A graphic designer turned chef and now the owner of two Michelin-starred restaurant, Chef Vicky Lau is the epitome of a passion-driven chef-entrepreneur. In 2012, within the first 9 months of its inception, Tate Dining Room obtained its first Michelin star. Three years later, Chef Vicky was awarded Veuve Clicquot Asia’s Best Female Chef 2015. She truly believes that anything is possible if you persist and keep finding ways to make it work. Through inventive story-telling, her visually stunning edible platings have caught the attention and won the hearts of many worldwide.
We sat down with her at Tate Dining Room and she shared with us how she sustains her business, why it’s important for the younger generation chefs to be well-rounded, and what she values most when hiring.
Key Learnings
- Evolving is important. If you want your business to sustain, you need to evolve. You cannot just hold on to what you had or knew before because businesses go through different stages. Similarly with success, successful people still question, “What can I do better?” Then you see them update their plating, ingredients, taste.
- 80% of the business is about returning guests. If you’re always chasing after the new ones, it gets difficult to sustain.
- Your menu is all about the journey through taste and texture. In the beginning, the first dish needs to capture the guest’s attention; It needs to be something bold to set the tone for your meal. From there, it must build momentum. The ending needs to be impressive as well. Do not put out 3 macarons and call it a day.
- Chef Vicky’s advice for young chefs would be to go beyond your industry. If you’re in the kitchen, don’t just learn about the ingredients. Learn about wine, customer service, how to run a business, and so on. Keep in touch with all of the components that make a restaurant. Making 1 or 2 good dishes isn’t what makes a good chef.
- At the end of the day, if you want to start your own restaurant, it is a business. It is not about how well you can create the menu, you need to be well rounded. Every successful chef can share with you in-depth about their concept, about why they do this, about the world socially and environmentally – they know what is happening around them. You need to be attuned.
What is your vision as a chef?
I am very drawn to creating things. The dishes here are a culmination of understanding the traditional and moving forwards to create something unique and contemporary. At Tate Dining Room, I combine Chinese with French cuisine to create my dishes.
When you first started in 2012, how did you finance your business?
Initially, I only wanted to open a cafe so, I rented a small 900sf space in SoHo. Because the space was so small, I could only do set menus. I started with 2 million HKD, self-funded. And I’m still self-funded today.
I believe that if you have a dream, there is always alternative ways to do extra to fulfil your dream.
Chef Vicky Lau, Tate Dining Room
As the boss and the chef, how do you balance creativity with cost?
There is an underlying conflict between these two. For me, my love is more for the art of dining. Of course, it is a little tough to make money in this refined culinary scene but luckily for me, a lot of my clients engage me for event catering. I started Butler, our catering company 6 years ago. This is the bread and butter that helped tremendously with the business. If I did not have Butler, I would not have been able to move- to not care about food costs too much, to buy extra plates and the premium ingredients.
How long did it take for your work to be recognised?
When I first started, I did not think too much about PR. I thought, “As long as you use good ingredients, guests would be able to feel the difference.” I try to find the balance with keeping food costs reasonable and still using good ingredients. That was our unique selling point.
We were lucky that within the first 9 months, Tate Dining Room obtained its first Michelin star. Three years later, in 2015, I was awarded the Veuve Clicquot Asia’s Best Female Chef 2015. A lot of pressure built up after that and when people walked through the door, they expected a lot more.
How was the first 6 months of business before the Michelin star?
It was the funniest, as in ‘fun’, time! Experiencing the adrenaline rush, seeing the team come together. After a while, you need to find new ways to push yourself because no one is pushing you, other than your guests.
I believe Hong Kong is quite an entrepreneurial place. It is relatively easy to start your own business. Hong Kong is an opportunistic place where you can start small and if you have the mindset to do it, you will succeed. I know some of my kitchen staff who wanted to open their own restaurant; they initially started out by opening a takeout place.
Seven years later, has the vision changed over time?
A lot, actually. In the beginning, it was more about more gimmicky things and stunning presentation. Over time, I just wanted to understand more about cooking and ingredients. Now it is about the taste and the use of ingredients. Of course, presentation is still important. Frankly, when you present a dish, 30% of the experience is about visual presentation.
That is why people come here, it is because of the refinement that you cannot find anywhere else. It is like looking at a piece of art. I still give that refinement, it is in my DNA.
