(CNN) — Hong Kong is broadly thought of probably the most difficult cities on this planet to function a restaurant — a roiling cauldron of adjusting tastes, cleaver-sharp competitors and unsavory economics.
Proper on the coronary heart of its culinary world, with connections to a minimum of half of its hottest tables, is publicist Geoffrey Wu.
An atypical publicist
Geoffrey Wu is the publicist behind lots of Hong Kong’s hardest tables.
Maggie Hiufu Wong/CNN
“I would not say we’re higher at our job than different folks. I might say we’re completely different,” he tells CNN Journey in The Baker and The Bottleman, a brand new informal bakery and pure wine bar by celeb British chef Simon Rogan, the place he is agreed to spill among the secrets and techniques of Hong Kong’s eating scene.
After being expelled from the College of Science and Expertise in Hong Kong for “skipping too many courses to play playing cards at McDonald’s,” Wu joined Amber, the famed French restaurant underneath the helm of Richard Ekkebus, as operations workers in 2005.
Over the following few years he took on numerous advertising and marketing roles for various corporations — however all the time discovered himself again within the meals and beverage business. In 2012, he opened his F&B consultancy agency.
Wu is not your typical meals and beverage publicist. He is not congenial. He is recognized for often yelling at purchasers for making a mistake, or members of the media he feels have not carried out their analysis.
“I’m not afraid to talk up — folks know that for positive. Generally you want a marketing consultant who is simple about issues that should be fastened. We aren’t right here to therapeutic massage your ego. We’re right here for the outcomes. We’re right here to win,” says Wu, sounding extra like a soccer coach than a PR skilled.
“If I needed to please everybody, I might go promote ice cream. Fortunately, most of my purchasers perceive.”
Amongst these purchasers is Yenn Wong, founder and chief govt officer of JIA, a restaurant group behind standard award-winning Hong Kong eateries like Mono and Duddell’s.
“The Forks and Spoons perceive and personalize the wants of every idea and is all the time staying very present with the related methods to make sure we as purchasers get probably the most publicity to our audience, which finally delivers optimistic income development,” Wong tells CNN Journey.
‘Probably the most cutthroat F&B market on this planet’
Dinner tables at Bluhouse, a brand new Italian restaurant at Rosewood Lodge, are sometimes booked out two months upfront.
Courtesy Bluhouse
One of many vital duties for a F&B publicist is to be bodily current at a restaurant, in keeping with Wu. He’s both tinkering with menus, sampling new dishes or just assembly with purchasers.
It could possibly be something from translating the restaurant’s a la carte menu from Chinese language into English to working with cooks on selecting dishes for a tasting menu, “so you may see what’s taking place and let the workers know that you simply care,” says Wu.
As an illustration, later that day, he says he is having a trial lunch at Bluhouse, a brand new informal Italian eating idea on the Rosewood Lodge in Kowloon.
“At a tasting, we’ll have a look at every little thing — style, presentation and temperature of the meals. We additionally have a look at furnishings, operation circulation, pricing, and so forth.,” he says. “No new restaurant is ever excellent, however let’s attempt to decrease the error.
“We now have solely labored with purchasers in Asia — Hong Kong, Macao, Maldives, and so forth — however I actually imagine that Hong Kong is probably the most cutthroat meals and beverage market on this planet.”
His declare is not baseless.
Getting the opening proper is crucial in Hong Kong attributable to its competitiveness.
“It is such a condensed market,” says Wu.
“Folks all the time discuss. Hong Kong clients are additionally very educated. If you do not get it proper from the get-go, you need to revamp many issues. The query is — will the shoppers offer you a second likelihood? There are such a lot of selections that likelihood is they’d go some other place.
“So to construct a profitable restaurant, it is vital to verify the opening is a powerful one. With good phrase of mouth then companies will come. It is that easy.”
Working example: Bluhouse. It opened in June and dinner reservations are full by way of October and November on the time of the writing.
Cooks have an even bigger position than ever
Hong Kong’s F&B business has developed quickly within the final decade, thanks partly to the arrival of Michelin Information in 2009 in addition to the rise of social media and the native meals group.
Cooks in Hong Kong have skilled a shift of their roles.
“Some 20 years in the past, cooks principally simply cooked and served meals,” says Wu.
“Now in 2022, there may be additionally this factor referred to as relationship constructing. Cooks have to point out their faces. They’ve to the touch the tables and to take photos with visitors. The job of a chef is way greater than earlier than. All of it goes again to a necessity for human connection. Prospects, media, influencers, bloggers — everybody needs to have a human connection.”
And it simply makes good enterprise sense — visitors usually tend to return to a restaurant the place they’ve established a relationship with the chef.
The issue, in fact, is that chatting with diners would not come naturally to all cooks. That is the place Wu is available in.
“We simply encourage and encourage and encourage them,” he says.
He cites Manav Tuli of recent Indian restaurant Chaat — which can also be positioned on the Rosewood — as successful story. Chaat opened in 2020 and received its first Michelin star two years later.
