Chinese cuisine ‘attracting new young cooks’ says London chef

The new generation is giving up office life to enter kitchens, says Jeremy Pang
Rod Kitson4 July 2016

A top chef and cookery school owner says a new generation of cooks are shaping Chinese cuisine in London as they turn their backs on corporate careers.

Jeremy Pang, who runs School of Wok and is opening his first restaurant next month, claims British-Chinese twenty and thirtysomethings are re-entering kitchens as the trade becomes “more glamorous” and they reject negatives attached to it by older generations.

Acclaimed chefs such as Andrew Wong and Geoffrey Leong lead the way with cutting-edge restaurants, while others have moved from office-based careers into street food businesses.

Mr Pang, 32, told the Standard: “The older generation running the restaurants and takeaways didn’t want their kids in it because it was such hard work. They wanted us to go to university. Cooking was seen as a lower status job.

“Over the last five years, I’ve seen a lot of people do our courses who are younger generation Chinese who have almost been forced through the higher education journey. But out of natural love of Chinese cuisine they have come back into it.”

Regional Chinese food - in pictures

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The chef-tutor, who left a marketing job in 2009, said the average age of students was between 25 and 40 and the career changes usually happened in their early thirties.

“One of our chefs was in PR for the Hong Kong government for 10 years,” said Mr Pang. “He came to us on a full-day course. He asked if we had any washing-up jobs, and within a year he made the career change.

“We’ve had people who want to open a market stall, or places like Bao — street food restaurants. There is a younger generation like myself who are trying to push the cuisine forward.”

Mr Pang opens Cha Chaan Teng in Holborn next month, which he says is a modern take on Hong Kong’s post-war Chinese-Western fusion.

Dishes include spam with fried egg on a noodle broth, crispy duck with French toast and orange maple, while prawn toast is upgraded to lobster.

“It is like a Hong Kong diner, but with high quality ingredients,” he said. “It’s about digging in and sharing, the way Chinese food should be eaten.

“There has been a gap in the Chinese food market in London, where you get cheap and cheerful Chinatown meals then Michelin-starred Chinese restaurants, with nothing in between.”

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