i. Biography
Dai Jun, chef of Lamdre (Beijing), comes to contemporary plant-based cooking through discipline, lineage, and long practice in Chinese technique. Based in Beijing, he was classically trained in traditional Cantonese and Chaozhou cooking, and the early arc of his work stayed inside the rigor of regional Chinese methods. That training shaped the way he handles flavor: coaxing, balancing, and deepening it with patience. After more than a decade of attention, that base expanded into a plant-forward philosophy that reads less like a break from precedent than a widening of the same technical register.
Coming Up
Vegetarian cooking sharpened through successive kitchens, with Dai Jun serving first as chef at Vege Wonder, then as chef at King's Joy and chef at Shan He Wan Duo Vegetarian Restaurant. Across those posts, the work points to refinement over display: precision, restraint, and a controlled hand. The style that emerged gave vegetables, broth, texture, and temperature room to carry the plate, relying on clear construction rather than ornament. Today, Dai Jun is chef of Lamdre, where that earlier discipline continues to structure a contemporary plant-based idiom. The line from his training to his current work is direct: classic Chinese systems, then a plant-based application of that fluency. The result is composed, lucid, and methodical.
Where They Are Now
At Lamdre in Beijing, Dai Jun works as chef with contemporary plant-based cuisine as his specialty. The restaurant sits at the current point of a career built from traditional Chinese training, regional technique, and sustained work in plant-forward cooking. His approach does not depend on novelty; it re-reads Chinese culinary tradition through a vegetarian lens with care and control. A signature dish at the restaurant, tofu coddled in matsutake and wakame broth, shows that method in compact form. The plate is built on softness, depth, and restraint, with bean curd set inside a broth that suggests mountain and sea together. The effect is grounded in Chinese ingredients and in the measured precision of a chef who has spent decades refining his craft.
Career - chef — Lamdre, Beijing - chef — Vege Wonder - chef — King's Joy - chef — Shan He Wan Duo Vegetarian Restaurant
Honors
His career recognition centers on the roles and craft now associated with him: chef of Lamdre in Beijing, specialist in contemporary plant-based cuisine, and a cook whose foundation remains traditional Cantonese and Chaozhou training.
FAQ Where did Dai Jun work before? Earlier in their career, Dai Jun worked at Vege Wonder, King's Joy, and Shan He Wan Duo Vegetarian Restaurant. What is Dai Jun known for? contemporary plant-based cuisine.
