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Meet Cantopop As a perennial part of Hong Kong culinary culture, why is the Chinese tea café – ‘cha chan tang’ – always so dirty when it comes to environment and the food? This is the question that Margaret Xu Yuan grew up pondering. Born and bred in Hong Kong, Margaret established a brilliant career as an award-winning creative director/designer. But she ended up doing a lot on recipe development and food styling. Combine this honed experience with her personal passion for cooking and growing produce in her home garden – Margaret’s one-table private kitchen in a Yuen Long village materialized. Here, she made a name for herself successfully experimenting with traditional village cooking culture and reviving lost age-old cuisine. All this time, Todd Darling had a similar vision of tasty eating and quality ingredients. A native New Yorker, Todd was Margaret’s neighbor and perhaps it was this similar vision that drew him to the opening party for her deli/takeaway in Sheung Wan called “Cuisine X” – uninvited. A party crasher who was also her biggest fan, Todd was so insistent on having Margaret’s takeaway, he bought the food on real china plates and returned the dishes washed. What a first meeting – and first impression! When Margaret’s private kitchen really started taking off in 2008 and attracted loyal foodies (including Todd), she took on the preservation building in Wanchai and opened Kitchen Yin Yang. She simultaneously partnered with certified organic farms in the New Territories to promote her vision of putting a fresher, organic Hong Kong cuisine on the international scene. Her mandate – organic, MSG-free and DIY everything. |
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Around this time, Todd’s and his childhood friend Rob’s brewing idea of a restaurant that uses locally-sourced, organic ingredients to re-create mouthwatering New York-Italian recipes led to the opening of Posto Pubblico – Hong Kong’s first osteria concept. With Todd’s experience in the hospitality industry and a shared vision for clean and tasty eating, Margaret and Todd finally joined forces. They decided to infiltrate casual dining with their culinary mandate and what better than a cha chan tang to start? Cantopop is a true representation of this eating culture – a complete fusion of menu items and ambience loved by generations that has manifested into a flavorsome facet of contemporary Hong Kong living. The twist – locally-sourced, low-carbon, hormone-free meat and poultry, and organic vegetables. Homemade and MSG-free. Gone are the days of dining on cha chan tang ‘junk food’. Hello Cantopop. ABOUT IHM IHM was founded in 2009 by Todd Darling and Robert Spina, childhood friends from New York City since the age of 5. In November of the same year, the duo brought the infinitely popular Posto Pubblico to Hong Kong. As the group's first F&B outlet, Posto Pubblico was created on an ideal that all ingredients should be sourced with integrity, and whenever possible, locally. It is with these values that IHM was founded and continues to operate on. Homegrown Foods – another IHM initiative – brings clean, all-natural produce from local farms to Hong Kong’s tables and will be the exclusive supplier of produce to Cantopop. |
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