A whole new world of cooking

CHEF David Thien has about 800 more ingredients in his food vocabulary than any other chef in the world. That's because he is the newly-appointed group executive chef of luxury tea brand TWG Tea, which means he has access to their full range of teas to use in his cooking, including the company's own original blends.

"I basically really discovered how to cook with tea after I joined TWG Tea (in January)," says chef Thien, 34, who was born in Bordeaux, France.

So far, he has used about 75 different teas to develop about 100 different recipes incorporating various techniques like brining, infusing, pickling, and powdering. And his efforts finally culminated about two months ago, in the form of his new tea-infused menu at TWG Tea's dining outlets.