Winning Best Newcomer at the Observer Food Monthly Awards 2019 marked a major milestone in Guirong Wei’s career, recognising both the success of Master Wei and the distinctive Xi’an cooking she had spent years introducing to London.
In the accompanying feature, food writer Fuchsia Dunlop traces Guirong’s journey from her childhood in a mountain village in Shaanxi to professional culinary training, her years as a chef, and eventually the opening of her own restaurant in Bloomsbury. The story places her handmade biang biang noodles and the food traditions of China’s northwest at the heart of that journey.
For Guirong, the award represented more than recognition for a new restaurant. It was an important acknowledgement of her long-standing commitment to bringing the food, techniques and culinary culture of Xi’an to a wider audience in Britain.