Andrew Stow
Andrew “Lord” Stow is best known for his famed Portuguese egg tarts, which he introduced to Macau in 1990. He has since branched out, with franchises in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, Korea and the Philippines. He talks to Adam White about his noble title, the ubiquitous egg tarts, and why he has no time for Chris Patten.
My mother always told me I’d be doing F&B, so I decided to be a pharmacist instead.
I came out to Macau as a pharmacist after seeing an advertisement in a newspaper. The money was excellent - with $16,000 a month, I was quite well off.
I’ve been in Macau for 27 years next week.
There was no decent bread, so I started importing whole-wheat flour from England, and sold it to local bakeries.
Baking is like pharmacy. There’s a recipe, an oven temperature, you stick to the formula and you can do it. I keep telling my staff, “The salt goes in at this particular point for a reason. Don’t mess around with it, and it’ll be fine.”
I started the business in 1989. It coincided with the economic boom. The banks were starting to lend money for cars, and people were starting to buy them. It helped. The bakery was on the island of Coloane, and people started to drive out to us on the weekend.