A seasonal eating guide according to a Macau Michelin-star chef: essential ingredients for all 24 solar terms, following traditional Chinese medicine

Step into a Hong Kong supermarket today and you’ll find few limits on what you can buy. Want mangoes in winter or cruciferous vegetables in summer? No problem, thanks to globalisation and advances in refrigeration and greenhouse technology. With everything available year-round, the traditional concept of seasonality has lost much of its original meaning, often reduced to a cliché in the marketing of new restaurants.

Far from a passing fad, this astronomical and natural calendar – which outlines China’s “micro-seasons” – was, until around a century ago, the world’s longest-running culinary philosophy, defining Chinese agriculture and eating habits.

For generations, our ancestors lived an agrarian life with their daily activities deeply tied to the natural rhythms of the seasons. Now, in our fast-paced urban lives, we are largely disconnected from the agricultural cycles that once governed our existence. We spend less time outdoors and engage little in the physical rhythms of farming, losing touch with both the seasons and traditional wisdom like the solar terms.

Despite this shift, the wisdom of the 24 solar terms is “making a comeback”, says chef Tam Kwok-fung, the eponymous culinarian behind Chef Tam’s Seasons. “People are becoming more mindful of what they eat and how food impacts their health,” he explains. “This ancient concept is re-emerging as a modern way to align our diet with the natural world.”

For Tam, flavour and well-being are inseparable: “According to traditional Chinese medicine, our body’s needs change with the seasons’ varying temperature and humidity. This is where the concept of seasonal eating comes in – we select ingredients and cooking methods that are in harmony with the current solar term to nourish our bodies.”