How Chinese chef Paul Lau went from cleaning the drains to two-Michelin-star Tin Lung Heen restaurant
- The chef de cuisine at Tin Lung Heen, The Ritz-Carlton Hong Kong’s Cantonese restaurant, talks about working his way up from the bottom
- He recalls killing pigs in South Africa, surviving on very little sleep and working tirelessly to perfect wok hei
When did you come to Hong Kong? “I was born in Guangzhou and in 1977, at the age of 14, came here with my family because it was easier to make a living, although we started out living in a wooden hut. Soon after we arrived, I started working at Lung Yu Chinese Restaurant, in Jordan, where I cleaned the bathrooms, washed dishes and made tea for the chefs.”
How did you learn how to cook? “I watched the chefs cook, especially the ones who had flair. After they left for the day I had to clean the kitchen, but not before I tried my hand at cooking their leftovers with the wok. I finished cleaning around 1am.
“The restaurant had three storeys, with the kitchen on the ground floor, but below was a storage area with no lift. At 8am, I had to carry ingredients up to the kitchen, including large bags of rice and flour that were probably heavier than me.”
What do you remember most about that job? “It was very tough work. I had to clean the bathrooms and the drain always got clogged because the chefs and dishwashers would sweep broken dishes and food into the drain. I was the smallest so I had to clear it. When I pulled my hand out it would invariably be bloody. That’s why I am so careful about keeping drains clean.”
Where did you go next? “I learned how to cook bit by bit and then became a cook when I went to Jiang Nan Seafood Restaurant, where I lived underneath the staircase. I gutted and cleaned the fish, and chopped chicken for a few months, and cooked. Several months later I went to Golden Hill Restaurant, on Lockhart Road, and did the late shift for HK$1,800 a month in 1978-79.