Remembering the Abalone King

Chef Yeung slicing the abalone with a knife

Chef Yeung Koon-yat, known as "the abalone king" has died at the age of 90.

I had the opportunity to interview him twice, the second time was in November 2017 for an interview. It took him a while to show up, perhaps he had forgotten or was not up to it, but eventually he came and put on his showman face.

When the camera started recording and I asked questions about his youth and how he became known as the abalone king, it was apparent that he had signs of dementia. I tried to gently ask questions in a different way or ask him to remember dates, but it was difficult for him to answer.

Massive dried Japanese abalone

But what he could not remember he made up in his cooking demonstrations, making his famous fried rice which was still so delicious, each grain of rice evenly flavoured in the claypot with egg, Chinese sausages, conpoy and spring onions.

As making abalone takes a long time, they were prepared ahead of time so he posed for the camera spooning the thick, shiny, flavourful abalone sauce over this prized seafood delicacy.

He was born in 1932 in Zhongshan, Guangdong province to a poor family. When the Sino-Japanese War broke out, his family was destitute and his parents sent he and his younger sisters to his grandmother to raise. When she died, the three children were put in an orphanage where his two siblings starved to death. 

Determined to find a better life for himself, Yeung came to Hong Kong in 1949 at around the age of 18.

Like many migrants he found work in the restaurant industry, where he could get three meals a day and a place to sleep (on the dining tables, using table cloth as sheets).

Yeung worked his way up, learning to cook and together with some friends opened Forum Restaurant in 1974 with HK$600,000. The restaurant didn't do well at first, serving home-cooked dishes, so he had to find a way to differentiate it from competitors and decided to focus on abalone, a very expensive ingredient.

Not only did Yeung perfect how to cook abalone, but he also taught a generation of diners to eat it with a fork and knife, cutting it lengthwise in relatively thin slices to best appreciate the dish.

Yeung was the ultimate showman

Soon after he was known as the abalone king for over six decades, well known in Hong Kong and was probably the first Chinese chef to travel to various countries to cook for foreign leaders, showing them what Cantonese delicacies were, particularly abalone.

The first time I met him was in the late 1990s with a good friend who is also a food writer. He handed out his business card to us which was extra large to fit in all his titles including the Club des Chefs des Chefs. 

He showed off how he heated up the already braised abalone in front of us table side and we enjoyed every bite. But then we were even more impressed by his fried rice that he also made before us. 

It smelled so good even before we had a bite, that we knew it would taste delicious.

Before we left the restaurant he insisted on giving us each a bottle of wine -- Chateau Lafite Rothschild 1982.

I carefully brought the bottle home, and years later my parents and their friends drank it -- without my knowledge!

Nevertheless as my friend says, Yeung was the ultimate showman who was passionate about cooking and you could taste it in his food.

A culinary gem has left this world, though we will not forget these words of wisdom: "Be even more outstanding when others are outstanding," another way of saying work harder for your success.

He is proof of that. Thank you chef.