Peking Duck in Singapore: Why Li Bai Is Worth Your Table
Peking Duck is among the most demanding dishes in Chinese cuisine — and among the most misunderstood. At Li Bai Cantonese Restaurant, it is not a dish that simply appears on the Cantonese food menu. It is the result of nearly two days of preparation, the lifelong specialisation of a single chef, and a tableside ceremony that has been refined over decades. This is what you need to know before you order it.
The Rich History of Peking Duck
The name pays homage to the city of its refinement — Peking, the old transliteration for Beijing. But the dish’s earliest documented record lies in a different dynasty and, geographically, further south. In 1330, during the Yuan Dynasty, the imperial dietary manual 飲膳正要 (yǐn shàn zhèng yào) listed a preparation known as 烧鸭子 (shāo yā zi — roast duck) among dishes served to the imperial court. Over the centuries that followed, the preparation evolved into an elaborate ritual practised exclusively in the kitchens of the Forbidden City. When the Yongle Emperor relocated the capital from Nanjing to Beijing in 1420, he brought his culinary team with him — and with them, the lineage that would shape Peking Duck as the world knows it today.
Two Schools of Preparation
Two distinct methods of preparation emerged from these imperial kitchens. The enclosed oven (焖炉, mèn lú) method seals the duck inside a closed brick oven, cooking it slowly in its own heat. The hung, open oven (挂炉, guà lú) suspends the duck over a fruitwood fire — the skin lacquering under direct radiant heat into the amber crust that has since become the dish’s most recognisable image. Most diners encounter the hung open-oven approach today.
The Cantonese Adaptation
By the late Qing Dynasty (1644–1912), the tradition had travelled south to Lingnan — the Cantonese heartland of Guangdong province — where it met a different culinary sensibility and evolved accordingly. The Cantonese approach retains the same reverence for the skin and the same commitment to careful preparation, but brings to it the ingredient-sensitivity and restraint defines Cantonese fine dining at its finest. It is this southern lineage that informs the Peking Duck at Li Bai — prepared not in the Beijing tradition of maximum skin with minimal meat, but in the Cantonese spirit of balance: skin, meat, and ceremony, considered together.
The Man Behind the Oven: Roast Specialist Chef Gan And Li Bai’s 烧腊 Section
To understand why Peking Duck commands the respect it does at fine dining Chinese restaurants in Singapore, it helps to understand how a Cantonese kitchen is organised — and how it differs from the Western model. In a Western kitchen, structure follows the Brigade de Cuisine — chefs are assigned to stations, one handling sauces, another fish, another roasting — each responsible for one domain within a broader system.
Craft Over Station
A traditional Cantonese kitchen organises itself not by station, but by craft. Each section is a discipline unto itself, with its own apprenticeship tradition and its own master. The 烧腊 — the Barbecue and Roast department — is not merely a station. It is a calling. A 烧腊师傅 (shāo là shī fu), or roast master, may spend an entire career within this section alone, refining a body of knowledge that takes years to accumulate.
The 烧腊 section oversees everything from char siew (叉燒, chā shāo — barbecued pork) to siu yuk (燒肉, shāo ròu — crispy-skin roasted pork), roast duck, and at its most demanding — Peking Duck. Each is a separate mastery. Peking Duck alone requires knowing how to air-dry the bird after inflation, when and how to baste the skin at each stage, and how to read the oven by sight and sound rather than a dial.
Decades in One Section
Chef Gan has helmed Li Bai’s roast section for decades. His expertise cannot be accelerated — it is built through years of close observation under a master, then years more of independent practice, before the full responsibility of the section is entrusted to him. Every roast that arrives at your table passes through his hands and judgement alone.
Watch him at work, and you begin to understand why Peking Duck is not simply ordered. It is anticipated.
The Craft: How Li Bai’s Peking Duck Is Made
The Preparation Begins Days Before
A day or two before service, Chef Gan prepares four foundational condiments: Roast Duck Sauce, Duck Colouring, Spiced Salt Mix, and Spice Powder Blend. The composition of each is deliberately exact. The Duck Colouring alone draws from five distinct ingredients — White Vinegar, Maltose Sugar, Shuang Jin Chiew, Mei Kuei Lu Chiew, and Red Vinegar — each measured to proportion, each contributing to the lacquered exterior the duck will wear at the table.
With the condiments prepared, Chef Gan cleans the duck thoroughly — removing impurities, excess fat, and extremities while keeping the skin deliberately taut. He rinses it with cold water, then pats it dry.
