Alan Yau (), OBE (born 11 November 1962) is a Hong Kong restaurateur who founded the

Wagamama Wagamama (stylised as ''wagamama'') is a British restaurant chain, serving Asian food based on Japanese cuisine. History The first Wagamama was opened in 1992 in Bloomsbury, London, founded by Alan Yau, who subsequently created the Chinese rest ...

chain in the United Kingdom. Of

Hakka The Hakka (), sometimes also referred to as Hakka Han, or Hakka Chinese, or Hakkas are a Han Chinese subgroup whose ancestral homes are chiefly in the Hakka-speaking provincial areas of Guangdong, Fujian, Jiangxi, Guangxi, Sichuan, Hunan, Zhej ...

ancestry, he was born in

Sha Tau Kok Sha Tau Kok is a closed city, closed town in Hong Kong. The last remaining major settlement in the Frontier Closed Area, it is Hong Kong's northernmost town. Geography The small rural village of Sha Tau Kok is located on the northern sh ...

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

and moved to

King's Lynn King's Lynn, known until 1537 as Bishop's Lynn and colloquially as Lynn, is a port and market town in the borough of King's Lynn and West Norfolk in the county of Norfolk, England. It is located north of London, north-east of Peterborough, no ...

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

in 1975 with his family. Alan Yau started his career in 1992 founding

and was appointed an OBE in the 2006 New Year Honour's List for services to the restaurant industry. Following that, Alan founded numerous ventures in gastronomy such as

Hakkasan Hakkasan is a Chinese restaurant first opened in Fitzrovia in London, England but has since expanded to many cities worldwide. The restaurant was founded in 2001 by Alan Yau, who was also behind the Wagamama Japanese restaurants and later the ...

(awarded a

Michelin Star The Michelin Guides ( ) are a series of guide books that have been published by the French tyre company Michelin since 1900. The Guide awards up to three Michelin stars for excellence to a select few establishments. The acquisition or loss of a ...

in 2003), Yauatcha (awarded Michelin star in 2005) and Park Chinois. In 2016 Alan pivoted into the software world and founded Softchow, a taste aggregation platform. In April 2019,

The Asian Awards The Asian Awards is an annual award ceremony for the global Asian community which takes place in the United Kingdom, with 14 categories that include business, philanthropy, entertainment, culture and sport. Nominees are selected by an independen ...

honoured Alan for his culinary work with the "Outstanding Achievement in the Arts" award.

Career highlights

Wagamama

Founded in 1992 by Yau,

is a

ramen is a Japanese dish, Japanese noodle dish. It consists of served in a broth; common flavors are soy sauce and miso, with typical toppings including , nori (dried seaweed), menma (bamboo shoots), and scallions. Ramen has its roots in Chinese ...

bar with nearly 200 locations globally as of early 2019. Yau left Wagamama in 1997.

Busaba Eathai

Founded in 1999, Busaba Eathai is a

casual dining Restaurants fall into several industry classifications, based upon menu style, preparation methods and pricing, as well as the means by which the food is served to the customer. This article mainly describes the situation in the USA, while catego ...

Thai restaurant chain. Yau left Busaba Eathai in 2008.

Hakkasan

Founded in 1999,

was initially a fine dining Chinese restaurant which later expanded to include nightlife entertainment. Hakkasan was awarded a

in 2003 and Yau exited

in 2008.

Yauatcha

Founded in 2004 by Yau,

Yauatcha Yauatcha is a Chinese restaurant in Broadwick Street, Soho, London, England, specialising in dim sum. The restaurant was created in 2004 by Alan Yau, who previously created the Japanese Wagamama and Thai Busaba Eathai restaurant chains as ...

dim sum Dim sum () is a large range of small Chinese dishes that are traditionally enjoyed in restaurants for brunch. Most modern dim sum dishes are commonly associated with Cantonese cuisine, although dim sum dishes also exist in other Chinese cuis ...

restaurant and patisserie tea house chain. Yauatcha was awarded

in 2005. Yau left Yauatcha in 2008.

Princi UK

In collaboration with Rocco Princi, Yau founded Princi in 2008; an Italian Bakery in Soho. He sold his shares to

Starbucks Starbucks Corporation is an American multinational chain of coffeehouses and roastery reserves headquartered in Seattle, Washington. It is the world's largest coffeehouse chain. As of November 2021, the company had 33,833 stores in 80 c ...

in 2016.

Cha Cha Moon

In 2008, a collaboration with Kuwaiti firm

Kout Food Group Kout Food Group K.S.C.C. is a Kuwaiti-based conglomerate, founded in 1982, operating in Kuwait, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Qatar, Kurdistan-Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, and formerly in the United Kingdom. The business also offer catering serv ...

saw Yau open Cha Cha Moon in Kingly Court, London, a ‘fast casual' Chinese noodle bar. A second location was launched in Whiteleys Shopping Centre, but closed down less than a year later to be transformed into Cafe Licious/Chi Wok/Pasta Rossa. The Kingly Court location closed in 2016 as Kout Food Group began to withdraw from the UK market.

Babaji

Founded in 2014 by Yau, Babaji was a Turkish Pide concept.

Duck and Rice

Founded in 2015 by Yau, Duck and Rice is a Chinese pub with comfort food in Soho, London.

Park Chinois

Founded in 2015, Park Chinois is a Chinese old school entertainment restaurant. Similar to most of Yau's other creations, Park Chinois stays as authentic as possible to the restaurateur's heritage by drawing inspiration from popular dishes in 1930s Shanghai restaurants and supper clubs.

Softchow

Softchow was founded in 2017 by Yau as a "taste aggregation platform".

References

1962 births Living people British people of Chinese descent People from King's Lynn English restaurateurs Head chefs of Michelin starred restaurants Hong Kong emigrants to England Hong Kong people of Hakka descent Officers of the Order of the British Empire {{HongKong-business-bio-stub