Bo London will be the next venture headed by \u201cdemon chef\u201d Alvin Leung. He could just as easily be described as \u201cthe Man in Black\u201d due to his habitual costume, although not his personality. He is an easy chap to like, with a dry sense of humour and engaging manner. He was in the UK to visit the site of his new restaurant, so I asked how much time he will be able to spend in Hong Kong at Bo Innovation when Bo London opens in September. How will he divide his time?<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m going to spend as much time as I need until I think the restaurant is ready. It\u2019s like nurturing a child: you leave the restaurant when you feel that it\u2019s working and sustainable by itself, operating smoothly alone. When that happens I\u2019ll return to Hong Kong but I\u2019ll come back regularly to monitor it.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Alvin](\"http:\/\/www.mostlyfood.co.uk\/img\/Alvin_Leung3.jpg\")
Why was Alvin Leung so keen to open a restaurant in London rather than, say, Singapore or Paris? \u201cI was born in London and I have an affection for the city so I will come back, it\u2019s not like I\u2019ll just open a new restaurant and not return! If London proves successful I do have ambitions to open more \u2013 but London first: it\u2019s special to me and I come here regularly.<\/p>\n
\u201cI left London when I was an infant. My father had been to university here and I came back twenty years later to go to university myself, and my daughter was born and went to school here. I\u2019ve spent as much time as I could in London. This is not just a \u2018second home\u2019 to me, it is almost a \u2018home\u2019. My dream was always to open in London: even when I started in Hong Kong London was my goal, it was always in my mind. If you open a restaurant like Bo Innovation \u2013 very innovative, very new Chinese \u2013 you want to do it in a place where there\u2019s an audience. Would you open it in Yorkshire, in Manchester? I don\u2019t think so, because what I do is not going to be easily accepted there, it probably wouldn\u2019t have an audience. You open a Broadway show in London and people will come, and I think I will have an audience here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Did family play a part in his interest in food? Does he come from a family of food lovers? \u201cMy mother cannot cook, and that\u2019s well documented! In a Chinese family, if your mother can cook then why learn \u2013 we are lazy people!\u201d he laughs. \u201cSo we had to learn how to do that for ourselves, we were getting sick of instant noodles every day \u2013 and believe me, instant noodles in the early 1970s were not even close to what\u2019s being eaten now \u2013 think \u2018wax\u2019! I was brought up in Canada, so we had a relatively large kitchen where it was easy for a child to learn to cook. I started to cook around age 11 or 12, and I enjoyed it. I enjoy eating, too \u2013 you have to enjoy eating to be able to cook. I\u2019m the oldest of four brothers, and my father and I prepared food for everyone in big batches \u2013 well, you can\u2019t cook something like a turkey just for one. My father used to love turkey, and he cooked one not just for Thanksgiving but every month, and when the stocks in the freezer ran down and we didn\u2019t have any left for sandwiches he would cook another one. There\u2019s so much you can do with turkey \u2013 sandwiches, fried rice, the bones are good for congee \u2013 and it was cheap. My father never taught me how to cook: I\u2019m a guy, in those days you asked your father how to build a dog-house, you didn\u2019t ask him how to cook, or he\u2019d put you through military school! And my mother\u2019s instruction consisted of telling me to read the back of the box!\u201d<\/p>\n
But despite Alvin\u2019s love of food he didn\u2019t choose a career in food right away. \u201cI was an acoustics engineer, and I only started to cook professionally about seven years ago. I think having an engineering and a business background \u2013 everything except one in cooking \u2013 helped my restaurant survive. When I went to university here I worked as a waiter at my friend\u2019s restaurant, but that was only for about three months. I have never worked under anybody, and I don\u2019t think I ever would. For me having my own restaurant was the logical way to get started: if you haven\u2019t learned to do things classically, then just do things that are a little bit away from the norm, so people won\u2019t realise your mistakes!\u201d Still more of that infectious Leung chuckle. \u201cWhen you cook something classic there are benchmarks, something to which you can be compared; when you do something \u2018bang \u2013 just like that\u2019 those comparisons don\u2019t exist. People can\u2019t say you\u2019re good, you\u2019re bad. I tell people, \u2018I\u2019m the best, I\u2019m the worst at whatever I do, because I\u2019m the only one!\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing the black sheep of the family, the rebellious sort, I wanted to do something that was unique. If you can do something that nobody else is doing, you don\u2019t have competitors. But your craft has to be accepted if you are going to succeed. I\u2019m not going to try to educate everybody \u2013 that\u2019s the job of the journalists. I think it was a smart move, even if it happened to be a fluke, to do something where there are no rules. In these seven years I think I\u2019ve learned a lot, and it\u2019s easier to learn from the top. You learn a lot more when you\u2019re at the top than when ![\"Alvin](\"http:\/\/www.mostlyfood.co.uk\/img\/Alvin_Leung4.jpg\")
