Lai Yau Tim, born in Hong Kong in 1949, started cooking at 17 and opened Tim’s Kitchen, which received 2 Michelin stars in 2010 and keeps the lively mood of Cantonese cuisine.
My name is Lai Yau Tim. I’m the chef at Tim’s Kitchen, which I opened in 2000. It’s actually a whole chain of restaurants, and I play with spices, sauces, and woks at Tim’s in Hong Kong. I was born in 1949 in Hong Kong, an Asian city loved by many Europeans.
I have to admit I wasn’t particularly bright at school. What could I do? I took my father’s advice and found a job in a kitchen. Bright or not, I now own a restaurant with 2 Michelin stars, so always remember that a brilliant mind is no guarantee of success.
My journey was quite long: I started my career at 17 and opened my own restaurant 33 years later. It’s the life’s work that every person in this world hopes to find. You know, more than once I could have turned off this road, but I didn’t, so it really is love.
In 2010 my restaurant received 2 Michelin stars. Still, I don’t think of myself as a star, and Tim’s Kitchen is a place where everyone is always welcome. If you want Michelin pretentiousness, gold forks, and serious faces all around, that’s not us. We have lots of energy, and it’s noisy and lively here, because that’s the mood of Cantonese cuisine.
My favorite cuisine is Cantonese. By the way, if you live in Europe and sometimes order Chinese food in boxes with friends, those are most likely dishes of this cuisine. In China we still eat snakes and insects, but of course you can limit yourselves to pork and chicken.
My hobby is reading, and I like all kinds of books except the ones about food. I have enough food without books, so I’d rather have fantasy or a detective story, thank you.
My wish for the readers of this project: love my cooking! I probably should come up with something more poetic, but I’m just a chef who dreams that more and more people will love his food. Say you cooked dinner for your husband (or wife) and he praised you. That’s nice, right? I’ve had that “nice” every day for years, many times over.
In the photo you see Steamed Whole Fresh Crab Claw with Winter Melon.
