Upper Palace Teochew is Yip's fourth restaurant in the Klang Valley and the first in a shopping mall (Photo: SooPhye)
Time has dulled the cutting remarks Datuk Henry Yip Choong Hung endured when he first stepped into a restaurant kitchen decades ago. Recounting them makes him laugh because the nicks have healed. What stays are lessons ingrained in him, from when he was with Sime Darby.
“We were very scared of Datuk Syed Tamim [Ansari Syed Mohamed, then division director of Sime Darby Plantation]. So we prepared our work and knew what to talk about at meetings. If we didn’t, we would be scolded.
“He used to say, ‘Henry, you want to do something, do it properly. If not, I will ask another staff to take over your job tomorrow’. He was strict and disciplined, but he trained us well.”
So well that Yip, then a senior IT executive at the group’s hospitality and leisure section, began to develop an interest in F&B. Little did he know it would lead him to found Upper Palace Dining Group, which opened its latest venture, Upper Palace Teochew at The Exchange TRX, on Sept 1.
Syed Tamim emphasised accountability by pointing to the Kuala Lumpur Golf & Country Club’s (KLGCC) kitchen floor and wall — they were water- and dust-free. “Everything must have somebody who is accountable for it, he told us. From there, we cultivated ownership and responsibility.” KLGCC is owned and managed by Sime Darby Property.
“He always talked about facts and figures. Even the cutter who purchased the meat and oil was expected to have the numbers at his fingertips. He had to know their cost per kilo and how many kilos we used because he was in charge of costing.
“One night, Syed Tamim went to the club after everyone had left and took photos of the dustbin — it had not been emptied! The following morning, he gathered all the managers and told them, ‘The next time I see this, F&B manager, please give me your resignation letter’.
“He was that kind of person and we have become good friends. I see him as my guru and ask his opinion about a lot of things. When I resigned, he asked, ‘Enough scolding already from me?’”
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Yip joined Sime Darby in 1990 and left 12 years later because he had some money, met potential partners and started Dragon-i in 2004. “The first year, business was very good. Then, the chef gave me problems.
“I couldn’t ask Datuk Douglas Cheng (one of the partners) to cook, so I had to come out of Sime Darby and fully focus on Dragon-i. Two years later, we opened Canton-i. After that, there was no turning back.”
An earlier investment in a bakery had taught him that, in business, “one needs to be on the ground to see and check. It didn’t succeed because, like many others, I was never involved in it. I just put in some money and hoped it would generate more”.
Quitting IT for food was not a major switch for Yip because KLGCC had Chinese and Japanese restaurants. And he had helped set up the computer system for the golf club and points of sales and picked up management pointers from Syed Tamim.
Holding up his guru’s exacting standards, Yip aims to raise the bar as group F&B director. Upper Palace Teochew is his fourth restaurant in the Klang Valley and the first in a shopping mall. “Most Chinese places serve Cantonese food. I wanted to do something different by introducing Teochew cuisine to Malaysians.”
Upper Palace Bukit Jalil, Golden Sun in Kuchai Lama and Gold Hill at Bandar Menjalara, Kepong, offer mainly Cantonese fare. The brand has another four outlets in Sabah.
Yip has a mentor in Tan Sri David Cheng Joo Teik, Douglas’ father. Both are co-founders of the Upper Palace Dining Group, as are Datuk Allan Lim and his son Lester.
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“Tan Sri David taught me the most important thing about serving food: It must be hot, it must look good and be arranged properly. When you make sure of this, especially in a high-standard restaurant, it takes care of 50% of things. The other 50% comes from the taste of your dishes and the freshness of your raw materials.
“He shares his experiences in managing people and service, and always reminds me to work hard to go up. ‘You will encounter failure but that’s okay because you learn from your mistakes.’ He sent somebody to train us and make sure we knew how to take care of customers.
“Years ago, he brought me to Las Vegas; that opened my eyes. They have a lot of Michelin restaurants, so we just ate. I learnt about good food and what a proper restaurant looks like.”