you\u2019re at the bottom \u2013 where you\u2019re washing dishes and you just learn how to get grease off a knife, how not to scratch an ivory handle. I\u2019ve been learning, and I\u2019m still learning, which is good. When you reach perfection you reach the end. Like the Olympics, it gets harder and harder to break the record, and if you don\u2019t break the record you\u2019re not going to be happy. When you start from the very bottom and still have a long way to go, there\u2019s a lot of excitement, a lot of opportunities for you to develop. I like the development stage, and when I reach a certain goal there\u2019s satisfaction. This is what makes me happy.\u201d<\/p>\n
How did Alvin get his start, his break? \u201cI was cooking seriously at home, doing elaborate dinner parties with a real menu and everything, and friends were saying, \u2018Your food\u2019s better than a restaurant, you should open one!\u2019 Never take that advice \u2013 it\u2019s the same with singing, friends will say you have the best voice they have ever heard. Ask strangers: when strangers say you are good, you can believe them. During the SARS epidemic, a friend had a restaurant, a speakeasy, and it was not doing well. The chef left and I took over. I didn\u2019t drop everything and go there, I took my food and tried to see if there was a market for it. I am more of a pessimist than an optimist: I thought, \u2018This may not work, but if it works it\u2019s a bonus.\u2019 I think, being a businessman, that\u2019s a safe approach \u2013 you don\u2019t put all your eggs in one basket.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo I did something completely new at that time in Hong Kong: using molecular gastronomy methods for Chinese food. There was a lot of noise from critics and writers from all over Asia, who came to Hong Kong to write about the trend for \u2018speakeasy\u2019 home restaurants, and there were a lot of great reviews. Then the celebrated Patricia Wells came and took me apart: she said I cooked like an eleven-year-old! I said, \u2018Great! Now let\u2019s move on, and start to take it to her level.\u2019 But she didn\u2019t tell me what her level was! I was, technically, still running the family business, but I was encouraged to push myself and go full-time with the restaurant. But how do you develop your cuisine? Do you shave truffles into everything, put foie gras in all your dishes, lines of powders, herbs, cress?<\/p>\n
\u201cIn my new restaurant I want to showcase London with my cuisine \u2013 it\u2019s quite extreme Chinese: exciting, exotic, an experience. It\u2019s something that I want London to be involved in, that\u2019s why it\u2019s called Bo London, not Bo Innovation or Alvin Leung\u2019s. This is about London, it\u2019s a dream coming true, it\u2019s trying to show people what I have gathered, and how British food has inspired me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Will Bo London have a different menu from that found in Hong Kong? \u201cThere are certain things on the menu that are delicious and that I have done all over the world; of course I\u2019m Chinese so there\u2019s a Chinese element in there, and there will be lots of dishes derived from vibes I\u2019m getting from London, from England. I am coming here not to show you what I can do, but what I have learned, what I am able to absorb from my surroundings. Innovative molecular gastronomy, fusion, everything \u2013 50% of it has to come from where you are geographically for people to accept it.\u201d<\/p>\n
From where does he find his culinary inspiration? \u201cMy ideas come from everything around me \u2013 from architecture, people, ingredients, restaurants. If you get inspired by a lot of things, then you are able to create from different perspectives: if you only get inspired by ingredients, you\u2019ve only got one perspective; if you get inspired by techniques and ingredients you get two perspectives; if you get inspired by energies from the architecture and techniques and ingredients you have three, and so on.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have an affection for London. In London I\u2019m in a happy environment so I can create better dishes and therefore have more fun here, I can put more effort into it. There\u2019s also a psychological element: when I\u2019m happy, comfortable I can create something better. It\u2019s about the history, the surroundings, so I think I can do more here than if I try to figure it all out somewhere else.\u201d<\/p>\n
