From hip kopitiams in New York City to char kway teow street food crawls in Penang and putting laksa on the menus of her own restaurants, the new head of culinary at Hong Kong’s Black Sheep Restaurants, always finds a way back to Malaysian food
Patricia Yeo’s career has taken her around the world. Born in Malaysia, she studied in the UK and the US, where she also worked before taking up roles in Oman, Laos and Cambodia. Prior to jumping on board as head of culinary at Hong Kong’s Black Sheep Restaurants, she was working in Croatia.
“It was very beautiful and very idyllic, but it was very monotonous. Croatian food, unlike food in Hong Kong and food within the Black Sheep group, is so one-dimensional,” says Yeo. It’s in stark contrast to where she is now.
“Here, I start my morning at [Lebanese restaurant] Maison Libanaise tasting hummus and baba ganoush and talking about Lebanese food, and then I go to [Neapolitan pizzeria] Motorino and we play with pasta and doughs for pizza, and then I come to [Thai eatery] Soul Food Thai and there’s curries. It’s just so diverse. I never know what hat I’m going to wearing on any given day. I could be cooking Thai food one day, helping out at [modern Chinese restaurant] Ho Lee Fook the next, and making tacos the third.”
Aside from the variety, Yeo thrives on the opportunity to work with young chefs. “I think a lot of young chefs in Hong Kong view working in restaurants as a pay cheque, as a means to an end. It’s really nice to be able to take a team member who is a pay-cheque maker and have them realise that this is a really viable career. You can travel the world, and make enough money to raise family and do all these fantastic things and it’s nice to be able to pass that along.”
Yeo is also enjoying the proximity to more Asian food, of which there was a dearth in Croatia, and is excited to share some of her favourites.
Read more: A Taste Of Home: Ng Tzer Tzun On His Favourite Eats In Malaysia
What do you miss most on the food and drink front when you are away from Malaysia or don’t have access to Malaysian food?
It’s always the street food. When I go back to Malaysia, it’s all about the street food. It’s not restaurant food and definitely not high-end Western restaurant food, because why would I go back to Malaysia to have a steak or spaghetti? It’s the char kway teow, the Hokkien mee, the laksa, the nasi lemak.
What is the first dish you eat when you return and where do you go for it?
I love going to Penang, I think the street food in Penang is absolutely fantastic. It’s street food the way I remember street food being when I was younger because I think flavours have changed a lot, and there have been some short cuts taken. If you go into these little vendors in Kuala Lumpur and Petaling Jaya, the food is not being cooked by local Malaysians. There’s not the Chinese uncle, or the Indian grandmother cooking the food anymore. They tend to be Cambodian and Burmese, so I think they don’t understand the flavour profiles of the food, because it’s not what they know. But in Penang it’s still very authentic and it’s still very much family-run and it’s fabulous. And then if you go to some of the small towns, like Ipoh, the food is still very good because it hasn’t been commercialised the way it has been in Kuala Lumpur.
See also: A Taste Of Home: Kedai Tapao's Jennifer Pou Alesi On Her Favourite Eats In Malaysia