Hong Kong's famous roast goose restaurant Yung Kee feels the heat
Two veterans of renowned Hong Kong goose restaurant tells how days of ongoing uncertainty about its future has played on their emotions
While the city eagerly awaited the fate of Yung Kee Restaurant on Tuesday evening, staff members at the 70-year-old business – internationally renowned for its roast goose – served customers with a heavy heart.
“If you have been here for this long and were put in the same shoes, you too would be left with an aching heart,” said Peter Sham Wah, a sales manager at the restaurant for 48 years.
Chef Fung Ho-tong, who has been Sham’s colleague for 40 years, interrupted: “Especially from 4pm to 6pm.”
Sham recalled seeing a lot of reporters at the door on Tuesday, when his bosses took to the Court of Final Appeal to try to delay the restaurant’s demise. “But we weren’t able to find out the result immediately,” he said as recounted the anxious moments.
Yesterday was the deadline for Yvonne Kam Kiu-yan and Carrel Kam Lin-wang – children of Ronald Kam Kwan-lai, whose father Kam Shui-fai founded Yung Kee – to reach a deal with Ronald’s deceased brother Kinsen Kam and his widow Leung Sui-kwan.
The Court of Final Appeal gave the parties until the end of yesterday to reach a deal – or the restaurant would face winding up.
In a last-ditch effort, Yvonne and Carrel turned up at the top court hours before the deadline to ask for an extension. Their request was rejected by Chief Justice Geoffrey Ma Tao-li.