A love letter to every girl who thinks it’s “too late” to become a chef (or anything else) You’ve probably heard the voice before. “It’s too late.” “You’re a girl – kitchens are brutal.” “You have a stable job, why throw it away?” That voice is loud. It’s persuasive. And it’s almost always wrong. This is the story of a woman who heard every single one of those sentences… and still became Asia’s Best Female Chef, earned two Michelin stars, and built an empire out of tofu. Her name is Vicky Lau. She held a professional chef’s knife for the first time at 28. Twenty-eight. If she could do it, so can you.

The Life She Was Supposed to Have

Vicky grew up the way many Hong Kong girls do: Diocesan Girls’ School, top grades, sent to boarding school in America at 15, then NYU for graphic design. After graduation she landed in Manhattan advertising – the kind of job that makes aunties brag at yum cha. Good salary, nice title, bright future. But every night on the subway home she felt something was missing. She was brilliant at selling other people’s stories. She just wasn’t living her own.

The Night She Chose the Knife

One ordinary evening in 2011 she cooked for friends. Nothing fancy – just sea bass, some herbs, a pretty plate. Their eyes lit up. In that moment she felt a jolt stronger than any campaign approval she’d ever received. Food could tell stories with flavour, texture, memory. Three months later she quit advertising, flew to Bangkok, and signed up for what was supposed to be a three-month hobby course at Le Cordon Bleu. She stayed the full nine months because the kitchen gave her adrenaline like nothing else ever had.

The 100 Rejections

Back in Hong Kong at 28, armed with a diploma and zero professional experience, she started applying for jobs. One hundred CVs. Ninety-nine nos (or silence). The single yes came with the sentence: “We have an opening… for a dishwasher.” She took it. For the next year she peeled onions until her eyes burned, seared her forearms on hot pans, and listened to male cooks joke that women “can’t handle the heat or the hours.” She smiled, kept quiet, and learned twice as fast as everyone else.

The Restaurant Everyone Bet Would Fail

In 2015, age 30, with her savings and a terrifying bank loan, she opened TATE Dining Room in Sheung Wan – French technique married to Chinese soul. The industry reaction was brutal: “A woman? No big-name kitchen on her CV? It’ll close in six months.” The first year she lost money every single month. She rewrote the menu seventeen times. She cried in the walk-in fridge more times than she can count. Then the Michelin guide knocked. One star on the very first visit. Suddenly the people who laughed were begging for a table.

The Award That Made Her Cry Backstage

Later that same year she was flown to Singapore and crowned Asia’s Best Female Chef 2015. She walked onstage in borrowed heels, smiled for a thousand cameras, and gave a perfect speech. Ten minutes later she was hiding behind the curtain sobbing – not from happiness, but from disbelief. “If they only knew I started when everyone said I was already too old…”

When the World Shut Down, She Reinvented

Pandemic. Restaurants bleeding cash. While others closed or cut staff, Vicky used the silence to experiment. She created single-ingredient tasting menus: egg, tea, rice… then tofu. The tofu menu exploded. Diners went mad for her soy-milk “ricotta”, her fermented-tofu butter, her silky yuba. 2023 → she opened Mora, a next-generation tofu restaurant. 2025 → she launched Ān, her own organic soy lifestyle brand: five-flavour ultra-thick soy milk, DIY tofu kits, soy-wax candles, hand-made soap. A 2,000-year-old peasant ingredient, turned into high-end desire by a woman who wasn’t supposed to succeed.

The Five Truths She Wants Every Girl to Tattoo on Her Heart

“I was 28 when I started, 35 when I got my first star. Your timeline is fake.” “Ten years ago female head chefs were unicorns. Today we’re everywhere. The kitchen is changing – come help us finish the job.” “I never staged at famous three-star restaurants on purpose. Working for big names can teach discipline, but it can also erase your voice. Guard yours from day one.” “I survive 16-hour shifts because I train Wing Chun and Thai boxing every morning and meditate every night. Find the thing that keeps you sane – it’s not optional.” “Talent gets attention. Passion gives you adrenaline. And adrenaline beats talent when talent quits at the first burn.”

To the Girl Reading This at 2 A.M. in 2025

Vicky is 43 now. She has a five-year-old daughter who eats instant ramen with her on days off, two Michelin stars that still need defending every single service, and zero regrets. She ends almost every interview with the same sentence: “Find the spark that sets your soul on fire, then run toward it with everything you have. You will arrive.”

You don’t have to wait until you’re 28. You can be the girl who starts at 18, 22, 25 – whatever age you are right now. Book one cooking class. Walk into the nearest restaurant and ask if they need a weekend prep cook. Buy a cheap knife and practise brunoise until your fingers ache. The woman who began ten years “late” already proved the clock is lying to you. Now go prove it to yourself.