Life after the goose feud: brothers open new restaurants in wake of Yung Kee battle
Brothers move on from a feud over restaurant empire built by their grandfather
Kam's Roast Goose does a bustling business in its small shop in Hennessy Road. Working in cramped quarters, the kitchen hands move easily around one another, quickly cutting up roast meat to fill orders streaming in from customers.
The owner, Hardy Kam Shun-yuen, 41, keeps a watchful eye to ensure operations run smoothly, and lends his workers a hand whenever it gets hectic. He had worried initially about lost business because of the Occupy Central protests, especially since the restaurant has been open for almost four months. But the barricades have not extended to Wan Chai, and diners have been queuing up for his signature roast goose and char siu.
The modest premises are a far cry from Yung Kee, the ornate, multi-storey dining palace in Central where he and his older brother, Kevin Kam Shung-hin, learned the ropes of the business.
Together with Kam's Restaurant, which Kevin launched in Tin Hau, each brother now has his own outlet, but both take pains to preserve the rustic flavours and traditional cooking techniques on which their grandfather, Kam Shui-fai, built the enormously successful Yung Kee empire.
The Kam family had been locked in a bitter feud after their father, Kinsen Kam Kwan-sing, and uncle, Ronald Kam Kwan-lai, fell out over how Yung Kee should be run. A long court battle continued even after Kinsen died suddenly in 2012. His widow, Leung Sui-kwan, took up his application to either wind up Yung Kee or have Ronald buy out Kinsen's share of the business.
But Hardy says the brothers were already thinking of opening their own restaurants while the hearings were still in progress, and their father's death strengthened their resolve to sever ties with their uncle's family and make a fresh start.