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Chef Jeremy Pang is taking stars such as Mel Giedroyc, Grace Dent and Thomas Skinner on a trip down memory lane as they travel around the city and enjoy Cantonese cuisine. They'll be
invited into homes, restaurants and dai pai dongs as they learn about different connections with food and how the gastronomy scene in Hong Kong was shaped. Reflecting on the series, which
airs on Saturday 24 May, Jeremy recalled how he visited the place where his family would have crossed from China to Hong Kong, his favourite moments with the celebs and why the series was
important to him. Speaking exclusively to Reach, he shared: "My parents used to live in Hong Kong back when I was a kid, so we'd go back to Hong Kong, back and forth as kids,
probably then twice, three times a year. And it just felt really natural for me, as a sort of progression in my TV career, to do something there. My debut series was me traveling around the
UK cooking up different Asian dishes. But my core sort of background is in Cantonese cuisine and food that my mum and dad would cook for me. So it was a no brainer." Rather than being a
tour guide for the celebrities, only a few of the places Jeremy went to were places he already knew. He was therefore able to make discoveries of his own. Jeremy explained: "I would
say about 50 percent of the itinerary was some places that I knew in Hong Kong that I wanted to show the guests and the celebrities, but also then the other 50 percent were new places. It
was really nice having that mix of both because it meant in some ways, I'm there sort of to guide the celebrities through Hong Kong, through the city and in my own little way, but in
other ways, it was really quite exploratory for me as well. And there's one place that in particular really resonates with me, and that was with Grace [Dent]. "We went to look at a
300 year old village called Kuk Po and it's right on the border of Hong Kong and mainland China and until last year it was essentially like, kind of like a no man's land between
the two. You'd have to use a passport to get through and then there are residents in that area. But then you have to go through the Chinese border to get across the mainland and only
last year they started to open that area of Hong Kong up to tourism. "And so they had very little to like very few tourists go to that village at all, until last year, and now
they're starting to open up this village, which is actually like a five minute boat ride from that sort of that residential strip of land. So we took the crew across there." Jeremy
went on to reveal: "What was really fascinating, it was the first time I've been there, but my mum has a few friends who come from that area and also for many years there's
been this story that I know from my dad - my dad's side of family moving over to Hong Kong from China, many decades ago - was that his older brothers and sisters would have had to
essentially swim across as refugees in what would have probably been those waters. "A lot of people, refugees, would swim across these waters, because that's the shortest strip of
water between the two lands. And, you know, it's obviously quite dangerous, and that's where a couple of my uncles and my aunties and my grandma would have originally gotten over
to Hong Kong. So seeing that sort of stuff was eye-opening and in a place that I already feel is like my second home anyway, it was really fascinating to see it." Jeremy also shared how
special it was to explore Hong Kong with Mel: "Her family and her mum and dad and her siblings all lived in Hong Kong for six years in the 60s. So again, quite a similar sort of
feeling of nostalgia for her. But Mel's the only one that her siblings who never stepped foot in Hong Kong until she came on the show. We took her on a mini tour of where her mum and
dad worked and lived in the 60s." The TV chef was also keen to showcase Cantonese food and how "elevated" it is, encouraging tourists to try local food rather than sticking to
Western options. He explained: "What we really wanted to get across was that a lot of this food, even in these street wok restaurants, they're cooking food that we know here in
the UK very well, but also kind of like elevated versions of it." Jeremy took the celebs to dai pai dongs, where massive woks cook "incredible stir fries and deep fried food"
as well as Cha chaan tengs, which are tea houses which serve "pork chop crusty rolls and French toast with peanut butter and condensed milk on top". He explained: "Those types
of establishments that have been in Hong Kong since the 1950s. They haven't really changed much, they have maybe slightly more modernised offerings, and they have lots of different
types of omelettes or egg dishes they might do all day, kind of like the all day breakfast cafe joints. That's what these Cha chaan tengs are. "But for example, we took Tom Skinner
to eat like a very famous satay beef omelette in the sandwich. You know, like marinated beef satay, really succulent soft beef fried into an omelette in a white bread sandwich." Along
with exploring Hong Kong, viewers will see Jeremy cook these dishes on the show with the celebs or walk through how to create them at home. _JEREMY PANG'S HONG KONG KITCHEN AIRS
SATURDAY ON ITV AT 11.40AM AND IS AVAILABLE TO WATCH ON ITVX._