Making it big in UK with Indianised Chinese food

After winning the first prize for the best Indo Asian Fusion Food at the British Chinese Food Awards in December 2017, Kolkata-born Steven Lee was back in the city to celebrate Chinese New Year with his family. The restaurateur, who had to put in years of struggle across cities and countries, talked to DNA on how he made it big with the Indianised version of Chinese food in the United Kingdom.

On being asked about his feeling on winning the award and becoming a food sensation, Lee said, "I feel like laughing when they call me an overnight success. They do not know about two-decade long struggle. With not much of a formal education and little money, it was only my cooking that I had to rely on to earn a living."

Lee, who was born in a Chinese family in Kolkata, had a taste for the Indianised spicy version of the Chinese food available at the number of resturants and street stalls across the city, and not the bland original one. With the idea of taking this taste to others, he worked in Mangalore and Mumbai for over 10 years. His first stroke of good luck struck him when celebrity chef Udit Sarkhel invited him to London to work at his restaurant.

"I worked there for several years. People were loving the fusion Chinese food. I worked at another restaurant after this, before finally gathering up the courage and money to open my own restaurant," Lee said.

He partnered with a friend and the two of them spent a total of Rs 3.8 crore and opened Hakkaland at Harrow town centre in 2016. "The stakes were high as if it didn't work out, I stood a chance of losing everything and be back in Kolkata. However, there were a lot of Bengali families in the vicinity who took to my fusion food as it caters to their love for 'Kolkata chilli chicken'. Even vegetarians are in love with our Tai Pai Paneer."

It took Hakkaland only a year to win the title of UK's best Indo Asian Fusion Food.

When asked about his plans of expansion, Lee said he had already had a word with veteran restaurateur Anjan Chatterjee regarding several possibilities, but not in his own country. "There is already a lot of competition here, and I would rather expand in UK first as I would like to be at the kitchen to supervise the work and retain the quality of the food served to my patrons," he said.