Lucky charm
With a career spanning several decades, Kylie Kwong is adept at starting afresh. As she signals a new chapter with the opening of her latest Sydney eatery, she speaks about the importance of purpose and passion but also remaining flexible and open to chan
Kylie Kwong speaks about the importance of purpose and passion but also remaining flexible and open to change.
Kylie Kwong has long nourished Sydneysiders. Be it with steamed dumplings from her Eveleigh market stall or saltbush cakes with chilli from Billy Kwong, the beloved restaurant she closed in 2019. For Kwong, one of the worst parts of the pandemic’s devastating impact on the hospitality industry has been the effect on the collaboration she fosters with her team and community.
However the chef, restauranteur, TV personality and Audi ambassador firmly believes nourishment goes beyond her delicious, life-affirming food. “Nourishment for me is all about connection. It nourishes me to nourish others,” says Kwong.
This is particularly so with Lucky Kwong, the community and produce-focused eatery Kwong opened in Sydney’s South Eveleigh just six weeks before the city was once again plunged into lockdown.
Yet starting anew is not something Kwong is afraid of. Nor is accepting change – a slippery constant in these still challenging times.
“If there is one thing that this pandemic is teaching us, it is the importance of understanding the notion of impermanence – that everything changes and nothing remains the same. The importance and understanding of the power in letting go – just because something worked well a certain way before doesn’t guarantee it will work to the same positive effect the next day,” she says.
“We have to remain flexible and open to change, change, change – so I guess in this way, I try [to] see every day as a new beginning.”
VOGUE AUSTRALIA: Renewal and change of direction is something you are familiar with. What is most satisfying and challenging about starting over?
KYLIE KWONG: “In 2018, after being a restaurateur for almost 20 years, I began to feel things shift. I felt an inner restlessness for some months and decided to make significant changes. Lucky Kwong is the name my wife, Nell, and I [gave] our angel baby son whom we sadly lost in 2012. Our grief counsellor said to us: ‘You never ever get over something like this, you simply learn to move through it.’ She reminded us that Lucky would always be an integral part of our being … and to find a space for him to be with us always. The experience with Lucky really drove this shift and major decision. I was determined not to waste one moment doing something I did not feel obsessed with anymore. What obsesses me now is Lucky Kwong. [It’s] a place in which I feel very close to [our baby] and in which I can express my maternal love, which is all about feeding and nurturing others. I wasn’t able to be a mother in the traditional sense, so I guess Lucky Kwong has provided me with a platform to express this maternal energy in the next best way I know how.
“I love being in the new space. It is the most beautiful, special, magical sun-lit room and for me, Lucky’s mother, I have now found a space in which to share his magical energy and message every single day.”
VA: Lucky Kwong is very much about community. How do you work with suppliers and particularly with Jiwah, the Indigenous landscape and design group growing and cultivating Indigenous plants?
KK: “When I first discovered Australian native edible plants in 2010, I wanted to learn more about their traditional uses and cultural significance, and the best teachers were First Nations people – this is when I met Clarence Slockee and Aunty Beryl Van-Oploo. I am delighted to be able to work and collaborate again with Clarence and Aunty Beryl at Lucky Kwong. Sitting on Gadigal country, South Eveleigh has a long and continuing connection with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community.
“[Now] I harvest native plants grown and produced by Clarence and his Jiwah crew from South Eveleigh’s community native rooftop garden, a 200-metre walk from Lucky Kwong’s doorstep, and integrate them into my Cantonese-style food, as I have done for the past 10 years. I’ve been an ambassador to the Wayside Chapel [the Kings Cross church that looks after those who need a place to go in the community] since 2015, and continue to use honey from my beehive up on Wayside Chapel’s organic rooftop garden. And I’m collaborating with quality food producers and chefs including Palisa Anderson of Boon Luck Farm and Josh Niland of Fish Butchery.
“I really believe that when we know the story and producer behind the food that we eat, our dining experience is enhanced and the food literally tastes better.”
VA: Vogue Codes celebrates women in technology, entrepreneurial ventures, business leaders. How do you interact with technology in your work?
KK: “I would not say I’m a natural when it comes to technology … those who know me well certainly would confirm that technology is not my strong point. But I have developed a newfound appreciation in recent years. Lucky Kwong is the first time I have done takeaway and therefore had to navigate technology via an online ordering platform. The concept of people ordering from QR codes at their table is a new dimension to dining in this Covid world I really had to get my head around. It’s been a big learning experience for me, because I usually operate from the emotional and creative part of my brain. Setting up LK, I definitely had to forge new neural pathways!
“Having human connection is key for me to counteract the impersonal side of technology and this is achieved because everyone is in my immediate view as I peer out from my front counter kitchen bench.”
Audi is a partner of Vogue Codes 2021. To revisit news and events from Vogue Codes 2021, go to vogue.com.au/vogue-codes.