Dim sum, brunch, late-night snacks: favourite Hong Kong restaurants of a food-saving app CEO

Carla Martinesi, CEO of food-saving app Chomp, reveals where she goes for brunch ‘you’ll be eating for hours’ as well as a spot ‘perfect for a lunch’

She names a go-to spot ‘for a celebration splurge’, where to find a hearty salad, and lists a place overseas where the ‘olive oil tastes like nothing else’

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Carla Martinesi is the co-founder of Chomp, an app designed to minimise food waste in Hong Kong. She shares her favourite Hong Kong restaurants. Photo: Carla Martinesi

Published: 4:45pm, 28 Feb 2024

Carla Martinesi is the Swiss-Chinese co-founder and CEO of Chomp, a food-saving app offering real-time discounted leftover produce and food from hundreds of shops and dining outlets across Hong Kong. She spoke to Andrew Sun.

I was born in Hong Kong. My mum’s a local foodie and my dad is half-Swiss, half-Italian, so it was a funky food mix at home.

Both my parents worked in the food and beverage industry, with my mum being a pastry chef and my dad in food engineering. Plus, my Italian grandma wrote a cookbook on her southern Italian recipes, so it was only natural for me to follow in their footsteps.

For work, my dad moved around to different countries every three to four years. Our dinner menu was always a mix of Cantonese, Italian or the cuisine of whatever country we were living in. This definitely started my love of food, leading to a bachelor’s degree in hospitality and then starting Chomp, a mission to help save food from going to waste.

Banh mi from An Choi. Photo: Instagram/@anchoi.hk

For lunch, I like to go to An Choi (15-17 Mercer Street, Sheung Wan. Tel: 5286 1517) for a surprise banh mi or Heaven or Hell by Healthy Chicken (82 Stanley Street, Central) for a hearty salad.

I also like Chaiwala (Basement, Yu Yuet Lai Building, 43-55 Wyndham Street, Central. Tel: 2362 8988) for their brunch. Go in hungry as you’ll be eating for hours.