Celebrity Life

From fashion and jewellery, to frontline medical care and now ... Chinese sausages? It would seem there's nothing Kimmy Lai can't do. We speak to the stylish entrepreneur to find out what brought her full circle back to her family's famous lap cheong business, and why after years of closure, she's decided to revive the brand as Kim Cook Yuen, now under her own terms.

Coming from a family of entrepreneurs, Kimmy Lai has always had her fingers in numerous pies – she's been in fashion and jewellery for most of her life, and since the start of the pandemic, has also become deeply involved in the medical sector, running a business of mobile testing centres to provide Covid testing and care to the city's most vulnerable and needy.

I met Lai at the Artisan Lounge at K11 Musea, where the café had partnered with Kim Cook Yuen to launch an exclusive Artisan Turnip Cake with French Foie Gras Preserved Meat, where Kim Cook Yuen's cured sausage is paired with fresh Japanese radishes from Kagoshima. When I arrive, Lai was busy fielding calls left and right from doctors, drivers and more – the latest Covid variant had just hit Hong Kong and with sudden restrictions placed by the government, Lai's medical service coaches were needed more than ever.

Despite it all, Lai is extremely warm and enthusiastic about being able to share her family's heritage and reminisce about the good old days spent in her grandfather's kitchen. She tells us why she took it upon herself to revive her family's brand, why she renamed it from Kam Kook Yuen to Kim Cook Yuen, and how her dad's foresight and good relations made it all possible.

Do you have any fond memories of your grandfather?

My grandfather had Alzheimer's disease. When I was young, I remember seeing him in the kitchen stealing my father's Chinese sausages and he looked so happy. I haven't seen him smile like that for a long time. He was stealing and eating it and he said, "Don't tell anyone" and he gave me a piece to try. At that time I was so young that I didn't know how to appreciate the sausage, but later on I realised that this is the heritage that his father – which is my great-grandfather – passed down to my grandfather, and my grandfather passed down to my father. That kitchen held so many memories of my father and my grandfather. We're from the province of Shunde and we're very famous for cooking. A lot of famous chefs came from that province so it's in our blood. We love to eat and enjoy great food.

Kam Kook Yuen was such an established brand in Hong Kong's past. How much were you aware of your family's business while growing up?

That's such a great question because when I was growing up, I didn't like to tell people that I'm from this family because as a girl, you like fashion and jewellery that kind of stuff, but not to be known for lap cheong. But all my teachers knew, and my primary school principal loved my family's brand. Even today, she's still one of our biggest clients. So growing up, I didn't know how to appreciate the heritage. It wasn't until last year during Covid, I was gifting these Chinese sausage gift boxes to my connections in the travel industry during mid-autumn festival. The person I gifted it to didn't know the brand but she passed it to her father and he said, "This brand is such a renowned brand in Hong Kong, how did you find it?" They had an online shop where they sold Japanese goods and other things that people couldn't get during this time, and they put my Chinese sausages on their website. Within a few days, they were all sold out.

When you relaunched the brand you renamed it Kim Cook Yuen. Can you tell us the story behind the change?

I changed the last Chinese character of the name from "garden" to "fate". The reason I did it is because I always tell my staff, we're not selling lap cheong. What we're selling is the memory that has stayed in people's mind in the old days of Hong Kong. You know, when people loved to help each other and you knew and cared about your neighbours. It was that specific feeling that I wanted to bring society now, especially since it became so difficult in the last two years for people to just enjoy a meal together. I just wanted people to remember that we used to have the good old days and we can have it again. That's why I relaunched it with the new name.

I'm also so grateful to K11 Musea. When I created the brand they just immediately said to come and open this pop-up at their shopping mall. I wasn't prepared for it but the team put it together. And then they said, "Why don't we create an exclusive turnip cake?" I didn't know how to make a turnip cake, but they said not to worry. They had a master chef who used to cook for the Japanese emperor. They imported the turnip from Japan and the goose liver we used in our sausage came from France.

At the time, I didn't know where to find a large supply of goose liver but I thought of an uncle who supplied to us in the old days. He was already retired but he helped me make the connections. He told me he was so touched that 50 years ago he supplied it to my dad and now he's able to supply it to us again. I realised how precious this brand was, that my family had created. People I meet will come and tell me about their memories of the old shop in Central, or what it meant for them to get our products.

How did you manage to find the same recipes from the past?

It's again because of the relationship we've kept with the old masters. My father left a small factory running and supported the family thet supplied our sausages and for the 24 years after we closed shop, we continued to give away the sausages as gifts during mid-autumn and Chinese New Year. The old master is already 90 years old but his family picked up the whole business and he would taste the lap cheong and tell us if it's good enough.

