Vicky Lau wants to watch you eat

Already a trailblazer, the Hong Kong chef is eager to push more boundaries

Left: Amuse-bouche, from the kitchen of Vicky Lau's Tate Dining Room in Hong Kong. Right: "I love making things with my hands, like ceramics. I love all of that," says Lau. "Today you don't get a lot of that because so much is factory made. But food is still one of the things that have to be crafted by hand." (Photos courtesy of Vicky Lau)

MATHEW SCOTT, Contributing writer

June 2, 2021 08:00 JST

HONG KONG -- Vicky Lau says while she has had a lifelong passion for food, it was a sense of sheer necessity that led her into the kitchen to cook for herself.

Lau was a student in New York -- hungry and very far from home -- when she first tried to recreate the tastes and the textures of Hong Kong. It was the start of a journey that would lead Lau to earlier this year becoming the first Asian woman to receive two Michelin stars, for her work in the kitchen of Tate Dining Room, the "French Chinese" restaurant Lau runs on historic Hollywood Road.