Alan Yau: Original Thinker

 
Widely hailed as one of Europe’s most influential restaurant innovators,Hong Kong born Alan Yau has created ground-breaking dining concepts at bothends of the spectrum, from crowd-pleasing fast-casual brands like Wagamama andBusaba Eathai to Michelin-rated Hakkasan (Chinese fine dining) and Yauatcha(dim sum plus teahouse). This year, he introduced two new dining formats,partnered an Italian bakery development and obtained the backing forambitious national and international roll-outs. Bruce Whitehall asks himabout the sources of his inspiration and intuition.
 

 
In all of your restaurant concepts, you have been closely involved not just in the menu but in intricate design specifications and the production and service systems. To what area do you feel most affinity? What interests you most?
Yau: I think the food has to come first, and its integrity should be considered regardless of any marketing factors. You must have full confidence in the menu because that gives you enough energy to develop the concept further, both intellectually and practically. With all the ideas I have had, there has always been, at the back of my mind, a belief that the execution of the menu strategy is feasible.
 
You have sought the services of highly original visual artists, like the French designer Christian Liaigre on Busaba Eathai and Yauatcha and Japanese architect Keno Kuma, noted for his mastery of surfaces, on Sake No Hana. Do you give them a very specific brief or let them have a free hand?
Yau: At the beginning of a project, I have an idea in my own mind of what I want but I try to develop a genuinely symbiotic working relationship with creative specialists. Basically, I give them an intellectual and esoteric brief but, beyond that, I try not to pre-empt their input. I want to see what they come up with. If you give them too much of a brief then you don’t really need them; you might as well try and do it yourself.
 

 
Do you take the same approach in your relationship with chefs when evolving menus?
Yau: To me, dealing with chefs is like training wild horses. As a restaurateur I never tell chefs what I like and I never bring in other people’s menus and say “cook this”. What I tend to do in order to develop the relationship is to look at what their repertoire is, see how good they are and assess their cooking direction. I also like to know what are their top 20 dishes. From there, you have a platform for your working relationship with them. From my point of view as the person opening the concept and making it into a workable system, having that platform is important in enabling me to then carry my ideas forward. In system terms, it’s especially important with concepts such as Busaba Eathai with its strong valuefor- money positioning and ability to feed people quickly and efficiently.
 
What do you think of the role played by outside observers like restaurant critics?
Yau: There are occasions where critics see places as they would like them to be, not as they are. The opening this year of Cha Cha Moon received some reviews which were quite personal in the way they talked about me. And one complaint in a national newspaper was based on the restaurant being very full, with the writer having to wait in a large queue. I am really sorry about that but Cha Cha Moon is that kind of concept – one step up from fast food. To me, queuing is part of the whole experience and, if someone does not like that, they need to find another restaurant. But I have also seen plenty of constructive criticism. Even when they are pointing out things that you know, it is always better to hear them from someone else. It’s a bit like attending a business seminar; sometimes you need someone to tell you the simple things in life. Therefore, many things that critics raise we take on board. Wagamama and Busaba have generally done very well from that sort of coverage, especially considering that chains are in many cases completely ignored by restaurant critics and guidebooks.
 

 
For more Wagamama-Pictures, please click here
 

 
| 22 October 2008 | Bruce Whitehall |