I sat down in the opulent Silks restaurant at Crown Melbourne with Chef Jack Aw Yong, renowned as the global godfather of Chinese cuisine. This month he is sharing with the lucky Melbourne dining public, his passion and talent garnered from years of hard work, determination and creativity. Chef Jack is a storyteller and I was treated to incredible tales from his culinary journey, interwoven with snippets of life wisdom about the importance of love and of following your dreams. I was literally on the edge of my seat, loving every minute of it.
Jack started off by giving me and Victoria, one of the Crown PR team, his business card…
Chief Innovation Officer, that’s a really grand name.
Oh no. When I checked Google, I think it’s something you either have or you don’t have. You have to stay innovative and keep open always.
Yes. Is that easy for you to do?
I had a dream when I was young. My family has never had any businessmen amongst them. My dad tried very hard. It was not easy. When I was seven years old, one day my cousin, my mum’s eldest brother’s son – they are wealthy – and they gave me a box of stickers. You know, Chinese kung fu, maybe Spiderman…in that time there wasn’t Spiderman, but some sort of thing like that. I took them to school to show off, the whole stack. My classmates asked if they could see them and I said, sorry, you cannot. But buy them? No problem. You buy one, get one; buy five and you get an extra one.
Very entrepreneurial.
Yes. So I was seven years old and I made $7.20. That was over 40 years ago. That was a decent income. I always had a dream. Once your family situation improves and you’re in a decent company, you lose the drive to take risks.
I have had many accidents from when I was young until now.
Because you were taking risks?
One of the reasons was that I’m fat and chubby and I fell all the time. Then and as a chef I cut my fingers every day or get steam burns like when I got burns all over my legs. The year 1995, December 24th in the afternoon at 2.45pm when I was 19 years old. At that time, I was an apprentice and I didn’t have any money in my savings or for insurance and no medical insurance. A young boy like me has a strong ego, when you have no strong family background but you have a big dream, what do you need to do? Work hard and deal with things. The blisters were bigger than my finger could cover. I came the morning after and I was always in the kitchen at 7.45 in the morning. I kept on working and it took three months to recover. Trust me it was not easy.
I have accidents. You can see I have a walking stick now, because 13 years ago I had the role of regional director for Hyatt International. That was another very important day in my life: 26th September, 2006.
You have a good memory for dates.
Yes, I have an elephant memory. That was at 10.30 in the morning. I dressed up in a suit and tie and I had my computer for a meeting. The driver dropped us where there was construction work. It was muddy and we were walking. There was a big three metre deep hole and we had to walk around it. The first person was fine, the second, then it got to me and I slipped over. I tried to save my computer and all my weight went onto one leg, but I opened restaurants in India; Delhi and Mumbai and I didn’t go to the doctor because the 26th is close to the National Day in China where everyone is on holiday. I just had to get through it and I still had successful openings.
Then I had two or three years as a Vision Director and do lots of nice restaurant openings overseas. I thought, what do I want to do in life? It’s so boring opening restaurants. When you get to the age of 42 or 45, you not only want a name, you want everything, right? So I thought, maybe I should look for something so I can stick close to my family. My son was four years old at that time and I thought I had better stay close because very fast he will be 14, 15 years old. I decided to stay at The Park Hyatt in Beijing. My family is there and my brother is there, so I got a job there and stayed for ten years. Then in 2017, December 28, I went back to Taiwan – my wife is Taiwanese – to do some treatment on my kneecap. It was a very well done surgery. Because it was so good, I did not treat it seriously. I had a bad infection within the next ten days. It was so bad that both legs became like elephant feet. It took me 30 minutes to walk as far as it would take you to walk 2 minutes. It completely changed my life. I bought myself an electric wheelchair so I could still check my operations. Seven months. I was too young to end my career. There’s a Chinese series called Chicken Feather in the Sky. The name is very strange but it talks about a couple was very poor in the Shanghai region and it was about how they became strong and smart and brought people together with them to get rich. Then I listened to a Taiwanese singer, and the words of her song were all about courage, and they told me it was time to fulfil my dream and the world outside wasn’t so bad. So I decided, it’s not 100% winning. Maybe I’ll lose.
You asked me whether it was easy to do my role and I must be honest with you, it’s not easy, in fact it’s very very tough. In a big organisation you can always be mediocre and survive, but outside you can only win or lose. You don’t have a pastry chef or baker or many resources so how do you still make it happen? It’s never easy.
When I had been with Hyatt for 30 years, you have the best benefit, the best food and drink. When I moved away from that, it was a different world and I had to change my mindset. I don’t come from a big, grand family. I have a simple lifestyle. I have had a year in this job which is different to my lifestyle before and I want to make my dream happen. When I turned 52 I got worried that I wouldn’t fulfil my dream. When I reach 60, I might not have the guts to do it, so I had to do it. My wife said, we don’t have any loans or anything that burdens you, so give your dream a try. I think everybody has a ream but when your lifestyle gets better, you don’t want the challenge. Every night when I go back to my room I try to listen to some encouraging words of wisdom. Sometimes at night I might be crying alone, because it’s very unique to face the challenges alone. I could not sleep because I could sense things. You need to be a very sensitive person to be able to feel things before they happen. So I couldn’t sleep because I was thinking about how I could overcome things.