A lot of the new generation who've bought our lap cheong say they've never tasted Chinese sausage like this. Nowadays, lap cheong is always made in China by machines and they're all uniform size. Our sausages are made with all-natural ingredients and we use the pigs' intestine to form the natural casing. So they're all different shapes and sizes. It's all hand-crafted lap cheong.

Another thing is that our lap cheong cannot be preserved for too long because we didn't put any preservatives in them. Another thing is that you'll normally find lap cheong from other chains lasting more than two years. But remember, it's fresh raw meat, just dry. How can it last for two years out of the fridge?

Is lap cheong something that's always on the table during Chinese New Year? Or even at home?

Absolutely. During Chinese New Year, we'll make our own turnip cake. But for me, it's something I always have in the fridge. It's food for lazy people because you could just wash it and throw it into your rice cooker. I love it with my Japanese rice, it's my comfort food.

You come from a family of entrepreneurs and you're running a lot of businesses these days. Did your father or grandfather ever give you any business advice?

Yes. It's funny because my great-grandfather, when he started Kam Kook Yuen, he also ran a fashion business. So I say, fashion is in my blood! When I was still in primary school, my father would put me in charge of getting change for the customers. So I'm very good at calculations. But one lesson my father taught me was to be humble. My dad was so humble. One time, a waiter broke a bowl of noodles at our restaurant. And my dad said, "Do you mind cleaning it up? Please? Thank you so much." I didn't understand why he did that because in my heart, I thought as a boss, you should be bossy. When we went home, I asked my dad why he apologised when it was the waiter's fault and my dad said, these people work for your company and on the frontline, you need to make them feel like home. They need to be happy so when they serve your customers, they're happy. That really stuck with me, and for all my businesses I really try to take care of all my staff.

The post Kimmy Lai on Chinese New Year and Revitalising her Family’s Famous Lap Cheong appeared first on Prestige Online - Hong Kong.

What’s the future of fashion? What’s unique about Hong Kong style? What’s next for your industry? What’s in and what’s out? We pose these questions to the designers, entrepreneurs, leaders, stylists and influencers who’ve made an impact on fashion here.

With Covid focusing attention on our own backyard, this era of style in the city is renegotiating in familiar territory. And from talking to the experts, common arcs emerge. 

Johanna Ho

Designer, sustainability champion and founder of Phlvo Platform

Circularity, transparency, responsibility, respect and a proper value system – I feel these all must be the future of fashion. In fashion, I’m inspired by people, human values and the new possibilities of technology. In Hong Kong, there’ll be more connections between fashion education and the industry: mentorships and bridging or training programmes for students within the industry. This is a new season for me – with this new platform concept of Phlvo I want to start bringing a connection between the East and West. I don’t want to chase the chase anymore, or “accelerate growth”, which has been the fashion industry over the past decades – fast fashion, whether mass-produced or luxury brands. It’s all about reworking the system and dealing with issues such as exploitation, values, customers experiences, connection and relevance.

Karmuel Young

Designer and founder of Karmuel Young

Fashion’s future is gender-neutral. Some brands propose that direction by wading into gender-fluid, unisex or polysexual fashions, but I believe it’s about an extreme sense of self. Fashion is becoming more open to self-expression and letting the audience decide what they buy and want to wear. The younger generation pays less attention to traditional gender roles and looks and more towards integrity and authenticity.

Arnault Castel

Founder of Kapok

The future of fashion is in rediscovering how to make people feel beautiful, confident, comfortable and fun. It should be less a signifier of “coolness” or social class. It should stay away from limited edition and collectors and become again a way for us to communicate who we are. Hong Kong is unique because it embraces the new with a great knowledge of past style. Hong Kong style has no fear.

Vivienne Tam

Designer and founder of Vivienne Tam

Since the pandemic began and everyone is homebound, fashion is localising … Society is now ready to support and appreciate Hong Kong designs, we’ll search deeper into Hong Kong’s history and culture, but maintain a proud global voice. It seems there are more restrictions and taboos with the political conflicts around; it’s getting challenging, but challenges make us more creative and focused. The future of fashion is more inclusive with universal values and an emphasis on sustainability and health. People are adopting healthier lifestyles and sporting cultures – I’m designing to blend beauty and style with protection, as in my crossover collection with Masklab and using antibacterial fabric for my travelling trench coats when the gates finally open. Fashion shows can be at any time now and anywhere; the fashion norms and rules are deconstructed and move towards more artistic and unexpected ways of presentation.

