Tribute, a low-profile restaurant at the lower end of Elgin Street, has perhaps some of the most auspicious antecedents for California cuisine it is possible to find in Asia. That is because the owner, Frank Sun, is at the Eastern end of a long familial trajectory - one that began in Beijing in the coils of the Cultural Revolution, made its way to the West and played an integral role in the very wellsprings of California cuisine itself.

The start of the story is told at the restaurant entrance on a large black-and-white poster of San Francisco chefs. Sun's aunt, Cecilia Chiang - an important inspiration for his cuisine, his restaurant and his life - is at the top left of the poster.

In a corridor linking the two dining areas on the upper level are black-and-white photographs of Tibetans including the Dalai Lama, taken by a Seattle-based friend of Sun's. On another wall are posters from the Cultural Revolution. Outside the kitchen is an abstract black-and-white painting, a gift from another Sun chum in San Francisco.

Sun arrived in San Francisco in the 1960s when California cuisine was only beginning to find its distinctive identity. It is a cuisine that stems from the French, as virtually all Western cuisine does, although its presentation is much simpler. Its overtones are Italian, Latin-American and Asian. Most importantly, it is about fresh ingredients, preferably local.

Sun was born in Taiwan after his Beijing-born parents escaped the political turmoil in China. He was raised in San Francisco in a family surrounded by chefs and food lovers, particularly his aunt Cecilia.

She founded the famed Mandarin Restaurant in San Francisco's Ghirardelli Square and is considered one of the chefs who pushed Chinese cuisine out of its ethnic confines and on to America's wider culinary map. Her students included Alice Waters, who went on to open Chez Panisse in Berkeley across the San Francisco Bay and become of the most prominent pioneers of the new California cuisine.

Celebrity chefs Julia Child and Jeremiah Tower were also among her acolytes.

Nonetheless, Sun didn't come to Hong Kong with the idea of starting a restaurant. He taught at a university before starting a private kitchen, where he met Tribute's current chef, Joe Lau.

Kindred souls in food, the two opened Tribute in 2002.

As California cuisine is a tribute to the state's multiculturalism, Tribute's boast is its creativity and eclecticism. The restaurant changes the menu every week. It scrapped serving Monday lunch to provide more time to experiment and try out new dishes. The menu, which is prix fixe, has only one page. There are normally five courses with a few choices for each.

Lau says he comes up with ideas from almost everywhere - from the wet market nearby to noodle shops and fast food joints.

Take the chilled watermelon and cucumber broth. A more traditional choice would be squash, Lau says, but that is too heavy for summer. So he strolled around the market and noticed that watermelons were in season. His kitchen team tried different portions of watermelon, cucumber and chicken broth to get the best taste. They added crab claws to give it more texture, and dill for flavoring. The result is a soup that's fruity, tasty and refreshing.

The second course normally includes a choice of lamb, pork, beef, duck or salmon. The staff is more than happy to make vegetarian dishes on the fly, but it is wiser to call ahead to warn them.

Sun sources many of the ingredients from around the world - the chanterelle mushrooms are from Yunnan province, the beef from Canada, the seafood from New Zealand, duck from France and chicken from Denmark.

Pasta, handmade on site, is important in the menu and a link between the dishes, Lau says. Making it is time-consuming but allows the restaurant to control the quality and offer less common types such as paper-thin fazzoletto, sometimes known as handkerchief pasta. Ingredients in the fazzoletto include chanterelle mushrooms, which add a peppery taste to the dish.

My main course, scalloped beef short ribs in basil cream, was tender to the point that it doesn't require a knife. It was served with a layered baked potato and deep-fried stem mushrooms redolent of Japanese tempura.

Tribute also whips up its own desserts, one of them usually panacotta, made with vanilla beans and served with a dash of Grand Marnier.

Occasionally the falling chocolate cake is available, a special treat in which the cake's center is filled with warm soft chocolate. It is 70 percent cocoa with just a little sugar, so the cocoa taste is not compromised or overwhelming.

Sun says the restaurant is enjoying high return business and it's easy to see why as he chats and socializes with the diners like a host at a private dinner party.

The next step, he says, is to take Tribute to Shanghai later this year.

It will then help complete a colorful circle of family history, more than 40 years after his parents left the country.

jonathan.tam@singtaonewscorp.com