What does that look like for you, to have achieved your dream?
When I’ve achieved my dream? What is my dream?
I started cooking because my mum had to do washing for a living, so I made fried rice for my mum every day. It was a very simple fried rice. It was spam with garlic, eggs and it was the best dish we could have. I did that for my mum and I think my mum has inspired me a lot. It’s all about her. She is a wonderful lady.
What IS your dream?
One day, I want to have my own company. Now I’m still a small shareholder with this company but I want to have my own company with top chefs behind me that I can go into different hotels in China. In China you have many different brands like Hyatt, Marriott…you name it, they keep opening hotels but they cannot run their business very well because looking for the right people is the toughest thing and looking for the right people who know about your business in that city and can do it well for you is another big challenge and I have the solution. I’ve been in China 31 years but I cannot go everywhere myself so I need people who understand me, who are able to develop my way of thinking. Every time I want to win, I don’t want to lose.
Win in the eyes of…? The dining public? The critics? How do you win?
I look at revenues. Of course, comments and reputation is important but at the end of the day, it’s revenue. The performance of the restaurants is important. I did that for India. I did that for the Bahamas, but you need people with passion who want to learn and do well. It’s not just about doing the best dishes. It’s more than that. In today’s world, people are not coming to restaurants because they’re hungry. They come to a restaurant because they want an experience; people like to be pampered from the start. Every moment you need them to feel like someone is there for them all along the way. This takes a lot of personal involvement. It is really something that you must treat like your own baby. I like to have a team and I have been sharing my ideas with people all the time because I believe in sharing. I had a mentor, my master chef who did the same thing for me, so I don’t believe in keeping secrets. I believe in sharing. In this world there are no secrets, whatever you want, you can find.
So, right back from the beginning when you were seven and selling your stickers and then you were 19 and an apprentice, what happened in between that made you think, being a chef will make it happen for me, why a chef?
I lived in a village and my neighbour who was our landlord, tried to make fun of me because I’m fat and chubby. I like to eat but our family is poor. I would have a crab stew but I would think I had a crab stew, different sauces…even though the floor was dusty, I would treat it as though there were different containers. I liked to imagine. I would dip my biscuit in the crab sauce and taste it, but actually it was nothing. I would hang on my neighbour’s wall and smell his soup. I enjoyed eating.
English wasn’t my strength. We lived in the village and we speak dialects. I started cooking because my mum had to do washing for a living, so I made fried rice for my mum every day. It was a very simple fried rice. It was spam with garlic, eggs and it was the best dish we could have. I did that for my mum and I think my mum has inspired me a lot. It’s all about her. She is a wonderful lady. Then when I reached the age of 19, I couldn’t go anywhere. In Singapore at that time, if you fail English, it doesn’t matter if you have the best mathematics or physics, you just can’t go any further. So I said, is this what I am? I walked back home slowly and my mum said, one of the teachers, she was my youngest brother’s godmother and also a teacher, had said that maybe Jack could one day be a manager and send him to school as a chef. My mum got very unhappy and said if Jack wants to be a chef in the future, he doesn’t even have to go to school, we can save that money. But I did go to that school.
The reason why I chose to be a chef was to fulfil a basic need; the thirst and the hunger. I don’t expect much. I only expect food and water. I worked very very very hard. I could not even spell salt and pepper or any words for vegetables. In our family the vegetables we ate were bean sprouts, simple vegies and rice. The fish was always one of three, it wasn’t something I had to spell. And in school we hadn’t learned the words for chicken liver or any of those things. I had to learn all these things in the supermarket. I learned every word by memorising. I couldn’t write so I had to remember or sketch. You know when you see the kung fu master, you have one gesture for this way, another for this way, I do the same for how you debone a chicken. I couldn’t write well in Chinese or English, so I had to do it by sketching. I was pretty lucky, because the best thing was to learn from my brother who is now replacing me at the Park Hyatt in Beijing as the second chef of this operation. My younger brother. When we were in school, we shared. Sharing brings the fastest result. Individuals are not the best. You need two to be better and we always shared. I was fortunate because I met many people and many people were willing to give me opportunities.
