The rise of gourmet shallot seasoning has its origins two places very far removed from one another: Renwu Township, Kaohsiung and the Bordeaux region of France.

Fine-quality goose fat isn't rendered from the whole bird, but from two pads near its buttocks.

French-Taiwanese fusion

Liu Jinlian has food in her bones. She comes from a family of well known caterers in Kaohsiung's Neimen Township and managed a Sichuanese restaurant until her retirement in 1999. Her plate momentarily clear, she had a talk with her husband and decided to open a small restaurant selling goose meat near their home by the Caogong Canal. The 50-year-old Liu knew all there was to know about putting on grand banquets and magnificent meals, but chose to keep things simple in her restaurant. She decided to stick to unsmoked ingredients and, rather than use the kind of cheap, lard-based shallot seasonings found at most restaurants, created a goose-fat-based condiment that quickly won over the other chefs in the area with its exquisite flavor.

Meanwhile, Liu's son Chen Liang-shih was busy graduating from Chinese Culture University, completing his military service, then traveling to Bordeaux to pursue a diplome d'etudes approfondies in economics and national development. Immersed in the food business from childhood, Chen detected a distant echo of his mother's "keep it simple" philosophy in the cuisine of Bordeaux: "I discovered that the food of Bordeaux specializes in duck and goose, and focuses on fresh ingredients and unadulterated flavors. The people there treat goose fat as a gourmet product, an unheralded ingredient crucial to producing fine dishes."

When Chen returned to Taiwan, he encouraged his mother to produce and sell four varieties of artisan goose-fat shallot seasonings.

"I always thought my family's goose fat was fantastic," says Chen. "Unfortunately, most Taiwanese know little about goose fat, or about what goes into making flaked shallot seasoning. I thought it would be interesting to combine the French focus on high-quality ingredients with the simple directness of Taiwanese flavors."

Though Chen is something of a romantic, he doesn't lack for focus and drive. He spent six months on market research and product development. He even traveled to the small town of Saralat, France to visit the world's largest goose-processing facility (which produces the finest foie gras, fresh vacuum-packed goose meat, and every kind of goose fat). Convinced that his family's goose fat was as good as that of the major French producers, he went to work on developing a flaked shallot seasoning. He and his mother selected fresh, flavorful shallots grown in Yunlin and Tainan that they skinned and washed themselves, and purchased their goose fat from a Yunlin facility, demanding plump, oil-rich fat delivered fresh. Armed with the best of ingredients, they went through countless trials and tasting before settling on a process they were happy with.

The small restaurant specializing in goose that Liu Jinlian (left) opened in Kaohsiung's Renwu Township has been a font of inspiration for her beloved son Chen Liang-shih (right).

Invigorating an old standby

They debuted their innovative new take on an old Taiwanese standby in 2007. Wrapped in elegant packaging and label with a French name ("Le Pont," meaning "bridge"), it looked like a gourmet import from Europe. They furthered this impression by introducing the label in the gourmet supermarket at Taipei's Breeze Center, and on Yeh Yilan's online gourmet shop Pekoe. Chen had sent samples to these two, being sure to include detailed information on how they were made and on their uses. "I targeted connoisseurs. Once I had them interested, stores began stocking our products."

Orders for Le Pont products have multiplied over the last two years, powered by excellent word of mouth and an expanding network of specialty retailers. Le Pont ventured further afield last year, showing up on the shelves of Hong Kong gourmet Belinda Wong's shop alongside pricey caviar, foie gras, abalone, and rustic dried fruits and noodles. Food-loving shopkeepers like Wang are among Le Pont's most loyal fans; they frequently arrange tastings in their stores to spread the word about the wonders of shallot seasoning.

"Goose fat is the least harmful to the human body of all the animal fats," says Chen confidently. "It also has a delicate flavor and doesn't leave a greasy feeling in the mouth. Not to mention, it's easy to 'spice up' a dish with a little shallot seasoning, which suits the modern desire to keep food easy, but tasty. That's why we've gotten such a great response."

Goose-fat-based shallot seasonings have seen their popularity explode, and cheap imitations that cut corners on the ingredients and in the manufacturing process have begun making inroads into the market. Chen, however, remains unworried about the competition. Instead, he is completely focused on managing his own business, and has no plans to ramp up production volume or begin wholesaling his goods. "We aren't one of those shops that has been around forever, but we want to run our business that way," he says. Asked about his greatest ambition, he says: "Keep the business in our hometown, and become the world's smallest global corporation."

Goose Fat Fact File

Goose fat is rendered from two pads around the buttocks of the white goose. (Rendering the fat from under the skin yields oil of inconsistent quality.) The pads vary in size with the season, being smaller in summer and larger in winter. On average, it takes the pads of three geese to render 220 grams of oil.

Goose fat's unsaturated fatty acid content is similar to that of olive oil, and it can help reduce serum cholesterol levels. It also has a delicate flavor and less greasy mouthfeel than the fat of large farm animals such as cows and pigs. Goose fat offers chefs the cooking characteristics of an animal fat, but doesn't interfere with the flavors of the foods cooked in it.

Goose fat is used throughout the coastal Mediterranean and southwestern France. Duck confit is often prepared and preserved in it.

Though many Chinese dishes are made with goose, few are cooked in goose fat. The versatile oil can be used in a variety of frying techniques, drizzled on as a flavoring, or substituted for beef or pork fat in pastries. Shallots fried crispy in goose fat have a texture like that of potato chips, and can be served with a number of Chinese dishes, including rice noodles, fried glutinous rice, and rice cakes, or sprinkled over Western dishes such as salads and cream soups.

Mixing Taiwanese flavors with the spirit of French cooking yields delightful results.