Austin Gao

Four Seasons Tenure

• Since 2023
• First Four Seasons Assignment: Current

Employment History

• Shangri-La Chengdu, Ritz-Carlton Chengdu, Ritz-Carlton Tokyo and Ritz-Carlton Nanjing，InterContinental Chongqing Raffles City Hotel

Birthplace

• Shandong Province

Languages Spoken

• Chinese, English

Austin Gao is the Executive Sous Chef at Four Seasons Hotel Dalian. With advanced team management skills and rich experience in luxury hotel service, Chef Gao assists the Executive Chef to bring excellent dining experiences to guests of Four Seasons Hotel Dalian.

Chef Gao's career began in 2007, when he went to Chengdu to study Sichuan cuisine with a passion for cooking. "Chuan" is the most famous one among the eight major cuisines in China. It boldly combines different seasonings to form 24 flavours based on Sichuan style, and the 24 flavours are adjusted slightly according to the original flavour of the ingredients, which makes it a characteristic of "one dish, one grid, one hundred dishes and one hundred flavours.” The exploration of Sichuan style has laid a solid foundation for Chef Gao in seasoning, and the mysterious interaction between different flavours has also aroused his whimsical approach to taste.

In 2013, Chef Gao began to serve luxury hotels. The diversified kitchen environment of the hotel gave him the opportunity to learn and communicate with famous chefs from all over the world, including Michelin-starred chefs. Chef Gao's exploration of cuisine extended to all parts of the world - Indian cuisine stewed with curry for a long time, paying attention to the strong integration of spices into the ingredients, and each bite has a rich and mellow fragrance, while Southeast Asian cuisine added vanilla at the last minute to pursue more flavour. "At that time, I really understood the difference between fragrance and flavour." Chef Gao says. After further improving the control of spice seasoning technology, Chef Gao came to Japan to study orthodox western food with German chefs, and expanded the spirit of inquiry to various dimensions such as the selection of ingredients, the temperature of cooking and the presentation of products - the harsh insistence of Tokyo food suppliers on quality and integrity and the exchange guidance of Michelin guest chefs left many remarkable moments for Chef Gao's career.

"Respecting the integration of diversified cuisines is the general trend of food innovation," Chef Gao says. The background of internationalization has made him bolder and understanding of innovation than most people. Local seasonal ingredients are matched with exotic cooking methods, but the first meeting between foods can always collide with a wonderful combination of praise. Chef Gao outside the kitchen is talkative and funny, and enjoys exchanging delicious food with people from all walks of life. “In the old teahouse, you can spend a warm afternoon with a pot of tea and a plate of dried fruit. Talking with people from different industries can make me jump out of the chef's thinking frame and get new inspiration."

Chef Gao spares no effort to pour his concentration and understanding of cooking into the Hotel’s restaurants, and lead the chef team to create a luxury banquet for every guest.