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.
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