You grew up in the UK, but what’s your connection with Chinese food?
Both my parents were born in Hong Kong and they moved to the UK in search of a better life in the 1970s and 1980s. They really wanted us to integrate, but food’s a huge part of Chinese culture. We ran a family takeaway in Northern Ireland, and my parents would take us back to visit Hong Kong at least once if not twice a year. We were very fortunate; our family home was in Tai Mei Tuk in Tai Po, which is right beside the seaside, and seafood is one of my favorite things; that’s where my taste buds were exposed to — and developed by — trying what the Western world would consider unusual.
What was your first trip to Hong Kong like?
The first time I visited Hong Kong, I was about six. When you get off the plane, you get the heat straight away and then you smell the food. The flights are usually late at night, so when you wake up, you go for breakfast. It’s not like a bowl of cereal, it’s a ham and egg sandwich or a corned beef and egg sandwich. And you’d have that with really strong Chinese tea with condensed milk mixed through. I grew up with all the same food [as in Hong Kong], so there was nothing too strange, but when I went to the wet market, that was like a sensory explosion. There were a lot of things there that I’d never seen before. You’d hear the chicken, and you’d smell the fish and then that really pungent smell of durian, and people would hold live animals in front of you. For me, it was just like, “OK, this is what happens here.” Mum made us very aware and mindful of not judging.