Yip gathered experience and expertise and tipped them into the wok with stock, ingredients and seasoning. Fuelling the mix with a passion for food, he founded Upper Palace Dining Group in 2022, after leaving the Dragon-i chain in 2020.
He makes it a point to serve tables at Upper Palace Teochew, leveraging the chance to get instant and direct feedback from clients. “Parents who bring their children here tell them, ‘This is the Teochew food we ate last time’. Young people come in with their elders and the family is happy. It’s good for bonding. When I see them enjoying the food, I feel very satisfied.”
Clients may not know who he is; that is fine. What matters is many have scant knowledge of the dishes on the menu and Yip seizes the opportunity to share what he knows, starting with the fact that Teochew or Chaozhou cuisine originated from the Chaoshan region in China’s Guangdong province. It is high-end because it uses fresh seafood and quality ingredients such as fish maw, sea cucumber, bird’s nest, shark’s fin, scallops and flower crab.
“Although I’m Cantonese, I know the taste of this food,” he adds. “We expect to see businessmen bringing their clients here because Teochew food is considered ‘a class above’. In Hong Kong, if you take someone for such [a meal], it shows you are treating them very well.”
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Upper Palace Teochew can seat 168 guests across 9,988 sq ft of space, with seven rooms designed to host private events. It collaborates with Michelin-starred Hung’s Delicacies of Hong Kong to offer authentic Teochew delicacies, among them braised goose or cuttlefish fillets, South America Yellow Fish Maw, “Da Lang”-style Chilled Flower Crab, and “Sheng Yan” Signature Soy Sauce-marinated Raw Mantis Shrimp. For dessert, Lek Tau Suan soup (green bean and water chestnut) and steamed Teochew mashed taro topped with ginkgo and pumpkin are popular.
Group executive chef Lee Wing Yip from Hong Kong, armed with 30 years of culinary experience, leads the team, curating and perfecting each dish to give guests a memorable dining encounter.
“Our Teochew menu has been modernised to include Western cooking methods and plating. We follow the Hong Kong style but use a lot of sauces, flour and raw ingredients imported from Chaozhou. New dishes are added to the menu every season and this month, we are serving hairy crab,” Yip says.
He is “still learning” and mindful of complaints about staff getting orders wrong or keeping customers waiting. “We need to polish, polish, polish our operations. I’m happy to do that because I aim for perfection.”
Taste may be subjective but it is not difficult to please diners, he says. “If they don’t come to eat, that’s hard. I’m optimistic because I believe God has arranged everything for me. When sales are very good, I thank Him. If they are bad, I pray: ‘God, you want me to do things the hard way so I can learn. I understand.’
“In this industry, there are people who trust you, so ownership and responsibility are very important. I share that with my staff: All our operations must be clearly defined. I also hope one day, when we do well, they can become shareholders and be famous. And then our restaurant will continue to perform well.”
With Upper Palace Teochew, Yip hopes to “build up a very good restaurant so I can pass down Teochew culture through food”. He has support: Recently, he was invited to be vice-president of the Teochew Culinary Research Institute in Chaozhou .
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The institute has offered training and skill guidance for his chefs, so as to preserve and promote the culinary standards and traditional flavours of Teochew cuisine here. “Through research and innovation, it can create dishes that incorporate local ingredients and dining culture, making them more appealing to Malaysians,” he hopes.
Food talk takes him back to his birthplace, Ipoh, where, as the second of four boys, he was expected to help with the housework, even cooking. “That’s how I developed my interest. My mum made very good kaya and winter melon dessert.”
Yip’s younger brother is the Peking duck chef at Upper Palace Teochew; he was trained at the pit by a Beijing master. His elder brother works in F&B in East Malaysia, but the youngest is not in the business.
The older of Yip’s two daughters is studying international hospitality management in Chur, Switzerland, and he sees the discipline has done her a lot of good. Adriana was back in KL recently after completing her internship in Zurich. Sister Angel is doing biomedical science locally.
