How Michelin-starred chef Vicky Lau’s ‘edible stories’ provide a glimpse of her initial career path
- If given HK$8 million to spend, Lau says she would explore innovative food technologies with a focus on sustainable farming
- The chef-owner of Tate Dining Room says her journey from graphic design to success in the culinary arts has helped her to see wealth in terms of personal growth
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Vicky Lau of Michelin-starred Tate Dining Room answers the question of how to spend HK$8 million
Asked the question of how she would spend HK$8 million (about US$1 million), chef Vicky Lau says she would invest in a passion project: developing new innovations in food technology, particularly around sustainable farming.
“Sustainability has become a very big topic in the culinary world,” Lau says. “I believe it should be a priority in the design and operation of a restaurant.”
Lau is the chef and owner of Tate Dining Room, a two-Michelin-star restaurant in Hong Kong where the city’s signature flavours are combined with French influences to create a series of tasting menus known as “edible stories”. Each dish on these menus pays homage to a specific ingredient, most of which are locally sourced.
The creativity behind the restaurant’s menus and the presentation of its dishes, as well as its elegant interior, all hint at the chef’s artistic background.
Lau studied graphic design in the US and initially embarked on a career in that field, working as an art director for an advertising agency in New York, before deciding to transfer her creativity to the kitchen. She retrained as a chef at Le Cordon Bleu in Bangkok and honed her new craft in Hong Kong at the Michelin-starred French restaurant Cepage (now closed) before opening Tate Dining Room in 2012.
This career pivot fuelled Lau’s interest in the connection between art, food and culture. “My interest in art is really in the culture itself, because food is also about culture. It’s all connected,” she says.
