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

Wagamama Wagamama Limited (stylised as ''wagamama)'' is a British restaurant chain. The brand is inspired by fast-paced, Japanese ramen bars and offers a celebration of Asian food. History Wagamama Limited was incorporated on 29 April 1991 as China Di ...

chain in the United Kingdom. Of

Hakka The Hakka (), sometimes also referred to as Hakka-speaking Chinese, or Hakka Chinese, or Hakkas, are a southern Han Chinese subgroup whose principal settlements and ancestral homes are dispersed widely across the provinces of southern China ...

ethnicity, he was born in Sha Tau Kok,

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

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 north-east of Peterborough, north-north-east of Cambridg ...

Norfolk Norfolk ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in England, located in East Anglia and officially part of the East of England region. It borders Lincolnshire and The Wash to the north-west, the North Sea to the north and eas ...

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 (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 restaurants in certain geographic ...

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 British Asian, Asian community which takes place in the United Kingdom, with 14 categories that include business, philanthropy, entertainment, culture and sport. Nominees are selected by ...

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 Chinese noodle dish popularized in Japan. It includes served in several flavors of broth. Common flavors are soy sauce and miso, with typical toppings including , nori (dried seaweed), menma (bamboo shoots), and scallions. Ramen h ...

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 US, while categor ...

Thai restaurant chain. Yau left Busaba Eathai in 2008.

Hakkasan

Founded in 1999, Hakkasan was initially a fine dining Chinese restaurant which later expanded to include nightlife entertainment. Hakkasan was awarded a

in 2003 and Yau exited Hakkasan in 2008.

Yauatcha

Founded in 2004 by Yau, Yauatcha is

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 cu ...

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 List of coffeehouse chains, chain of coffeehouses and Starbucks Reserve, roastery reserves headquartered in Seattle, Washington. It was founded in 1971 by Jerry Baldwin, Zev Siegl, and Gor ...

in 2016.

Cha Cha Moon

In 2008, a collaboration with

Kuwait Kuwait, officially the State of Kuwait, is a country in West Asia and the geopolitical region known as the Middle East. It is situated in the northern edge of the Arabian Peninsula at the head of the Persian Gulf, bordering Iraq to Iraq–Kuwait ...

i firm Kout Food Group 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

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yau, Alan 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