What The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy taught Hong Kong chocolate maker Amit Oz about life, the universe and everything
- Amit Oz, the co-founder of artisan chocolate maker Conspiracy Chocolate and private kitchen Otium, is a fan of chaotic comedy
- He loves how author Douglas Adams gently ridicules subjects and believes humour can be found in everything, good or bad
Douglas Adams’ comedy science-fiction novel The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (1979) tells the story of Arthur Dent, who becomes one of the last surviving humans when the Earth is destroyed, and ends up accidentally travelling the universe.
The book is part of a cross-media franchise that started life as a radio show and also includes five other novels, a television series, a film, comic books and video games. Amit Oz, the Israeli co-founder and CEO of Hong Kong-based artisanal chocolate maker Conspiracy Chocolate, and co-founder and chef of private kitchen Otium, tells Richard Lord how it changed his life.
There’s so much nonsense but so much wisdom in this book. I must have been about 10 when I read it. It was just around the time when I became a hitchhiker of the globe – when I first relocated while being aware of the world. I’ve been in Hong Kong since 2014, and this is the first time I’ve spent more than five years in one place since I was a baby. My parents moved around the world with work – my dad is an engineer and my mum is a Hebrew teacher. When I was 10, we moved to China.
I was always into chaotic comedy, and a friend thought the book would be perfect for me. Its message is that things are not important if you zoom out and look at the bigger picture. A lot of the characters are veteran hitchhikers of the galaxy, and they share a certain culture of taking life with lightheartedness and humour. If I go to a restaurant, one way to enjoy it is to enjoy the food, but another way, if the food is not so good, is to enjoy complaining. If something is great, take the joy out of it; if not, take the humour out of it.
Everyone enjoys things by ridiculing them. Douglas Adams does it at one remove, so it’s less offensive. He doesn’t make fun of accountants, but of a planet that’s run by them. I’ve learned that when you want to point out something you don’t like, it’s much better if you can make it funny and allow the other person to keep their dignity – for me it’s been a rule for life.