This year’s “Mid-Autumn” celebrations in Hong Kong, a time for lanterns and eating a lot, will bring scant relief to the city’s overheating residents.
As the Occupy Central pro-democracy movement wait for an opportunity to disrupt Hong Kong’s business district, daily temperatures in September remain above 30 degrees. The playbook for outdoor protests would surely suggest waiting for cooler months ahead.
But there may be little respite indoors, as September coincides with Gordon Ramsey opening up his first restaurant in Hong Kong. The arrival of the famously hot-tempered British chef is likely to turn up the heat in an already crowded restaurant scene.
What is truly remarkable about Mr Ramsey opening up a Hong Kong branch of his Bread Street Kitchen—a vast banker-friendly outlet in St Paul’s, London—is that it represents his first foray into China (and Asia-ex Japan).
To date, most of his energy has been spent on conquering America. His restaurants appear on both coasts; his face appears at L.A. sports events and lawn parties, alongside fellow Brit export, David Beckham; and his US TV show begins its 13th season in the middle of September, after being named checked in Hollywood’s summer foodie film, Chef.
Different tastes
This is in contrast to his former protégé, Jason Atherton. After leaving the Ramsey stable of superstar sous-chefs in 2010, in a dispute over money, Mr Atherton picked China for his first breakaway restaurant: Table No.1 in Shanghai overlooks the river, selling rice pudding to homesick ex-pats. A tapas outlet in Singapore soon followed.
The two chefs’ deviating approaches to empire building—Mr Ramsey betting on the largest economy in the West, Mr Atherton opting for the largest economy in the East—represents a typical dilemma for UK businesses looking to expand outside of Europe.
Between January 2003 and June 2014, UK firms invested US$23bn of capital directly into the US, according to data from FDI Intelligence, compared to US$15bn in China and Hong Kong combined.
Choosing the best direction to go in is often a matter or good timing—or bad. Mr Ramsey’s push in to the US in 2006 happened just before the onset of the financial crisis. Now that he is finally coming out to Asia, the momentum seems to be going the other way.
Appetite for China among UK businesses, measured by the number of outbound FDI projects, peaked in 2006. That year was also the last time that China and Hong Kong combined attracted more direct investment from UK businesses than the US.
Since then the trend has been gradually swinging back westward. In 2010, the US accounted for 67% of the total number of UK projects going to the US, China and HK. That figure has increased to 76% for the first half of this year.
Something’s off
Today’s Far East appears to be a far less enticing prospect to UK businessmen and women sitting at home, reading regular stories about China’s slowing growth, potential house prices bubble and discriminate corruption probes.
For Mr Ramsey, meanwhile, now may not be the time to get distracted. Better he start laying the table for when the US recovery properly takes off. Spending on eating out may be first extravagance to go during recessionary belt-tightening, but US consumer confidence in August was at a seven-year high.
The Scot is also late to the party. Mr Atherton is already established in HK, opening three restaurants in as many years. He added his latest in May: Aberdeen Street social is a Hong Kong version of his hedge-fund favourite Pollen Street Social, in Mayfair, London.
Local bookies may well favour the incumbent. Mr Atherton’s star is certainly rising, while Mr Ramsey is regrouping after a string of personal and professional knock backs. But the newcomer does not enter the cooking competition alone. In July, Jamie Oliver, another—more palatable—UK celebrity chef, opened up his first outlet in HK—a branch of his mid-market franchise, Jamie’s Italian.
All of this export activity is sure to please the UK’s Prime Minister. David Cameron is keen to see British businesses build on colonial ties. But this culinary invasion will be little more than comfort food for Hong Kong residents.
Constant debate about the 2017 election for chief executive has sparked some Empire nostalgia and half-hearted calls for a British return. The announcement of a UK parliamentary enquiry into China’s incendiary white paper on Hong Kong’s future offered the faintest hope of an improbable return. Ultimately, though, the people will be left wanting more.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Economist Intelligence Unit Limited (EIU) or any other member of The Economist Group. The Economist Group (including the EIU) cannot accept any responsibility or liability for reliance by any person on this article or any of the information, opinions or conclusions set out in the article.
