Hong Kong’s pop-up dining queen Mina Park: from corporate lawyer to culinary entrepreneur

What’s Hawkr about? “[Investor] Jake Astor and [restaurateur] Ivan Pun approached me. Ivan, who is based in Myanmar, has restaurants in Southeast Asia and wanted to do something in Hong Kong. It’s a great concept for me because I worked at One Island East [in Quarry Bay] for five years and in Central so I know what it’s like to try to find good lunch options that aren’t too expensive, that are tasty, fresh and fast.”

What are your childhood memories of food? “I was born in Virginia, and lived in Los Angeles, Boston, Ohio and Toronto. My dad was a doctor and did his residency all over. My parents are Korean and my mother almost always cooked Korean unless she was experi­menting with other cuisines.

“She was a huge foodie. When we travelled we always tried to find the most delicious, say, crab, that kind of thing. I started cooking by helping my mom in the kitchen. I would pick the tails off bean sprouts and wash and cut many vegetables for banchan [Korean side dishes].”

What was the first thing you cooked on your own? “I was around eight years old and was at a friend’s house for New Year’s Eve, for a slumber party. I decided I would cook them breakfast and basically destroyed their kitchen making pancakes and eggs. They came down on New Year’s Day and they were like, ‘Wow! What happened to our kitchen?’ I just remember their faces.”