Alan Yau


Alan Yau, OBE is a British restaurateur who founded the Wagamama chain in the United Kingdom. Of Hakka ethnicity, he was born in Sha Tau Kok, Ex-British Colony, Hong Kong and moved to King's Lynn, Norfolk in 1975 with his family.
Alan Yau started his career in 1992 founding Wagamama and was awarded an OBE in the 2006 New Year Honour's List for services to the restaurant industry. Following that, Alan founded numerous ventures in gastronomy such as Hakkasan, Yauatcha and Park Chinois. In 2016 Alan pivoted into the software world and founded Softchow, a taste aggregation platform.
In April 2019, The Asian Awards honoured Alan for his culinary work with the "Outstanding Achievement in the Arts" award.

Career highlights

Wagamama

Founded in 1992 by Yau, Wagamama is a ramen bar with nearly 200 locations globally as of early 2019. Yau exited Wagamama in 1997.

Busaba Eathai

Founded in 1999, Busaba Eathai is a casual dining Thai restaurant chain. Yau exited Busaba Eathai in 2008.

Hakkasan

Founded in 1999, Hakkasan was initially a fine dining Chinese restaurant which later expanded to include nightlife entertainment. Hakkasan was awarded a Michelin Star in 2003 and Yau exited Hakkasan in 2008.Hakkasan is valued at $1 bn as of 2018.

Yauatcha

Founded in 2004 by Yau, Yauatcha is dim sum restaurant and patisserie tea house chain. Yauatcha was awarded Michelin Star in 2005. Yau exited Yauatcha in 2008.

Princi UK

In collaboration with Rocco Princi, Yau founded Princi in 2008; an Italian Bakery in Soho. He sold his shares to Starbucks in 2016.

Babaji

Founded in 2014 by Yau, Babaji was a Turkish Pide concept.

Duck and Rice

Founded in 2015 by Yau, Duck and Rice is Chinese pub with comfort food in Soho, London.

Park Chinois

Founded in 2015, Park Chinois is a Chinese old school entertainment restaurant.

Softchow

Softchow was founded in 2017 by Yau as a "taste aggregation platform".