Former Hong Kong legislator Tanya Chan (陳淑莊), who has been living in Taiwan for three years, has become the head chef of a new Taipei restaurant, following her suspended sentence in 2019 for her role in the 2014 Umbrella movement.
On Friday night, Chan wrote in English and Chinese on the Facebook account of the soon-to-open restaurant Red Cotton (紅棉) about her experience living in Taiwan and what motivated her to become a chef.
As a lawmaker in Hong Kong, she said she lacked the time to cook for herself, and often ate at the home of her friend, Danny Yip (葉一南), who owns the Michelin-starred restaurant The Chairman.
Photo: Screen grab from Red Cotton’s Facebook page
“Perhaps I was so well fed that after moving to Taiwan, alone, what I missed most was the flavors of Hong Kong,” she wrote.
One day while talking on the phone with Yip’s wife, who she identified only as “Mrs Yip,” she told her how much she missed their food, Chan said.
Mrs Yip told her it was time for her to cook for herself, saying that “as long as you are passionate and devoted to food, and willing to work hard, anyone can be a chef,” she said.
After three years of hard work and with her “fingers covered in cuts,” she became the head chef of Red Cotton, she said.
The restaurant in Taipei’s Songshan District (松山) would begin accepting reservations on Oct. 14 for dates after Nov. 14, the post said.
The restaurant has gained more than 12,000 followers on Facebook, and her post has more than 13,000 likes.
Chan was a legislator in Hong Kong from 2008 to 2012 and again from 2016 to 2020. She was also a founding member of the territory’s Civic Party.
She was arrested and later put on trial for inciting a “public nuisance” during the 2014 pro-democracy protests, becoming one of a group of defendants known as the “Occupy Nine.”
After undergoing treatment for a brain tumor, Chan in June 2019 received an eight-month sentence, which was suspended for two years.
She announced her withdrawal from politics in 2020. In 2021, media outlets reported that she had moved to Taiwan.
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