Chinese New Year Competition with Amoy and Waitrose
January 15th, 2010
Things are always busy leading up to Chinese New Year (On 14 February, 2010 we welcome The Year of the Tiger grrr) and its super busy at Sweet Mandarin this year because I’ve agreed to be the featured chef for Amoy / Waitrose for their extra special Chinese New Year promotion.
Read our book Sweet Mandarin which charts our family’s rollercoaster history and you’ll discover an interesting nugget from our past; our great-grand father, Leung used to manufacture soy sauce for a living. So when Amoy (the premier soya sauce manufacturer) contacted us and asked me to be their chef, it was a huge honour and from a personal perspective, this opportunity is the connecting piece that binds present to the past.
You see, in the beginning, our family were farmers in Guangzhou China who had nothing – not even a sausage. It was my great grandfather, Leung who decided to manufacture the soy beans he farmed and created the inky black liquid, soy sauce – that led our family’s journey to Hong Kong and gave us our first taste of prosperity. Yet the double-edge sword of our family’s successful soy sauce business led to rivalry and jealously from other soya sauce manufacturers. This escalated to tragedy when my great grandfather, Leung was murdered, leaving a wife and six girls including my grandmother. Women in the 1930s were not entitled to assets, education or rights so all the assets he built up were dissapated to a distant male relative who wanted nothing to do with us. Once again, our family was plunged into poverty and my grandmother, mother and our generation have since faced adversity after adversity ever since. Yet what has pulled us through each generation has been a love and talent for cooking food – we have cooked for a living and survived thanks to our customers. To be invited to be the chef for Amoy is bittersweet – I wish my great-grandfather were here to share in the celebrations.
I cannot wait to cook for the competition winner and look forward to the challenge ahead. Remember you have to be in it to win it, so what are you waiting for, get entering and I’ll see you in your kitchen.
Best wishes and sweet dishes
Lisa