From Fridge to Flame
Chef Gan combines a precise blend of Spiced Salt Mix, Roast Duck Sauce, minced garlic, hua tiao chiew, and star anise, then rubs the mixture into the duck’s cavity. He seals the bird in a criss-cross pattern with a round hook — secured to ensure the marinade distributes evenly. The duck is then refrigerated for between twelve and twenty-four hours, allowing the flavours to fully penetrate the meat.
The following day, Chef Gan ladles hot water over the duck thrice before transferring it to a cold water bath. He applies the Duck Colouring to coat the bird completely, then hangs it to dry for eight to ten hours. Only at this point — after nearly two days of preparation — is the duck ready for the oven.
Two Methods, One Standard
At Li Bai, the team cooks the duck using one of two methods. Both produce the same result at the table: skin that shatters, meat that yields, and the depth of flavour that two days of preparation make possible.
| Method | Detail |
| Wok |
Chef Gan brings a wok of oil — filled to approximately 70% — to temperature and submerges the duck. Within the first minute, he lifts it to check that the oil has reached the inner cavity, ensuring the heat works from within as much as from without. Both sides turn with precision over thirty to forty minutes. The duck then hangs to rest and cool — a pause that matters as much as the cooking itself. At the moment of serving, hot oil is ladled continuously over the duck for one to two minutes. This final passage of heat sets the skin — tightening it, deepening its colour, and producing the crispness the first bite will confirm. |
| Traditional Chinese Oven | A heavy-duty, cylinder-shaped metal structure holding up to twelve ducks simultaneously, the traditional Chinese oven uses indirect radiant heat to cook evenly and thoroughly — the same structure that handles the char siew and whole roast pigs that define Li Bai’s 烧腊 section. The duck hangs inside for forty-five minutes. Where the wok method demands continuous attention and intervention, the oven relies on sustained, enveloping heat — a different discipline, the same standard. |
Serving Peking Duck At Li Bai: A Tableside Carving Experience
The Trolley Arrives
A signature presence on Li Bai’s Cantonese food menu and a featured course across our dinner set menus in Singapore, the Peking Duck arrives at the table with the ceremony its two days of preparation have earned. Whether in the main dining hall or one of Li Bai’s private rooms, the experience begins the same way: the duck wheeled in atop a silver platter. Beside it, a round plate of duck wrappers — pale and paper-thin, a stark contrast against the amber of the duck. Sliced cucumbers and scallions adorn the trolley’s end. The anticipation builds.
The Carving
A chef and an associate of Li Bai begin a partnership. The chef slices expertly down the centre, then along the sides, placing each portion of skin and meat onto the plate. In seconds, the slice is wrapped — crisp skin and succulent meat in a single, considered fold. The once-empty plate fills with ten to twelve wrappers. The associate brings forth saucers of hoisin alongside the platters of duck wrappers to the table.
The Second Preparation
A choice then presents itself: the whole Peking Duck, enjoyed with wrappers, or half of it given a second life in another preparation altogether. That decision may be left to the culinary team, guided by our associates, or made entirely on one’s own terms.
Peking Duck vs. Tea-Smoked Duck — Two Traditions, Two Philosophies
Duck occupies a singular place in Chinese culinary history — and within that history, no two preparations make a more instructive comparison than Peking Duck and Tea-Smoked Duck (樟茶鸭, zhāng chá yā). Both are dishes that ask a great deal of the kitchen long before they ask anything of the diner. But they come from entirely different culinary traditions, and they ask entirely different things of the cook and the palate.
| Peking Duck(北京烤鸭) | Tea-Smoked Duck (秘制樟茶鸭) | |
| Origin | Imperial Beijing | Sichuan Province |
| Primary Technique | Air-drying and roasting | Smoking over camphor wood and tea leaves |
| Preparation Stages | Multi-day air-drying, basting, roasting | Marinating, steaming, smoking, deep-frying/roasting |
| Skin | Ultra-thin, lacquered amber, very crisp | Crisp, aromatic from smoke |
| Flavour | Clean, delicate, rich | Bold, smoky, fragrant |
| Service | Tableside carving, wrappers, cucumber, scallions, hoisin | Served direct |
| Primary Pleasure | The skin | The aroma |
The Four Stages of Tea-Smoked Duck
Tea-Smoked Duck traces its origins to Sichuan Province, where chefs have long guarded their spice blends and smoking durations as closely-held secrets — each house recipe a private refinement of the same four-stage process: marinating, steaming, smoking over camphor wood and tea leaves, and a final deep-fry or roast to crisp the skin. It is a preparation that sounds elaborate because it is, and one whose results cannot be hurried.
