Indie Restaurateur: Interview with May Chow of Little Bao
Tucked neatly in a corner on 66 Staunton Street, Little Bao is a tiny restaurant with pastel blue walls and dark purple window frames. By day, it’s unobtrusive; blending in well with the rest of the quiet street. Occasionally, you’ll see some staff walking in and out, and if you dare peek in through the glass, a group of young chefs are too busy buzzing around the kitchen counters to even look at you.
When night arrives though, the entire street seems to come alive. The restaurant’s logo—a fat kid’s smiling head, lights up in neon pink, and a steady group of people begin to gather around the area. They’re all here for one thing: the famously delicious ‘Chinese burgers’ that Little Bao serves, and has been causing a buzz in the city months before it even opened. Made with various ingredients (such as sweet soy braised pork belly, pickled leek and cucumber salad) stacked between Chinese white ‘man tous’, little baos aren’t the only thing the restaurant serves. The menu also features a slew of Asian inspired dishes for sharing like steamed venus clams with yuzu cucumber broth, pan-fried short rib dumplings, and truffle Taiwanese minced pork foie gras rice bowl.
Little Bao first made its appearance in the Island East Markets. “We wanted to do something fun and Asian. In LA, they have the taco, so we tried to come up with something like that, but unique to the Hong Kong market,” said May Chow, the brains behind Little Bao. Born in Toronto, raised in Hong Kong and later schooled in the States, May returned to Hong Kong 6 years ago, where she spent time working in the kitchen of Yardbird, the equally hipster-famous fusion eatery just a few minutes away. “ Janice Leung [of Island East Markets] approached Yardbird to set up a stall, but they were too busy so they offered it to me” said May. “At first, we didn’t really know what to expect, so we just made around 150 burgers, which sold out within an hour. The next time, we doubled the numbers, but still sold out by 1pm… I think the Island East Markets is a great testing-ground for people with new concepts, but aren’t ready to commit to the idea yet. It helped me realize that this Asian burger idea could really be developed.”
When asked about her philosophies, May seems to be all about anti-establishment, from her culinary inspirations to the way she runs her restaurant. “I don’t think there’s necessarily one person who influenced me; instead it’s the culture that surrounds me.” She reveals that from going out to eat at restaurants, to watching videos on YouTube, self-learning has been a large part of her culinary development. “I’m a horrible child of this era.” She exclaims. “I don’t like to follow orders; I have a short attention span; I don’t listen. I could never be an executive chef in a traditional kitchen, because I don’t work that way. Instead, I surround myself with people who can cover my flaws. [Little Bao] is a place where I am free to do what I want… I like to collect staff who don’t just do, but have ideas of their own too. We don’t do service charge, and it’s not easy working here, but if you understand our philosophy, you become a part of the family and get to do what you love. You need to be young and dreamful to stay at Little Bao.”
Little Bao, 66 Staunton Street, Central, 2194 0202, facebook.com/littlebaohk
A version of this interview appeared in the December 2013 issue of where Magazine.