Hong Kong fine-dining chef Shane Osborn’s ode to a bacon sandwich – with pan-fried bread and HP Sauce
Shane Osborn, Australian co-owner of fine-dining restaurant Arcane, in Central, gives us a peek inside his pantry and tells us about his must-have spice and things he cooks at home for his family
For Shane Osborn, chef and co-owner of Central fine-dining restaurant Arcane, the perfect weekend breakfast is a humble bacon sandwich.
“It’s just one of those comfort type things that starts the weekend so well,” he says. “You need nice, salty butter, crispy bacon, HP Sauce, nice toasted sourdough. I bring home a loaf of the sourdough from [supplier] Bread Elements that we have [at Arcane] and pan-fry that with a bit of oil so it’s crunchy and chewy.”
HP Sauce, a British dinner-table staple, is an essential item in the Australian chef’s pantry. He developed a taste for the sweet-and-sour sauce in Britain, which Osborn called home for more than 20 years.
“HP is quite sweet,” he says. “My kids, if they had the chance, would just pour it all over their sandwiches, so I have to police them”. Likening his restrained use of HP Sauce to that of the intensely savoury food spread from Australia, he adds, “It’s like Vegemite, so you need just a light smear.
“To go with the bacon sandwich, we have coffee from Redback Coffee – they’re Australian roasters [based in Hong Kong]. It’s nice to support other Aussies.”