Douglas Young

Co-founder, Goods of Desire

Fashion, like art, is a form of social commentary, and our society is very polarised now. You have split realities and fashion will mirror that, in the sense that it will become more diversified. In the past there was a central flow of fashion trends. In the future, these trends will break into fragments and become multiple trends. There won’t be one mainstream trend any longer – the future is diversity. Local fashion will find its own identity and uniqueness through local street culture, because Hong Kong is an advanced city. People are sophisticated in their style and taste, very international and diversified … Hong Kong will soon find its own identity, uniqueness and style. I’m inspired by the way people dress in Hong Kong, especially grass-roots people. The way they boldly mix things freely without consideration – so you have a lot of accidental fashionistas! Also, the ingenuity of adapting things really inspires me, not just in fashion but design in general. The unlikely combinations produce surprising contrasts. Hong Kong people don’t seem inhibited by putting things together in the same way that, say, Westerners might not do.

What’s next for us? We’ve found success in translating our company from initially focusing on furniture to lifestyle and clothing. We found a unique angle in Chinese clothing that’s simultaneously both traditional and modern. A continued focus on boosting our e-commerce is also on the agenda. It also allowed us to discover a market beyond borders for our type of clothing and we’ll continue to pursue that.

Elle Lee

KOL, actress and emcee

The future of fashion is more environmentally cautious, easy on the Earth and soft on the skin. Hong Kong style has always been quite sharp, especially for ladies. Women aren’t afraid to dress out and express their personality in unisex and edgy ways.

Mayao Ma

Director of Fashion Farm Foundation

In the future, fashion will be more focused on the design than where the brand or designer is from. There are many more Hong Kong brands with potential to stand out in the international market. I believe there’ll be more collaborations too. For spring/summer 2022, the Fashion Farm Foundation is presenting the new collections of three brands – Pabe Pabe (accessories), Ponder.er (men’s and womenswear) and VANN (jewellery) – at Paris Fashion Week with a digital film presentation. The crew members are all from Hong Kong. It’s a chance to show the world how creative and talented our young people.

Kev Yiu

Designer and founder of Kev Yiu

Fashion has always been a personal statement of who you are, rather than trends to be followed. However, with technological advances I can imagine in the near future there’ll be something like a one-button device that can dress you up in any way you can imagine.

As the younger generation has become more open-minded through the information on social media and the internet, there’ll be no more stereotypes. The boundaries are about to be broken. Well, maybe they already have been: men in skirts and other gender-blending concepts are no longer as shocking as they once were.

Justine Lee

Stylist and influencer

With the limitations of travel, I feel the city is looking inwards for fashion talent. I still feel there’s room for creativity even with the restrictions we’re under. In Hong Kong, the speed at which we consumed fashion before the protests and Covid-19 was super-fast-paced and, in a way, unsustainable. We’ve slowed down a lot recently and I think consumers, brands and retailers are reprioritising their focus. There’s a greater sense of community and I feel we’re seeing a gradual shift into more conscious consumption.

Faye Tsui

KOL and stylist

The pandemic led us to adopt a new normal in every way, people are paying more attention to reducing pollution. I’ve noticed people in Hong Kong are changing their buying behaviour – it’s important for local designers
to be environmentally conscious, use sustainable materials, especially packaging, and design in a way that’s more durable. Now, I think Hong Kong has its own unique style. People tend to showcase their own personality and won’t just follow a trend if it doesn’t fit them – this wasn’t the case 20, 10 or even five years ago, when fashionistas were following or copying Japan, Paris or London … Now, we’re unique.

Jacky Tam

Stylist and editorial director at Vogue Man Hong Kong

The future of fashion is all about being yourself, trusting your own feeling and being honest to yourself. I think freedom defines Hong Kong style. After the past year or so, people are going through major changes, mentally as well, from being fashionable to wearing comfy PJs at home. To me, comfort is in; being pretentious is out.

Dorian Ho

Designer and founder of Dorian Ho

Nowadays fashion isn’t just about the design, but also how you build and market your brand. Social media have led consumers to adopt and move on from fashion trends quicker than ever before. We must react very quickly, and adjust designs and stock, but also learn to anticipate what the market wants from us. With the development of technology such as AR and VR, I believe the future of fashion is sustainability and technologically innovative design. There’ll be breakthroughs in design and more functional materials to improve the quality of life.

Barney Cheng

Designer and founder of Barney Cheng Couture

What’s the future of fashion in Hong Kong? Three words: sustainability, awareness and responsibility. I think it’ll be all about customisation, personalisation and interactive creativity next in the local industry. What’s Hong Kong style really? Branded living? My style is extravagant simplicity, always has been, always will be. And what’s next for my brand? I’m a glorified tailor to the discerning few! I’ve been here for 28 years and hope to stay here for at least as long in the future.

