Originally from Montpellier, France, Romain Loriot is the founder of Hong Kong bar and online wine retailer ThinkWine. He spoke to Andrew Sun.

I grew up in Montpellier, in the south of France, next to the sea. I am from a family of classical musicians. My mother taught me to cook not for the love of food, but to get me to be independent. In the beginning, I wanted to be a pastry chef, but I decided to go into wine.

My culinary adventure started with French chef-restaurateur Alain Ducasse. I worked for him for eight years, and had the amazing opportunity to come to Hong Kong to open Rech by Alain Ducasse. After two years, I decided to open my own business.

My wife is Shanghainese, so we regularly go to Dynasty, Hong Kong (3/F, Renaissance Hong Kong Harbour View Hotel, 1 Harbour Road, Wan Chai. Tel: 2802 8888). I like the Peking duck and dim sum. It is very good.

A variety of dishes from Dynasty, Hong Kong. Photo: Dynasty, Hong Kong

A variety of dishes from Dynasty, Hong Kong. Photo: Dynasty, Hong Kong

Megan’s Kitchen hotpot with bouillabaisse soup. Photo: SCMP

Megan’s Kitchen hotpot with bouillabaisse soup. Photo: SCMP

We also love hotpot. We try different places but Megan’s Kitchen (5/F, Lucky Centre, 165-171 Wan Chai Road, Wan Chai. Tel: 2866 8305) I am very impressed by. It does a soup with tomato and crab, and a soufflé. The thing is, we always have to have one non-spicy and one spicy soup base. I cannot handle too spicy.