I’ll give you a good example, when I finished two years of culinary school, I joined the military…because we had to, you know, because it is Singapore and my teacher said to me, Jack we are opening a buffet restaurant and we are cooking only Chinese food. I was only trained in the Western kitchen. He asked if I wanted some part time work. I said I would love it. I was a medical orderly and I said I could come every day from 6pm until 10.30pm, provide me with some food. In the military, you have a basic allowance which is more than enough. I worked hard at the restaurant but after one month, I didn’t receive a salary. I told my mum and she said, it doesn’t matter, don’t worry. Money is not important, learn something. The second month, fourth, fifth, sixth, still no money. I met with my teacher and tried to ask about it, he didn’t mention it, so I leave it and my mum says, don’t worry. Seven, eight, nine months, my teacher came to me and said, Jack, I’m so sorry, our principal doesn’t agree to pay part-timers. I said, no problem and I still worked. I still put in the same effort as before. This all comes from my mother. I continued ten months and in the eleventh month, my teacher came to me again and said, Jack, our school wants to send a junior team representing the school for to Vancouver for a cooking competition and he wanted me to be the captain of the team. Not because I had good skill, I couldn’t cook, but I was very good at sketches and organisation, so I learned. My team members were all very old and I was much younger. We went to Vancouver and we were world champions. I eventually got the chance to represent Singapore in different parts of the world; Sapporo, Norway, South Africa, America, Germany. I won for Singapore the Bocuse d’Or in France. In Chinese, there’s a phrase that is the same as the Western, give and take. First you need to give, before you can take. For me, I am very fortunate that I have met many people in my life so far who are always helping my family, my brother and myself with a lot of things. That’s how I have this job so far.
Even coming to Melbourne is a great opportunity. This is also somebody in my previous job, a friend of mine who became a VP for Food and Beverage at Hyatt. He recommended me to Crown for this job. You need to perform and treat every chance and opportunity as a means to do your best. Then you will always make it.
I find inspiration comes from around us. From books, you taste it or you can look at things and get inspiration. Sometimes I say to myself, the world has been around for thousands of years but artists come up with new ideas. Where they get their ideas comes from their lives, from somebody talking. We need to be always thinking.
That’s good advice. Let’s talk about your food. I was looking at the signature menu for Silks and first of all, is it hard to come to a new country and work with the produce when you are perhaps used to other ingredients?
I think it’s fine. In Australia you have the best beef, the best lamb, the best seafood. The only thing is the Chinese ingredients, I’m not very sure, but I’ve been to the Bahamas and when I opened there, it was tough because I had very little time. But I realised that across from the Bahamas is Miami and they have nearly all the Chinese ingredients. I believe in Melbourne we can find the same thing. I brought three chefs along with me and they are young and they are also very excited. It is an opportunity for them to see the world, like when I was young. I do not really feel nervous at all.
First of all, I treat this as a wonderful opportunity and I really love Australia and I also want my colleagues to feel the same.
Are the items on the menu traditionally Chinese or are they are a fusion or your own ideas?
There are two parts, but there is definitely no fusion. One is about tradition, for sure, but we improved the look. The wheat noodle, for example, how we can do the best. The drunken Marron, maybe it’s not so much to the Australian taste…
Is that the one with 35 ingredients?
36, and it has a very good taste, but the challenge in Australia, but most seafood that I like to do for this dish, I’m looking for the female, but with coral. In Australia, the law doesn’t allow you to do that so we can only take the male Marron because the taste of that coral is fantastic.
Why do we not allow that?
I guess they need to ensure the growth and sustainability of that species. When it comes to the crab, this is a dish that my family loves, I love it and I’m sure people love it. t’s a classic Singapore dish, but when I was in Singapore, I didn’t really like how the dish was cooked in the hotel by my master. Later on, I tried to change the way, but keeping the taste right and making the whole thing better. That’s what I did.
It’s very strange in China. Singapore has about 70% Chinese, but Chinese people don’t really Singaporean food. If you allow them to choose between Singaporean, Malaysian, Thai, they will prefer Thai food. It’s very strange. So when I do any dishes for my restaurants, I need to be very careful and make sure we can do it right. Secondly my guest has to accept it. It’s about business. It’s not about what I want to cook, it’s about what my guests want to see and try. So I do a lobster, because the crab isn’t easy to eat, the lobster is easier, but more expensive. But we are not using Australian rock lobster because it is very expensive compared to Maine lobster which is three times cheaper. I do a steamed lobster with truffle and some ginger, some salt, and some wine. I think it is very nice. I also did lamb because I think people in Australia love lamb, but I didn’t realise that in Australia, they are not a big fan of cumin. Only when you’re here can you find that out.
Then there is the pumpkin bun. The pumpkin bun is my idea. We can keep original ideas, but we need to always have a twist. Another dish is sweet and sour pork. It’s a very Cantonese dish. I thought maybe we could do half a pineapple, scoop the flesh out, cut it and then fill it up with pork, water chestnut, mushroom, and seasoning and then some sweet and sour sauce. It’s very simple and very nice.
The dishes have to come out and the people say, wow. You treat food like a person. The most beautiful lady in the world still needs a good dress. Food is the same. If you always leave the food as it is on a boring white plate, it always looks tired. Food needs to look wow, I want to try it.
Then noodles, we have many different ways of doing noodles. We do tan tan noodles. Am I happy with my noodles? Maybe 60%. Why? I cannot find the best noodles I want. The others we hand make but we have to find the tan tan noodles.
The ideas you have for the dishes…do they come from the inspiration of the ingredients themselves?
Many ways. I find inspiration comes from around us. From books, you taste it or you can look at things and get inspiration. Sometimes I say to myself, the world has been around for thousands of years but artists come up with new ideas. Where they get their ideas comes from their lives, from somebody talking. We need to be always thinking.
Southbank