I moved to China to kiss my roots; It helped launch my career

This also filed test is based on a conversation with Andrew Moo, 33, co -founder of Taste Collective – a creative agency – and co -owner of two restaurants in Shanghai. The following has been modified for duration and clarity.

I grew up in Perth as a fourth generationalian. Any link with my Chinese heritage has been feeling for a long time.

My great-grandfather arrived on the north coast by boat from the Guangdong in 1889, chasing the immigrant dream. Quick advance of a few generations and assimilation had done its job.

As my parents raised me, we did not speak Chinese, we do not eat cantonaise food at home or we are celebrating any Cultural traditions.

However, there was a throbbing curiosity in me. I looked around and I noticed that so many of my friends, especially those of the second generation Asian history, kissed their inheritance.

A friend invited me to meet his extended family in Malaysia. Another returned to Bangkok to study the Thai, and a third returned to Singapore to complete its national service.

Thus, at the age of 21, after graduating in 2012 with a diploma in marketing, management and entrepreneurship, I decided to pack my bags and Move to China. The original plan was for a sabbatical year to probe my genealogy.

Rediscovery my roots

Arrive in Guangzhou 13 years ago, I felt like I got on another planet. Like all my extended family in the last three generations, I have never been to continental China, and I did not say a word of Chinese. I didn’t even know where Guangzhou was on a map.

The unknown sites, sounds and smells in the port city, about 75 miles northwest of Hong Kong, overwhelmed me, but I remember thinking: “It’s electric.”

It was intoxicating and I wanted in it.

I lived in a corporate dormitory and worked as an intern for a hotel management company. I experienced a total culture shock, but I prospered in chaos. I made friends and quickly learned how Chinese life works. In six months, I found myself bolling the words of a Chinese love ride during a corporate gala, one of the two foreigners in front of 2,000 colleagues.

Like the words I sang, I came across the heels for the energetic rhythm of Life in China; Despite its heights and traps, I was addicted.

I followed my appetite

After Move to Beijing The following year, when I continued to live until 2017, I started to organize dinners and I experienced diasporical Chinese flavors. My passion for food started in my teenagers in Australia and continued to grow in China.

Apart from my digital marketing work, I spent my free time to volunteer at catering festivals and I even launched my own brand of pop-up sandwich.

My turning point came in 2015, when a common friend sent me a job by posting in a restaurant incubator. I continued to join as a marketing manager – a dream role that combined my academic experience with my passion for food.

I spent two years helping international food brands Chinese marketTest concepts and develop culinary ideas. It was also there that I met Clara Davis, who would later become my co -founder at Taste Collective – a creation agency that worked with brands like impossible Foods, Carlsberg and Starbucks.

But my entrepreneurial aspirations led me to an ultimate goal: to open my own restaurant.

Make a career from a dream

My goal started to take shape during a 100 -kilometer bike ride. I was with two friends – Dan Li and Mike Liu, who both had experience in F&B. We talked how rare it was to find good affordable pasta in Shanghai. At the time, it was super expensive or too cooked.

We spent six months to make hand pasta every day, and in 2020, we launched the three Yaya, a bar of neighborhood pasta that mixes regional Chinese flavors With traditional Italian dishes.

None of us is Italian – which was perfectly well, because the plan was never to serve traditional Italian dishes. Our antipasti menu includes items like smoked green olives with bamboo shoots, as well as a roasted eggplant dip in oil with Sichuan pepper.

We have also become creative with pasta. Our lamb ragu is prepared with Xinjiang spices and served on the handmade pappardelle, and we make the spaghetti carbonara sauce with salted egg yolk.

Since then, I opened Goodman – a Hamburger Smash joint in Shanghai. The two companies were carried out and confirmed that I chose the right path.

THE financial side of the opening of a restaurant can be intimidating. The rent in Shanghai is more expensive than the other cities of China. Li, Liu and I invested our own money – we believed in our vision.

Our first step was to find local partners – including suppliers and third -party service providers – in whom we trust, knowing that relationships count more than anything.

In China, everything takes place on relationships, and the most precious are with people who keep your operation to run day by day.

Feel more Chinese

I also passed my Time in China Reconnect with my roots. I traced my ancestry in a small village in Guangdong called Taishan, where my great-grandfather lived. I hope to visit soon.

After spending more than a decade in China, I feel like I became more Chinese – or at least more linked to my Chinese heritage, while kissing my Australian identity. I built a career that mixes my interests and gave me the possibility of creating something significant.

I also want to inspire others to explore their roots. My younger brother followed my example Move to Shanghai and forge your own path.

I never thought I would be here so long, but I’m here.