Inside Hong Kong’s secretive food truck cook-off: 51 finalists prepare to battle for 16 licenses
Fifty-one short-listed hopefuls present their offerings in contest to determine which 16 operators will be allowed to run food trucks
The kitchen knives are out as contestants in an official competition to choose Hong Kong’s food truck operators battle it out in the final cook-off on Tuesday to decide the winners.
One of them, Hong Kong-born Muslim Swadiq Khan, told the Post on Monday that he wanted to offer halal-certified Cantonese pastries such as wife cakes to attract international tourists of his faith if he won.
Anther contestant, professional sommelier Gordon Lam, planned to impress the jury of nine tourism industry veterans with his signature “fried-instant-noodle-wrapped hot dog”.
They were among 51 shortlisted hopefuls expected to showcase their signature dishes at the cook-off. The top 16 contestants, whose names will be announced on Wednesday, will become the city’s first batch of food truck operators.
Simon Wong Ka-wo, chairman of the Federation of Restaurant and Related Trades and an adviser to the food truck scheme, advised contestants to keep calm for better performance.
The Post accompanied Lam as he shopped for fresh ingredients in Causeway Bay on Monday afternoon while keeping mum about what exactly his entry would be.
“I am actually very stressed, especially when people keep saying that I will definitely make it,” Lam said.
The former wine-tasting teacher has already gained fame, thanks to the media coverage since his application for a food truck licence this year. Lam said he was considered a promising candidate because he owned a food truck and was backed by a large restaurant group.
Despite his advantages, Lam was not taking any chances.
Video infographic: What are the 5 rules for Hong Kong’s new food trucks?
He selected four types of chicken sausages in three different supermarkets for his final cooking test.
Lam will present his signature hot dog dish on Tuesday, featuring chicken sausages wrapped with fried instant noodles, instead of bread.
However, not all the applicants were jumping for joy at being shortlisted. Khan, owner of the Hong Kong-style cafe chain Capital Cafe, was becoming increasingly concerned about whether his truck could actually make a profit if he won a licence.
I was holding the idea of operating a small food stall by the street, but now it’s more like I am opening a restaurant
Despite having full confidence in his unique halal-certified local snacks, Khan said he was dismayed by how elusive the government-led scheme was.
The devil was in the detail, he concluded.
“I was holding the idea of operating a small food stall by the street, but now it’s more like I am opening a restaurant,” Khan said.
The cafe chain owner said the difficulties he went through and obstacles he was up against were far beyond what he had expected a year ago. “I am not as excited as I expected now,” he admitted.
But the government, which set application and qualification requirements, could not give straight answers to simple questions, Khan said, such as how big and how heavy vehicles could be.
“From a business perspective, the bottom line is you don’t lose money,” he said. But he noted that the excessive registration and licensing requirements as well as administrative red tape had significantly driven up costs.
“I feel very lucky to get into the final round, but there are still many problems that need to be tackled,” Khan said.
“The government always says no [to applicants’ designs], but it does not give clear instructions about what it should be in advance,” said Simon Chung, chief executive of the Hong Kong Food Truck Association , who helped its 11 members apply for the scheme.
“We have tried on our own to answer many inquiries about the food truck operation that the government should have been able to answer,” Chung said. He cited the model of acceptable trucks, electrical installations and waste disposal, as examples.
