Head Chef Chui Wai Kwan is the youngest son of Chui Fook Chuen, founder of the celebrated Fook Lam Moon chain of traditional Cantonese restaurants. The only of the senior Mr. Chui’s sons to apprentice under him, Chui Wai Kwan first began work in his father’s kitchen at age fourteen, mastering the art of selecting the best ingredients, honing his knife skills and most important of all, crafting the finest cuisine.

Even at a tender age, Chui Wai Kwan was trusted with the rigorous task of helping pick the most valuable dried treasures of the Cantonese kitchen – abalone, fish maw and shark fins. He followed his father and other chefs to clients’ homes, where he assisted in preparing grand feasts.

At age 60, the elder Mr. Chui retired from the culinary world and passed on his restaurant business to his top chefs. As luck would have it, his successors struck out to start catering businesses of their own, leaving Fook Lam Moon in a quandary. Chui Wai Kwan, then only 20 years old himself, stood up to the wok and became head chef of his family’s business, an unheard of age in Cantonese cuisine for a master chef.

Pouring his heart and soul into the few clients who remained, his big break came when Mr. Wat Shu Heung, a famous gourmand and brother-in-law of Wong Tsim, requested Fook Lam Moon to cater for his evening party. Impressed with the delicacies he had sampled throughout his meal, Mr. Wat went into the kitchen to personally thank the chefs, where he discovered Chui Wai Kwan. This fortuitous encounter boosted the young chef’s morale, and he strove even harder to succeed in Cantonese cuisine, eventually winning back his father’s customers and shaping Fook Lam Moon into the leading home catering business of its kind.

He opened his first restaurant in 1972 on Lockhart Road in Wanchai. Building on its success, he later opened a branch in Tsim Sha Tsui. Fook Lam Moon became popularly known for its fresh, bright flavours and traditional style among local and foreign food connoisseurs alike. This gave him the confidence to open his first Fook Lam Moon in Japan in 1982. More Japanese branches would follow, then branches in Mainland China, partnering with the Shangri La Hotel Group in Shanghai, Beijing and Futian.

After 50 years of managing Fook Lam Moon’s celebrated cuisine, it was time for Master Chef Chui Wai Kwan to step away from his Kowloon and Hong Kong restaurants. In 2013, he is proudly stepping forth again in his own name, forging a new brand and vision of fine traditional Cantonese cooking destined to win the taste buds of customers across the globe.