“We were preparing to open Upper Palace Teochew and Adriana trained the staff,” says this proud parent. “She used to call home every week and complain about the manager at her school scolding her: ‘The next time you come late, you’re fired’. Punctuality and precision are very important to the Swiss.
“Last time, Adriana didn’t like to talk. Now she can, non-stop. To be in this business, you must know how to talk, have PR skills, to manage. She wakes up early, walks straight — the shoes, no sound! — washes her own clothes and cooks breakfast.”
He is happy but in no hurry to bring her into the fold when she graduates in two years. “Chinese restaurants are different — you need to be very hands on and it takes time to learn the ropes. I think I will let her work elsewhere first, to gain experience. It’s better that way.”
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In 2016, Yip, then CEO at Dragon-i Restaurant Group, was named Male Entrepreneur of the Year at SOBA (Star Outstanding Business Award). Asked about that, he says: “Basically, awards don’t mean a lot to me. I just hope customers enjoy my food, that’s more important.”
In 2020, he was appointed an advocate for livelihood with World Vision Malaysia, a role he is more excited to talk about because when people can support themselves, they can build a sustainable life, he thinks.
Come year-end, he will head for Chiang Mai in northern Thailand, where volunteers have been teaching the villagers some skills and giving them basic financial support. Doctors and hairstylists accompany the team to check on young and old, do acupuncture and trim their hair.
“Two years ago, we raised money in our restaurant to help them buy a piece of land in Udon Thani, one of the poorest Thai provinces, to build an education centre where the children can read, pick up books and musical instruments, and get involved in sports. Many youngsters turn to drugs because it is easily available,” he notes.
Photography and mountain-climbing, which Yip enjoys, take him away from steamy pots and pans to cool, fresh air and the outdoors.
“Last time, to become my outlet manager or chief cook, [candidates] had to follow me and climb. Why? Because we can share thoughts. It’s also part of team-building.”
He has been to Mount Kinabalu seven times and reached the peak on each expedition except once, only because it was raining heavily and hikers were stopped from going up.
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“Along the way, you can walk slowly, think and have peace of mind. Many of our staff eat a lot and have health issues; that’s why we take them climbing. We also tell them, if you can reach one of the highest mountains in Southeast Asia, why haven’t you completed your tasks properly or achieved your sales target?”
Yip has strong reasons for encouraging staff to push physical limits. “Running a restaurant is a heavy investment. We simply cannot give [the responsibility] to a person with no knowledge of healthy eating or who is not hungry.”
As for what happened if someone did make it to the top, “they went again the next year!”
Having scaled the business ladder the hard way, Yip wants to educate those keen on a career in F&B through knowledge-sharing. Plans are in the works to set up an academy next year where people can learn to build and run a kitchen, and tell the stories behind dishes, undergo training on service, be exposed to the difficulties specific to the sector, and organise collaborations to bring more good food to Malaysia.
“We will ask [experts] to come and teach. We want to connect resources, share raw materials and [bring] the latest food trends from China. They want to come here. China is big business and very competitive.”
If things go according to plan, he will open another restaurant at Merdeka 118 next year, targeted at the Malay market. It is part of his Aha! chain, which serves halal Korean BBQ and steamboat. “We will develop and continue to enhance our skill sets at this restaurant, which is slightly easier to duplicate and also caters more for Malaysians.”
Having his own restaurants means not having to scratch his head over where to entertain friends, says Yip, whose favourite dish is Peking duck. Upper Palace Teochew serves birds brought in from Ireland, specially bred for their high fat-to-meat ratio and porous skin, which is ideal for roasting.
But on days when he just wants something simple, a fish dish or Teochew porridge is his go-to choice. “Tio ciu moi cooked with oysters is nice too, but fish is the healthier option.”
This article first appeared on Oct 7, 2023 in The Edge Malaysia.
