm home." He and his friend were going to try more local food in the villages of Zhongshan.