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Truffle-infused dumplings? Pig-shaped buns? You won’t find them in the steamers at . This family-run dim sum manufacturer is . For over 40 years, the Ho family has rolled, filled and wrapped yum cha favourites for restaurants and households across Australia.
The story of Hong Kong Dim Sim Kitchen begins in 1956 with founder and dim sum master, Kok Ching Ho. He entered the profession at 14, working as a kitchen hand in a local yum cha restaurant in Hong Kong. His wages helped support his parents and 11 siblings – they'd fled Nam Hoi, China, in 1942, because of .
Kok honed his culinary skills over the next two decades working in yum cha restaurants across Hong Kong and as his expertise grew, so did his international reputation. Through word of mouth, he got offered the head chef position of yum cha at Nine Dragons Chinese Restaurant in Chinatown, Sydney.
Kok Ching Ho has been working as a chef for decades. Source: Hong Kong Dim Sim Kitchen
“Even though a lot of them had small dim sims or dumplings on their menu, they weren't very good at it, so my dad thought he could offer a service where he would just provide it to them,” says Jason Ho, who is Kok’s son and Hong Kong Dim Sim Kitchen’s head of sales.
This would not only relieve other chefs of the time-consuming and meticulous process required to make dumplings, but allow Kok to showcase his original recipes to the people of Australia.
Kok’s vision came to life in 1982 with the establishment of Hong Kong Kim Sim Kitchen in a hole-in-the-wall shop on George Street, Haymarket (near the current Capitol Theatre location in ).
“My dad was the factory so to speak... He made everything by hand during the day and steamed it using towers of jumbo-sized bamboo steamers,” Jason says. “Then deliveries were done at night to restaurants and takeaways, one by one.”
Hong Kong Dim Sim Kitchen began with Kok Ching Ho cooking his hand-made creations in jumbo-sized bamboo steamers. Source: Hong Kong Dim Sim Kitchen
They even had the honour of serving the yum cha breakfast in the athlete's village during the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games.
“That was a big jump up in terms of our production and it also helped to get our name out there, especially among the food-service market,” Jason says.
My dad was the factory so to speak... He made everything by hand during the day and steamed it using towers of jumbo-sized bamboo steamers.
Hong Kong Dim Sim Kitchen is now a household name in kitchens around Australia. It's been a supplier of handmade dim sum to restaurants for over 40 years and it's sold these same products to Coles and Woolworths supermarkets for the last 10.
From the pastry skin to the fillings and the dough, each component is made from scratch, like it was in the early days.
"Even though at the time Chinese cuisine was very still very young, my dad made it a point not to cook down to the level of expectation,” Jason says. “He wanted to maintain what he had learned in Hong Kong, so that the people in Sydney would get a taste of it. That's the philosophy that we carry today and is why a lot of our recipes are still the same.”
The family business prides itself on simple ingredients and generous fillings. All the meat and vegetables are sourced from Australian producers and cooked in-house: the barbecue pork, for instance, is roasted using a custom-built, open-flame furnace. This authenticity has a price as 20 per cent of the pork weight is lost in the cooking process, but Kok wouldn’t have it any other way.
The family behind Hong Kong Dim Sim Kitchen. Source: Hong Kong Dim Sim Kitchen
The legacy of Hong Kong Dim Sim Kitchen lives on under the helm of Kok’s four sons, Jeremy, Jason, Kerry and Kenny. Their 80-year-old father is still seen on the floor overseeing his recipes but can relax knowing his sons are working hard to maintain the integrity of the business.