Chef Manav Tuli of Rosewood Hong Kong restaurant Chaat.
Nora Tam/SCMP/ZUMA Press
Distinctive dishes like Tuli’s showstopping tandoori lobster — Indian meals with a Hong Kong seafood twist — and a group of educated workers which communicates the tales of the meals fantastically are among the causes Chaat is one in every of Hong Kong’s hardest to ebook eating places.
Tables are launched two months upfront and swept up in minutes.
However the largest star of Chaat is Tuli, thought of one of many metropolis’s most beloved culinary figures proper now.
“When he arrived two years in the past, he did not know the panorama or tradition of Hong Kong,” stated Wu. “He’s a quiet particular person however we align in a sure manner as we each have a drive. For him, transferring his household to Hong Kong with him, he needs to make this successful. So we’ve been working very intently since day one on that,” stated Wu.
He inspired Tuli to satisfy the visitors and fellow cooks, becoming a member of him at occasions and meals because the chef constructed a reputation for himself.
Chilly-calling is not constructing a relationship
Wu just lately organized a collaboration dinner between Chaat and Discussion board, a Michelin three-star Cantonese restaurant.
Maggie Hiufu Wong/CNN
On his days off, Wu organizes lunches for media, together with revered business critics, and cooks he works with or may go with sooner or later.
These usually happen at venues Wu would not work for, from Hop Sze, a no-frills Cantonese diner that has a six-month wait record, to the Discussion board Restaurant, a Chinese language joint with three Michelin stars.
“I labored til 4 a.m [this morning]. I solely joined as a result of Geoffrey Wu organized this lunch,” one meals critic tells CNN Journey as he enters the non-public eating room inside Discussion board.
The menu of the day consists of all types of dishes — from road food-style rice rolls to basic Cantonese candy and bitter pork and the restaurant’s well-known braised abalone.
As with most lunches with Wu, there’s additionally an off-menu shock.
Adam Wong, the manager chef, and CK Poon, the final supervisor, are available with a pushcart close to the tip of the meal.
“We’re pondering of including this to the following menu replace,” says Poon as he caramelizes sugar for the candied apple fritter (ba si apple), a Northern Chinese language-style dessert, on-site.”It is the primary time we’re doing this — so tell us what you suppose.”
The five-hour lunch wraps up with business gossip over bottles of cognac.
However Wu is rarely not working.
He punctuates gatherings with potential collaboration concepts (Tuli and Wong exchanged concepts that day on a hookup between the 2 eating places), and fills in moments of silence with jokes to maintain the meal entertaining.
“I all the time say that I am the chief leisure officer,” says Wu. “Constructing relationships takes time. Chilly-calling and sending press releases aren’t constructing a relationship.”
Taste is king, however there it isn’t every little thing
Wu just lately labored with Yong Fu, an award-winning high-end Ningbo restaurant, to assist refine its menu for native tastes.
Maggie Hiufu Wong/CNN
On the finish of the day, connections will not get you far if the meals is not good or the restaurant refuses to evolve.
“Taste would not lie,” says Wu. “However every little thing — eating places, bars, cooks — has a shelf life. It is inconceivable to remain primary endlessly. You might want to hold arising with new concepts to proceed to raise the restaurant.”
It could possibly be doing extra tableside companies, educating visitors in regards to the dishes, or just including a pre-dessert chunk that cleanses the palate, he says.
Certainly one of Wu’s newest duties is to edit the menu at one in every of his new purchasers, Yong Fu, a Michelin-starred restaurant that focuses on high-end delicacies from China’s east coast Ningbo area.
He’d wish to trim down the unique one-inch-thick ebook and has created a tasting menu to supply a extra curated ordering expertise.
In Hong Kong, Ningbo delicacies is commonly confused with Shanghai delicacies. Therefore, Wu has labored with Yong Fu to create a tasting menu for the native diners.
Yong Fu
In Hong Kong, Ningbo delicacies is commonly confused with Shanghai delicacies. The tasting menu consists of dishes that diners might not know sufficient about to order — a “sticky” boiled wax gourd and yellow croaker fish in bitter broth, for instance — that amplify the trinity of Ningbo delicacies’s star flavors: “savory, umami and sticky.”
Yu Qiong, Yong Fu’s supervisor, is there to supply an in-depth clarification on every of the dishes.
“These are among the issues that may enrich the entire eating expertise,” says Wu. He compares advertising and marketing eating places with operating: “Maintain refining. Maintain pushing. My perception is, simply do not cease till you might be on the ending line.”
It is an apt metaphor. The avid runner wakes up at 5:45 a.m. on most days to slot in train.
“I get pleasure from Hong Kong on quiet mornings when town hasn’t woken up but. Whenever you run, you see a whole lot of issues and take into consideration a whole lot of issues,” says Wu.
As for what was on his thoughts that individual morning?
“I used to be enthusiastic about our interview. I used to be enthusiastic about not swearing. I did nicely — I solely swore as soon as.”
Prime picture: Indian restaurant Chaat’s pork cheek vindaloo. Courtesy of Chaat.