Harrison Wong

Designer and founder of Harrison Wong

What’s the future of fashion? In design, sustainability remains the main issue and concern from my perspective. From a retail perspective, I think successful businesses will become more data-driven. By leveraging data on consumer trends and tastes, brands can create pieces consumers are more likely to buy. AR and VR will increasingly redefine the online and in-store experience. And high-tech will continue to reshape fashion – for example, catwalks will become increasingly virtual and new innovative functional fabrics will appear. Hong Kong-style is unique, because of the diversity of influences and cultures, as well as our dynamic metropolitan environment.

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Meet the laureates of Prestige Hong Kong's 40 under 40 2021 here.

Special thanks to Aberlour, Ami / Wood Ear, BMW, Breguet, Perrier Jouët and RARE SkinFuel.

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On Friday, September 3, Prestige kicked off the city’s event season when it unveiled the Hong Kong 40 under 40 class of 2021.

In great style, glitz and glamour (as stipulated in the dress code), VIP guests flooded into Central’s hot new bistronomie, Ami / Wood Ear, filling the by-invitation-only private party with a boisterous and enthusiastic crowd.

Now in its seventh year in a row, 40 under 40 trains the spotlight on the young achievers who’ve made meaningful and positive impacts on the city. We photographed and interviewed each individual for a special supplement, a copy of which was presented to each guest during the evening. 

Along with the 40 under 40 honourees, other Prestige alumni who have featured in the pages of the magazine turned out for the evening, including Queenie Rosita Law, Michelle Ma-Chan, Emily Lam Ho, and Elly Lam. As our fashion squad noted, the ladies were glittering in Prada, Yves Saint Laurent, Alice & Olivia and Miu Miu, as well as Karmuel Young, Marie Van Damme and Barney Cheng.  

Also among the guests were actor-singer Alex Lam, Miss Hong Kong Lisa Tse, first runner-up Celina Harto, actress and model Jessica Cambensy, models Saffie Ng and Angie Ng, singer Jocelyn Chan and actor Kevin Chu. The party boys were out with their game face on – models Ken Bek, Andy Cheung, Wilson Cheung were all buzzing around the balcony bar as DJ Daryll did his original spin. 

As Prestige publisher Oceana Ou Rucci unveiled the 40 under 40 list, a behind-the-scenes video of the photoshoot and honourees was projected onto a screen, which you can view here.

And what would a party be without a few gate crashers? We had some of those too – the brave tried to strut in to grab a free drink (“My friend … um … er … is inside!”) but we stood our ground. Try again next year, mate. 

Special thanks to Aberlour, BMW, Breguet, Perrier Jouët and RARE SkinFuel.

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When compiling Prestige’s annual 40 Under 40 list of achievers, we followed some basic rules. First, to state the obvious, all the contenders have to be no more than 40 years old. Second, they need to have done something remarkable — and worth writing about — in the past 12 months (since last summer’s edition of 40 Under 40). And third, they have to be here in Hong Kong.

Now that last stipulation can be a bit of a doozy. The pervasive cloud of defeat and ennui during the pandemic got even the best of us. According to one newspaper op-ed: “As emigration from Hong Kong steadily gathers pace, a different picture emerges. This time, they won’t come back. A conservative triangulation of government data suggests that about 1,000 people a day are currently leaving Hong Kong permanently.”

Well, we’re here to present you with a somewhat different picture, a jigsaw comprising 40 different pieces — men and women who are choosing to stay in Hong Kong and construct something different, something better than before.

To start, our editors put forward more than 80 names for consideration, every one of which was mulled over at length...And eventually around half of them were culled. If they didn’t shift the needle forward, extend themselves in a noteworthy manner compared with previous years, then they found their chances evaporating.

Thus, on this year’s listing you’ll find a conspicuous absence of the usual suspects — in fact, 95 percent of the names in the following pages have never been featured before. The novelty lies in not only their faces, but their actions in trying to build a better society, environment or business — and in some cases even reaffirming our hope in humanity.

We found one lady who provided medical mobile units to the government to help the old, infirm and the disenfranchised in remote parts of Hong Kong as the pandemic raged. An heiress who gave up working on her accessories brand and instead committed to philanthropy. Women who left lucrative investment banking careers to deep dive into fixing the education system. And someone who sells luxury condos and flowers by day, but by night provides mental health solutions to those seeking help. You’ll find all these, and more.

So this emphatically isn’t the usual hierarchical roster of the holier-than-thou — for good measure, ahem, we even list our favourite bartender (if ever there was a year to have a stiff drink, this was surely it), plus soothing dulcet singers and exquisite chefs, and a few original designers and dreamy models. But the common thread you’ll find binding together this diverse group is project hope. Standing tall in the face of adversity, these fine young achievers have adopted an admirable stance as they look forward into the light and continue with their endeavours - whatever those may be.

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