Li Bai’s Secret Recipe (秘制)
At Li Bai, our version is listed as 秘制樟茶鸭 — mì zhì, meaning secret recipe. Camphor contributes a refreshing, almost menthol-like fragrance, while the tea infuses the meat with a deep, tannic smokiness that lingers without overwhelming. What else goes into Li Bai’s preparation is not something we put into words. That is a question the dish answers for itself, at the table.
The Tea Pairing
The natural companion for Tea-Smoked Duck is tea — a counterpoint that cleanses the palate between bites and draws out the more delicate notes in the meat. At Li Bai, our team guides pairings from our tea selection — from classic blends to our newly introduced premium teas (from $12), brewed from whole leaves rather than sachets, and served through a dedicated preparation that allows the aroma to open gradually at the table. If the Tea-Smoked Duck is an exercise in patience, the premium tea that accompanies it is its natural companion.
Both preparations sit on the same Cantonese fine dining menu — two answers to the same question of what duck, at its finest, can be. The Peking Duck is ceremony: two days of preparation, a trolley, a carving, a ritual. The Tea-Smoked Duck is something quieter — a dish whose craft lives in the smoke and the time given to both. Whether experienced as part of a Chinese set menu, a dinner set menu in Singapore, or ordered à la carte at one of Singapore’s top Cantonese restaurants, neither substitutes for the other. Ordered together at a group gathering or private dining occasion, they make the case more completely than either could alone.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does Peking Duck cost at Li Bai?
Our Whole Peking Duck is priced at $108++. Every August, in celebration of Singapore’s National Day, Li Bai offers a special promotional price — check our What’s On page or contact us directly for the current offer.
Do I need to order Peking Duck in advance at Li Bai?
Advance orders are recommended to allow our kitchen adequate preparation time. Please indicate your request when making your reservation, and our team will confirm the arrangement.
How is Peking Duck carved and served at Li Bai?
Our Peking Duck is carved tableside by a member of our culinary team. Each slice of skin and meat is individually wrapped and served on platters, for guests to enjoy at their own pace.
What comes with the Peking Duck — what are the accompaniments?
The duck is served with steamed wrappers, sliced cucumber, scallions, and hoisin sauce. Guests may add as much or as little of each accompaniment as they prefer.
How Many People Does a Peking Duck Serve?
A whole Peking Duck serves four to six people comfortably, depending on accompanying dishes.
What is the second preparation option for the remaining duck?
At Li Bai, the remaining duck may be prepared as a second dish — so guests experience two preparations for the price of one. The preparation may be left to the culinary team, guided by our associates, or made entirely on one’s own terms. Please note this option applies to the regular-priced Peking Duck at $108++ only.
Is Peking Duck available at lunch and dinner?
Yes, Peking Duck is available at Li Bai for lunch & dinner. Advance notice is recommended regardless of the service period.
Is Peking Duck Halal?
No. Li Bai’s Peking Duck is not prepared in a halal kitchen. Marinades contain rice wine and Chinese cooking wine. Condiments and accompaniments may also contain alcohol or animal-derived ingredients.
Reserve Your Table
Li Bai Cantonese Restaurant at Sheraton Towers Singapore has been one of Singapore’s premier destinations for authentic Cantonese dining since 1985. Named after Li Bai (李白), the revered Tang Dynasty poet (701–762 AD), the restaurant serves Cantonese cuisine in the grand imperial tradition — amid jade, silver, and fine bone china — with a culinary team whose mastery is rooted in Hong Kong.
For those seeking Peking Duck fine dining in Singapore, a private dining room for a group celebration, or the full breadth of what this kitchen offers — we invite you to reserve your table below, or explore our menus in advance of your visit.
Li Bai Cantonese Restaurant
Address: Sheraton Towers Singapore, 39 Scotts Road, Lower Lobby, Singapore 228230
Monday – Saturday: 11:30AM – 3:00PM (last order 2:30PM) | 6:30PM – 10:00PM (last order 9:30PM)
Sunday: 10:30AM – 3:00PM (last order 2:30PM) | 6:30PM – 10:00PM (last order 9:30PM)
Reservations: Via Sevenrooms
Enquiries: Contact Us Here or call +65 6839 5623
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