Cooking classes, private dining, pop-ups: how three Hong Kong chefs adapted to survive the pandemic
- Test Kitchen owner turned to a chef’s table business model then cooking classes as pandemic restrictions saw groups limited to four people
- Former head chef at Gordon Ramsay’s Bread Street Kitchen opened the Brando’s Burgers pop-up to pay the bills – and stay happy
In early April, Vincent Mui Wing-sun was about to lose his five-year-old business, Test Kitchen, a dining space where international guest chefs were invited for pop-ups and corporate events. It was impossible for Mui to continue with this business model after the coronavirus pandemic took hold, with flights cancelled and a mandatory two-week quarantine for international arrivals imposed the month before.
“I was borrowing money to pay rent and I was looking into filing for bankruptcy,” Mui, 36, says. “I was hoping for the best, but planning for the worst.”
The Association for Hong Kong Catering Services Management at the time estimated more than 1,000 restaurants could close in the city because of the pandemic, putting tens of thousands of staff out of work. Mui’s wife, worried the quarantine measures might last for at least six months, advised him to come up with a plan B for Test Kitchen. So he did.
Fallback plans became common among the local food and beverage industry shaken by restrictions to stave off the coronavirus, including social distancing, group sizes limited to no more than four people and enhanced hygiene measures. To survive financially, adaptation became the name of the game.