Hong Kong chef Menex Cheung almost gave it all up to become an insurance salesman
- He worked his way up from washing vegetables to cooking for China’s business and political leaders in Beijing
- Cheung now works at China Tang, where he is working on healthier dishes and a place in the Michelin guide or Asia’s 50 Best Restaurant list
How did you get interested in cooking? “Watching someone cook on TV was like seeing a lab experiment, mixing things together. I thought it was really cool, especially because it involved fire. My parents split up when I was four years old, so my older sister and I had to help our mum out.
“I started cooking when I was eight years old, simple things like steamed fish and braised spare ribs, scrambled eggs. One time I mixed a raw egg with instant noodles, but thankfully I didn’t get seriously sick.
“When I was 19 years old, I studied cooking at the VTC [Vocational Training Council]. At the time I could only get into pastry because my English was not good – for some reason you needed English for the Chinese cuisine course yet that was taught in Cantonese, while pastry was all taught in English. I had a hard time but managed to graduate after one year.”
Did you enjoy working in pastry? “My internship was at the Nikko Hotel [now New World Millennium Hong Kong], which was one of the best places for pastry at the time. I didn’t have the best grades so I didn’t think I deserved to be there, but I worked long hours. After I graduated I worked at Lucullus and another bakery, Orchid Padaria in Sheung Shui. At each place, the head chefs had an authoritative attitude towards us, but when they saw management, they were timid. I didn’t think this was a good example.
“My sister saw the Jockey Club had a trainee programme, where you worked five days a week and they paid for you to study one day a week. On my first day I had to kill and fillet a fish and had no idea how to do it. After a few months we got a new executive chef who was just like the previous ones. I thought I should sell insurance instead.”
Why did you stay? “Luckily my mentor, Lo Tak-yan, arrived at the Jockey Club and I saw him deal with everyone firmly. The atmosphere in the kitchen changed right away. One time I cut my finger quite deeply just before the Mid-Autumn Festival. Even though I had a doctor’s note and could rest for seven days, I was worried chef Lo would not be happy so I came in to work.
