Apple Inc founder Steve Jobs once said in his speech at a university that you will only see how seemingly irrelevant dots are connected to form your life when, in the future, you look back at today. Physics, economics and culinary art sound irrelevant enough, but they motivated a chef to introduce affordable molecular gastronomy to Hong Kong.
Breaking with convention
Three Dice Kitchen founder Arthur Tsui had a part-time job at a high class restaurant during his university years in Australia. Molecular cuisine, a burgeoning craze that was sweeping across the catering industry, caught his attention. He delved into this culinary concept and mastered the skills by self-learning. He wanted to bring this new dining trend to Hong Kong.
To Tsui, high rent is the biggest hurdle for businesses in Hong Kong. He now runs a restaurant in Causeway Bay and pays exorbitant rent, but he got an idea during a holiday in Japan. He remembers seeing a tachi-gui (eating while standing) restaurant selling high-class gourmet food in Japan. It was such a success that the owner opened more than 30 other restaurants in four years. He came to realize that elegant environment is not a must for high-class restaurants.
Double-track approach to suit all tastes
Currently, Tsui’s restaurant is only open in the evening and there is room for only about 13 standing diners. How does he blaze a trail in the catering industry where competition is so intense? He says apart from serving creative dishes, such as hami-melon molecular sphere and duck foie gras mousse, he also offers a unique performance-like dining experience by completing and explaining the final step of cooking in front of the customers.
Overcoming great obstacles and building word of mouth
Tsui admits that starting his own business is not easy at all. Menu design was the first challenge. Without proper training in molecular gastronomy, he learned his skills by watching videos. “Molecular gastronomy” is short for “molecular and physical gastronomy”. As the name implies, his high school physics now come in handy.
Attracting customers was not easy either. He did not have much exposure until a department head of a large business group tasted his creations in a local food festival. He highly recommended Tsui’s dishes and wide media coverage followed. By word of mouth, many big business owners requested to sample his cooking. Gradually, his brand came into the spotlight.
Broadening the epicurean horizon
When asked about future development, Tsui says the first thing is to broaden the horizon of Hong Kong gastronomes. Using the trend-setting high-class restaurant NOMA as an example, he says their main thrust has been on natural ingredients in recent years, going back to old cooking methods like fermentation and pickling. Following their footsteps, Tsui has leased a shop in Wanchai where he will open his new restaurant offering high quality natural food at a price affordable to anyone.
Arthur Tsui’s recent project is exploring the Chinese cuisine market in Australia. This latest move proves that he has market acumen as well as boldness and creativity. He owes these fine qualities partly to his family. During the interview, Tsui has made many observations from an economic perspective. It so happens that his parents studied economics too. As fate would have it, he followed their paths and majored in economics. He has never imagined that this training would come in handy when he runs his own business. Eventually, life is really about connecting dots.
