Street Talk: Hello Kitty Chef Master Law
The world’s first Hello Kitty-themed restaurant opened in Hong Kong last month, to the delight of pretty much everyone. Head chef Master Law tells Tammy Ha about answering to his Hello Kitty overlords and getting the details just right.
HK Magazine: Were you a Hello Kitty fan before taking the job?
Master Law: To be honest, no. I didn’t really have much knowledge of Hello Kitty. It wasn’t part of my generation.
HK: What did you think when they approached you?
ML: At first, they made it sound like the job was a simple task. I only realized how difficult it would be to make Hello Kitty Chinese dishes after I started corresponding with Sanrio [the brand owner]. If I had known, I don’t think I would have wanted the job. It took us five months to design dishes and tweak the ingredients.
HK: What’s so tough about it?
ML: I have to submit my dishes to the Sanrio headquarters and let them decide, in their subjective opinion, whether my dishes were good or not. But we’re definitely more experienced with cookery and ingredients—they’re not from the industry.
HK: Has Sanrio ever axed one of your designs?
ML: My first month was pretty difficult, as I didn’t know what Sanrio’s management wanted. When I first submitted steamed eggs, they weren’t satisfied because they wanted the surface to be completely smooth. That’s hard to achieve because we use strong heat to steam eggs, causing them to crease. For another dish, Sanrio wanted Hello Kitty’s eggplant whiskers to be thicker. But I thought it looked ugly, especially on a girl, and later they compromised.
HK: So what ingredients do you use to make the Hello Kitty dishes?
ML: We make buns as usual and simply add on eyes, nose and whiskers using corn, eggplants and other vegetables. But that takes craftsmanship—I need to think of ways to hold up a certain shape.