What kind of restaurants does Alvin enjoy visiting? \u201cMy favourite places are comfortable; it may not even be about the food. The biggest problem is that I am always trying to analyse things, in order to learn from them. To do that, you have to understand what\u2019s good about it, what\u2019s bad about it. If you go to a favourite place, psychologically you are not going to be able to see the bad, you can only see the good. You have to expose yourself in all directions in order to pick up ideas, inspiration, and energy. My brain is always on the lookout for any opportunity to pick up new ideas.\u201d<\/p>\n
What of Chef Leung’s new creations \u2013 how do they evolve? \u201cWhen you are creating something new, you are either making a new model, or changing an old model and you have to think laterally. Take the fish and chips we have here in the UK: say I was presenting that in Hong Kong. We don\u2019t have potatoes, so we have to do something else in place of the chips. The fish is the protein, the more expensive part. There is the comfort of the fried potato, so you have to think about a replacement for that starch that\u2019s there to fill you up. Instead of potatoes you have rice, or noodles, or taro. The batter for the fish – would it be the same? Would you substitute the salt with soy sauce, because the Chinese don\u2019t use salt? That\u2019s too obvious. Then think about fish and chips in the future, 50 or 100 years from now. Think about all those things and you start to get ideas and create something. Of course there\u2019s always a story around that particular dish, some sort of inspiration. You have to take yourself down many different avenues.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Alvin](\"http:\/\/www.mostlyfood.co.uk\/img\/Alvin_Leung5.jpg\")
Is it, therefore, a process of modernising? \u201cYes, you can say it\u2019s modernising. You have to \u2018deconstruct\u2019 in order to put it back together again, but that term doesn\u2019t hold up as well as it used to. It\u2019s a method that an engineer uses when he wants to find out how a thing works and then try to improve it. But I\u2019m not saying I \u2018improve\u2019 it; instead I say that I try to present it from another perspective. I take a lot of very strong Asian flavours, like morning glory, which many chefs never touch. I take on stronger flavours that may not be so readily accepted and try to make them more accessible to people who did not grow up with those flavours.\u201d<\/p>\n
What is Alvin trying to do with Bo London? Is he going to educate us with his, well, innovation? \u201cI would not try to educate you on how to eat \u2013 everyone\u2019s an expert on what they like. I might educate you on how to hold chopsticks, I can tell you how in Hong Kong we like to steam our food, but London has a very big Chinese presence, in the culinary sense. I\u2019m not going to show you a lot of things that you haven\u2019t seen before, but I\u2019m going to present them in a slightly different way. If you go to a normal Chinese restaurant, hopefully you get what you expected. For what I do, extreme eating, I\u2019m trying to pleasantly surprise you and give you the unexpected. That adds to the pleasure, the excitement. If it\u2019s predictable you\u2019re not going to be excited by it. This is what I do, and this is what I\u2019m reasonably good at.\u201d<\/p>\n
How would Alvin describe his menus? \u201cMy menus evolve. Take molecular gastronomy: seven years ago you sprinkle some powder and everybody\u2019s excited. Now that trick does not work so easily. You now have to go to a different phase \u2013 I don\u2019t say \u2018level\u2019 because food can go sideways as well as up. Now people eat out so much, and it\u2019s getting harder and harder to impress. There\u2019s a generation gap. Things are changing rapidly.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese days I don\u2019t try to impress you with bubbles and jellies and powders in every single dish \u2013 you need to balance the menu. It can\u2019t all be \u2018smoke and mirrors\u2019, you have to offer a dish that\u2019s a bit more comforting as well. Each dish is judged by the test of time \u2013 it only stays as long as people continue to come back for that dish. But there are some dishes from seven years ago that I continue to refine, or that I bring out from time to time, dishes that \u2018click\u2019 or just work.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy formula is always to find out what\u2019s going on, and not just to go with the trend. You have to move in a different direction or you\u2019re just part of the mass. It\u2019s important to sit down and think about the model, and work on the psychology: you can break through culture barriers by using that. There are certain things that everybody needs, and taste is one. But if in England you like your food at a certain temperature, then I\u2019ll address that subliminal need.\u201d<\/p>\n
It all started with a kitchen and a kid. Does Alvin still cook at home? \u201cAt home I cook simple stuff, soup, congee; we\u2019re quite good at cooking, just not very good at cleaning up!\u201d I would say that Alvin stands a very real chance of cleaning up, in two great cities.<\/p>\n