Q&A with Peggy Chan, owner of Grassroots Pantry and Prune Organic Deli

"After high school in Hong Kong I went to the University of Ottawa [in Canada], but I wasn't inspired - I lost focus, skipped classes, cooked at home a lot and watched a lot of Food Network [on television]. My guidance counsellor from Hong Kong was my guardian angel. Over Easter break he visited me and other students who had moved there. I had them over for dinner and he suggested I do something else. He literally took the Yellow Pages, saw Le Cordon Bleu and suggested I look into it. The next day I trekked over there and started the next semester. At first my dad was really against it, because he didn't want me being in the kitchen, but I told him it would be more about managing restaurants and hotels."

"The environment was stressful - there was a lot of male versus female inequality. If girls weren't strong-minded enough, they would be persuaded to do other things. I did an intensive course of pastry and cuisine together, so I was in class for 12 to 16 hours a day, five or six days a week."

"I did an internship at Beckta, a family-run restaurant in Ottawa, where the owner, Stephen Beckta, is constantly creative. I learned how family-run restaurants work - there's no wastage, everyone treats each other like family and you learn a lot. Stephen was in charge of front of house. You see what people do and how they emanate that kind of feeling throughout the entire company. I only worked there in the summer, but I learned through observation. Because I'm shy and quiet, I listen and watch more than I speak. I think I'm a fast learner because of that."

"I was already a vegetarian when I turned 16 [14 years ago]. When I was studying sustainability and the economics and politics of the food supply chain, it made me realise the inequality of how food is produced and distributed. I wrote a 100-page report on the food industry with projections into 2020. I always believed in organic food. It's basically going back to what our grandmothers used to cook. We have to stop covering up these man-made problems, like swine flu, and actually solve them."

"Some businesses think they can just sprinkle stuff on top and sell it as organic. Customers are not dumb. We make delicious food from scratch. In Hong Kong, there is no certification to control regulation of 'organic' food in restaurants. People are concerned about what they are eating but [there's no way of knowing for certain what it is]."

"When am I not working? It's very rare to have time off, but, when I do, I go hiking in Sai Kung and hang out with friends on the beach. I read books, I like browsing bookstores and I like watching foreign films. Watching movies gives me time alone. I like to travel alone a lot, too. I went to Morocco, Istanbul [in Turkey], and did cleansing retreats in San Benito, in the Philippines and Koh Samui [in Thailand]. When I travel, I detox from communication and try not to use my phone at all."