Chef Vicky Lau, Tate Dining Room
How much has the business of food changed in the last 7 years?
Diners have gotten much more educated in the past few years because they travel and see more online. Nowadays, there is not much room for mistakes because 1 Instagram post can cause huge damage.
What is difficult is consistency. It is easy to come up with a new menu but to maintain that consistently every single day is the challenging part.
There are many extremities in food so, how do you find the middle ground? For me, I prefer light and balanced flavours, others might prefer bold flavours. For restaurants, I realized that finding the middle ground is important because you are here to please everyone in general. You want every guest to feel loved, to feel the taste is just right to their liking, and the experience is worth their money.
Talking about “experiences that are worth their money”, what do you take into consideration when pricing your menu?
First, it is definitely the perception. Value is an important factor. You ask yourself, “Are you meeting the expectations of your guests?” If you go to a yakitori place, you’d probably expect a lot of meaty items and if you are not getting that, then your perception is that it’s not worth your money. But if you feel something is worth it, you would not mind paying 700HKD for it. The overall ambience and service matter too.
Secondly, survey the restaurants around your location. You cannot jump too far from the pricing of others around the area by setting a price-point that’s too high or too low.
When you designed this outlet, what elements were you looking for?
Everything combined together – the music, the lighting, the mood, the interaction with the wait staff, the presenting of the dish- how all these come together needs to be thought through. I am not afraid to be girly and if I want to use pink, I will use pink. Because my dishes can be a bit girly.
And how long did it take you to design this outlet?
3 months of conceptualizing and renovation to opening. It was a challenging phase because I was pregnant then. I was still doing the drawings when I was about to give birth.
The menu is elevated as well to suit this outlet. We moved the whole team over, but of course, over time, young people wanted to try new things. Fine dining is a challenge as it needs constant work and tuning, it is a lot of pressure. There are 8-9 of us in the kitchen.
What is a Tate Dining Room experience?
It is very detailed. Well-balanced from the beginning and a bit feminine. It is also something that will linger. It is not just about tasting and eating, it is a visual and emotional experience evoked by the attention that we put into every dish
Team
As a person interviewing for a job at Tate, which do you value more: experience or passion?
Passion always supersedes experience. It is what makes the difference. When you talk about finesse, it is all about passion. Anyone can cook but it is that little detail, that extra attention that makes it better. Like with the sensibility of making a souffle – it doesn’t take 7 minutes every time, sometimes it’s 7.5 minutes – that’s passion and also logic. If you have the passion, you will have the thought process to want to understand how things need to be addressed and improve.
What’s different about how you run your team?
We do not bully people. When there is conflict, we talk nicely and privately. And of course, under pressure, there will surely be tension but we never talk down to anyone like, “Hey, you stupid a**!” It is unnecessary! It’s a bad culture that was created by the people before us. It does not mean it is a better kitchen.
What do you value most in your kitchen?
Teamwork is very important. Each night there are so many dishes that need to go out; at least 12 dishes. And with so many components to each dish, no one will be able to do everything by themselves.
Ins and outs of the F&B industry
What do you think is the biggest challenge in this industry?
I think it is balancing between work and personal life. It is tough because it requires long hours in this industry and you have to be ready to sacrifice some things.
If you can make one change to help young people out there, what would it be?
I think it is to improve the social perception of this profession in Hong Kong. A lot of times, parents do not see this industry as a viable career. They prefer their kids doing something else, anything else, even if it’s doing meaningless sales. That is why I feel it is important for me to do PR, not because I am so proud of myself but I want to encourage people. I take my time talking to people and hopefully, writers will write more about that and change people’s mindset – to always go after what you love to do.
How did you feel when you won the Veuve Clicquot Asia’s Best Female Chef 2015?
I felt a responsibility. You are representing the (female chef) group. It is about setting an example.
Talking about setting an example, what advice would you share with fellow female chefs?
Just work really hard and follow your dreams, and keep finding ways to make things happen. If one thing does not work you should always manoeuvre, don’t give up.
You need to adapt and evolve over time because if you are not evolving you are not upgrading. That already means you are falling back.
Chef Vicky Lau, Tate Dining Room
What is next for you?
I am not trying to open 20 restaurants. For me, it is just maintaining and pushing myself forward.
Interview and words by Theresa Burhan. Edited by Lim Aileen. Photography credit by Chef Vicky Lau and Tate Dining Room.
