Life Style

Loyalty is a prized commodity among chefs, and Valentino Ugolini has earned his stripes over nearly 15 years to become one of Hong Kong-based Italian chef Umberto Bombana’s most trusted lieutenants.Ugolini, a native of the Umbria region in central Italy, has worked for Bombana since 2011, starting as a sous chef at three-Michelin-star 8 ½ Otto e Mezzo Bombana.“He teaches me a lot,” Ugolini says of his boss, who is among Hong Kong’s most respected Italian chefs.“He has a lot of knowledge about food. He knows a lot about ingredients. For me, he really is a big mentor. We are also very similar in what and how we like to eat.”Risone pasta at Venedia Grancaffe. Photo: Jonathan WongIn addition to working at Hong Kong’s Otto e Mezzo, Ugolini played an important role in the opening of Bombana’s ou...

The largely forgotten Cold Food Festival, known in Mandarin as hanshi jie, is a traditional Chinese holiday celebrated on the 105th day after the winter solstice. In 2025, this falls on April 4.The festival began around the 7th century BC and was widely observed through the eating of cold food and avoidance of the use of fire. The tradition had faded by the Tang dynasty (AD618-907), when it was consolidated into the more well-known Ching Ming Festival.As a result, not many in China observe the Cold Food Festival today, although it is still recognised in name.The Cold Food Festival occurs just before the Ching Ming Festival, or “tomb sweeping” day, which falls on the 15th day after the spring equinox.A woman sweeps a tomb during Ching Ming at Babaoshan Cemetery in Beijing. Photo: AFPThe Chi...

This is the latest instalment in our From the Vault feature series, in which we reflect on culturally significant movies celebrating notable anniversaries.At the turn of the millennium, the rise of digital technology allowed filmmakers to do almost anything they wanted. The limits were their imaginations – and the audience’s patience.The 2005 film Sin City, which turns 20 this month, was adapted from Frank Miller’s neo-noir comic book series and directed by Robert Rodriguez (Desperado) and Miller himself. Along with the 2004 films Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, which starred Jude Law, and the Japanese superhero flick Casshern, it was one of a clutch of movies shot completely on a “digital backlot”.This means that everything except the actors, props and basic sets was created digita...

Meta is ramping up work on a deluxe version of its popular smart glasses, with plans to include hand-gesture controls and a screen for displaying photos and apps.The company intends to introduce its first glasses with a screen before the end of 2025 – and sees the product as a key step towards providing an alternative to Apple’s iPhone and other mobile devices, according to people familiar with the matter.Meta employees, who asked not to be identified discussing unannounced products, estimate the device, which is code-named Hypernova, will sell for over US$1,000 and as much as US$1,300 to US$1,400. The final price is unlikely to be decided until closer to an announcement.The company’s current smart glasses, the Ray-Ban Meta Glasses, start at US$299 and have been a surprise hit. Meta will c...

Lead cast: Lee Dong-wook, Lee Joo-bin, Lee Kwang-soo, Lee Da-heeHowever, this first small-screen outing for the director experiences a few growing pains in its early episodes as he looks to match his madcap style to the traditional K-drama formula of the series’ script.The show is built around a simple and amusing concept with plenty of potential for social observation – an actuary looks to resuscitate his flagging career by pitching a “divorce insurance” product to his company.Divorces are sad, messy and expensive, but a fact of life for many people although few expect it to happen to them. In a country that is struggling with low marriage and birth rates the show’s theme may appear to make light of the phenomenon, but it is easy to see a path to the typical K-drama happy ending here....

Kieu Chinh is a little pressed for time.It is a Sunday afternoon and the 87-year-old Vietnamese-American actress is preparing for a trip the next day from her home in Huntington Beach in California to Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam. There she would be doing filming for Chrysalis, a feature film based on the life of the Vietnamese-American artist and sculptor Daniel K Winn.“I wish we had more time,” Chinh says. “There is so much to talk about.”The past several months have been a whirlwind for the actress, during which she has come off production on the TV series Dope Thief, on Apple TV+, and the film Control Freak, which debuted on Hulu and is now streaming on Disney+. Both came out in mid-March, a day apart.Chinh is a still from Control Freak (2025). Photo: HuluDirected by Ridley Scott, Dope ...

In Japan, policymakers and economists are paying close attention to the oshikatsu phenomenon as a growing driver of consumer spending – and 24-year-old Momoka Matsui is one of many doing her part to shore up the economy.“If my salary goes up, I’d like to go to concerts out of town, even overseas, more frequently,” said Matsui as she, like many workers in Japan, waits eagerly for another year of bumper wage increases.Matsui, who does oshikatsu-related marketing and research as part of her overall work at advertising giant Hakuhodo, declined to identify her bands of choice because of conflict-of-interest concerns in her job.Momoka Matsui takes photos of acrylic stand figures of their favourite idols with cakes and teas which she and a colleague ordered at a Tokyo cafe where Matsui’s favourit...

It is late morning on board the MS Trollfjord when the announcement comes through: “Land in sight!”It is welcome news after sailing 523 nautical miles – 970km – between Honningsvag, on the North Cape, and Longyearbyen, the largest town on the island of Spitsbergen, in Norway’s remote polar north.It is the last major stage on the Spitsbergen route of the Norwegian shipping company Hurtigruten. The company discontinued the service in the 1980s, but resumed it in summer 2024. You can only book a trip aboard the MS Trollfjord from May to September.The cruise starts in Bergen on Norway’s southwestern coast and heads some 3,000km (1,860 miles) to the Svalbard archipelago – the name meaning “cool coast” in Norwegian – in the Arctic Ocean.Bergen, on Norway’s southwestern coast, is where the cruise...

Nintendo will release its new Switch 2 console on June 5, seeking to keep the No 1 spot in video-game devices with a new version of the top-selling model it introduced in 2017.The new product would start at US$450 in the US, the company said Wednesday, an increase from the US$300 the company charged for the original Switch.Shares of Nintendo fell 5.9 per cent Thursday morning in Tokyo, part of a broader sell-off on fears that tariffs announced by US President Donald Trump would harm Asian exporters. Some of Nintendo’s consoles are assembled in Vietnam and Cambodia, which are facing particularly high levies.Nintendo revealed details of the machine during an hour-long livestream, including a new chat feature and a separate video camera. The company also announced several new games, including...

The 1999 action game Shenmue has been named the most influential video game of all time following a survey organised by Bafta, the British association that honours films, television, and video games.The series, created by Japanese designer Yu Suzuki, stars a young Ryo Hazuki as he seeks to avenge the death of his father, killed by a mysterious martial arts specialist.The game is split into three instalments (Shenmue I, II, and III) and was, at the time of the first instalment’s release, the most expensive game in history to produce.While the third instalment was available on PlayStation 4 and PC, the first two defined the brief history of the Dreamcast console, the first so-called sixth-generation console, released by Japanese manufacturer Sega in 1998.Having become a cult classic among ma...