Profile | Grace Choy enjoyed cooking so much she opened a restaurant, wrote an award-winning cookbook, then left Hong Kong for Japan
- Grace Choy had a simple life growing up in Hong Kong. After studying in London she was fired from a series of office jobs, then worked as a chef
- Married and approaching midlife, she used her love of cooking to open a restaurant. After writing a cookbook, she wanted a change and moved to Japan
I was born in Hong Kong in 1967 and am the second youngest of six children, four boys and two girls. The family business was a mahjong shop and we lived above the store in Yuen Long, in the New Territories.
My father sold mahjong products, the tables as well as the mahjong sets, and also rented the sets. I remember overhearing my mother tell customers that the sets were good quality because the plastic tiles were from Germany.
A family business
My father died when I was five and my mother was left to raise us kids by herself. She ran the business with my elder brother. She worked very hard, not just overseeing the shop but washing the tiles after customers returned a set.
The family business is still going and is now 70 years old. These days, we just sell the sets; the rental business ended 30 years ago, and the tiles are mostly made by machine now.
Easily distracted
It was a simple life growing up. When I was five, I remember asking my mother if I should go to school. So she sent me to kindergarten and then primary school.
