Q&A: Lisa and Helen Tse
The British-Chinese twins, in town to launch their cookbook, talk to Vanessa Yung about family and how Gordon Ramsay gave them a boost
Helen (pictured far right): "It's always been a dream to open a restaurant together. I was a lawyer, Lisa was in finance, and Janet [the youngest sister] was an engineer. We all gave up our jobs in 2004 to set up Sweet Mandarin [in Manchester, Britain]. Our family was involved in the restaurant business for three generations but lost all the businesses, except my mum's chip shop, before we were born. [The restaurant is] really a way to give our family back its name."
Helen: "Our grandmother - she used to be a maid in Hong Kong. She's always telling us stories of her life. She's a great storyteller and a great cook. She's got a saying: there are many things in this world that divide us, but one thing that unites us is food."
Lisa: "The concept is modern Chinese cuisine paired with exotic cocktails. We still serve my grandma's dish - Lily Kwok's chicken curry; Mum's recipe - Mabel's claypot chicken; and Dad's sweet and sour chicken. The name Sweet Mandarin came about after we started a competition asking people to suggest names. It appeals to us because our grandfather used to work at the Mandarin Oriental and, in Manchester, the word 'sweet' means 'cool'. So it's a blend of East and West."
Helen: "We have cocktails based on the Chinese zodiac. When we researched the dragon, for instance, [we wanted to evoke] its fiery temper, so the drink contains a shot of sherry mixed with chilli plus a bit of sweetness from pineapple."
Helen: "We were up against 10,000 other restaurants and we won the [title of the] Best Local Chinese Restaurant. That was in 2009. We've always been busy but when that show was aired on TV, the queue to get in was crazy. The phone had 180 calls a minute and the website crashed. No one prepared us for that kind of craziness."
Helen: "It's not just a restaurant any more - it has branched out into retail products. We have a range of six sauces and beers. There's also a range of woks coming out alongside ingredients such as soy sauce, sesame oil, Shaoxing wine, cooking pastes, ready meals and soft drinks. We also do books. Our first publication was a memoir. The latest one is a gluten- and dairy-free cookbook; all the recipes of our family favourites are tailored for people who can't ingest gluten, with lists of alternative ingredients. We have a third book coming out at Lunar New Year 2015, which is a step-by-step pictorial dim sum book."