Asian photographers tell stories another way at Berlin roast meat restaurant Rice Service
- Co-founders of Berlin siu mei restaurant Rice Service talk about growing up in restaurants and their focus on traditional Chinese cooking
For fashion photographers turned restaurant owners Thu Thuy Pham and Kenneth Lam, both photography and food are about storytelling.
“[But] with food, you can do it in a more ‘innocent’ way and ask for a bit of acceptance,” says Pham, who co-founded Rice Service, a new Cantonese siu mei (roast meat) restaurant in Berlin, Germany, with Lam and Thao Westphal. “When you create something out of your own identity and community, you can tell different stories from your own perspective.”
Pham was born in Vietnam and moved to Germany when she was five years old. She met fellow co-founder Kenneth Lam more than a decade ago, when they were both studying fashion photography at the University of the Arts London in the UK.
The two instantly connected over having a Southeast Asian ethnic background but growing up in Europe. Lam would invite Pham to his family home in Northampton where his father would cook for them.
“We bonded through food, eating and our common ground of how we were brought up,” says Lam, who was born in the UK to Hong Kong Chinese parents. “It was a very familial connection and a sense of community.”
