Restaurateurs Todd Darling and Robert Spina have been playing by their own rules since they were five years old. 'We always schemed in one way or another, in some shape or form,' grins Spina. Fast-forward to present day and not much has changed. The pair are still plotting except this time instead of taking to the playgrounds of New York, they are shaking things up in the Hong Kong dining scene.
Masterminds behind the hugely successful Italian restaurant Posto Pubblico in Central, the childhood friends have embarked on two new ventures. Earlier this year they opened Linguini Fini, another Italian eatery and Cantopop, also in Central, a modernised cha chaan teng. At first glance the three appear to be ordinary establishments but the difference lies in the kitchen. Each restaurant uses handpicked organic ingredients, 95 per cent of which are sourced from local farms. In a city where the vast majority of food is imported, theirs is a refreshingly unorthodox approach.
'The industry here needs to grow and mature,' says Darling. 'And we very much believe in disruptive ideas.' Although the sustainable-food movement swept across the United States and Europe years ago, the concept of locally grown foods has yet to take hold in Hong Kong. According to the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department, a mere 2.5 per cent of fresh vegetables consumed in the city came from local farms last year.
To date there is only a small pocket of locavore restaurants in the city's culinary landscape. Low- to mid-priced eateries in Hong Kong tend to rely on mass-imported food from China and the United States. 'The majority of it comes from blind sourcing - a supplier walks into your store with a piece of paper and what is typical here is you don't ask anything beyond that,' explains Darling.
Unwilling to participate in the conventional food system, he went in search of local produce. When Darling discovered there was no infrastructure connecting farmers to consumers, he drove to the farmland of the New Territories himself. Initially he faced language barriers and struggled to gain the trust of farmers. 'It was really hard to convince them that indeed I would come back next Tuesday to buy 20 kilos of eggplant and they shouldn't sell it on Sunday,' he says. 'But nothing we do is easy. From a competitive standpoint that's what builds uniqueness.' In 2009, when their first restaurant Posto Pubblico opened, Darling would drive to the farms at 7am several times a week to gather ingredients. By early afternoon, he would pull up in front of the restaurant with produce spilling out from the seats of his convertible. 'He was filling his car with vegetables and it was a nice car,' laughs Spina.
The restaurant enjoyed overnight success and the pair decided to form a company, Integrated Hospitality Management (IHM). With Linguini Fini and Cantopop in the pipeline, it became clear that they needed to hire a truck and driver. Equipped with more staff, it seemed only logical to explore other opportunities in the market. By 2010 they formed Homegrown Foods, the city's first online home delivery service for locally farmed vegetables. Darling describes the produce as 'clean', meaning that no synthetic pesticides or chemicals are used in the fields.