Chinatown London’s Dumplings Legend has announced the launch of the first ‘Michelin Xiao Long Bao’ in collaboration with Michelin-starred restaurant, Pied à Terre in Charlotte Street.

Following the success of Fergus Henderson and Mark Hix’s guest soup dumplings, Geoff Leong of Dumplings Legend has opened the kitchen to Pied à Terre to create an exclusive dumpling filling, available for three months only. Pied à Terre opened in 1991 and is one of London’s longest standing Michelin-starred restaurants, holding 2 stars for 13 years.

Founder of Pied à Terre, David Moore is fascinated by the evolution of Chinatown and the varied skills needed in Chinese cooking. Drawn in by the spirit of Chinatown, as well as the buzz and the diversity of culture and cuisine, Moore’s team will be bringing Michelin techniques and creativity to Dumplings Legend. Pied à Terre will be preparing the filling, using classic French ingredients and the team at Dumplings Legend will expertly wrap each hand-made dumpling with the 18 signature folds.

The recipe, designed by the team of highly trained chefs at Pied à Terre, will centre around the classic French ingredient, foie gras and to elevate the texture and complement the flavour, smoked eel has been added into the mix. A nod to traditional Chinese cooking, smoked eel is a popular ingredient on Chinatown menus.

The new Michelin dumpling is available now at Dumplings Legend alongside their classic Xiao Long Bao, a pork-based filling with a gelatinised meat broth.