Every cooked food product at the PARKnSHOP mega supermarket chain, hot or cold, is tested and approved by Charmaine Cheung
Before entering the kitchen, Charmaine Cheung was writing tenders for great architectural feats, including the Tsing Ma Bridge, Aberdeen Tunnel, and public hospitals. No spatulas were wielded in her office, but pens to paper signing deals.
With a degree in political science from a top California university, her burgeoning career in engineering, and potential transition into government affairs, closed. The Los Angeles-native Hong Konger “decided to drop everything and become a chef, because I wanted to try it and I loved food”.
“I began working at Imasa in The Peninsula,” Charmaine shares with Foodie. Japanese food excited her as a novice chef, “I found art in their hygiene, system, and flavours.”
Her stint as the Japanese restaurant’s only female chef was interrupted by a tally of other kitchen positions in a whirlwind global tour. First came a role at the Hong Kong Jockey Club as a guest chef for Norway promoting Norwegian salmon across Europe and Asia, followed by 14 years at City’super as their executive chef preparing cooked food recipes for their three kitchens in Hong Kong, Taipei, and Shanghai, travelling the world, and retiring in Los Angeles.
Charmaine’s post-employment solitude was short-lived. “I got this wonderful call from a managing director of PARKnSHOP asking me ‘Hey Charmaine, are you interested in doing this whole thing all over again with 200-plus shops?” – this whole thing referring to bringing her culinary past to transform the brand’s retail network.
“I will be back in 72 hours, I replied. That was almost two years ago!” She returned to Hong Kong for her bread and butter, leading a supermarket chain’s cooked and fresh food programme, covering all 236 stores in the Hong Kong company.
Why does PARKnSHOP, Hong Kong’s second largest supermarket chain, with brands Taste, Fusion, Great Food Hall, International, and Food Parc, need an executive chef? The answer is likely to involve your everyday life.
Across PARKnSHOP’s six brands, many of the hot and cold cooked food items passing through the stores pass under Charmaine’s judgement, be that stir-fried noodles at PARKnSHOP, Korean bulgogi rice bowls at Great, or elevated this-this rice at Food Parc.
A programme relatively new to Hong Kong with the introduction of organic food-focussed International in 2006, the supermarket group today stocks aisles or stand-alone sections with a range of food types and cuisine, including Korean bowls, Cantonese roasted meats, Japanese sushi, steak, sandwiches, French bistro, and burgers. Charmaine has led this push in the past two years to constantly innovate on how Hong Kongers ‘dine’ at PARKnSHOP.
“My job is to learn what our customers want, speak to them, and be their friends, introducing flavours and products they will love. At our 230-plus stores, we need to find a balance introducing new recipes for the mass market,” supermarkets operating in middle-income residential neighbourhoods, “and for a premium tier of customers,” located in areas with more foreign residents.
“We have to cover what every customer wants across every single [18] district[s]. You must learn your customers’ behaviours and produce products that are for them.”
Soy-braised goose and Hainan-style chicken sold at a PARKnSHOP in a Sha Tin shopping centre may suit customers with a greater preference to Cantonese food, for instance, whilst quiches and Mediterranean fresh salads align with the needs of office workers popping into Great Food Hall at Pacific Place for a lunch pick-me-up.
“Cooked food [served in supermarkets] has become a larger trend after the pandemic with younger families and generations spending more time at work and less time to cook,” Charmaine finds.
At Great Food Hall, introduced to the Admiralty mall in 2000, Charmaine’s recipe-crafting role is most evident with the supermarket’s expanse of food counters serving hot and fresh meals spanning the globe.
“From Vietnamese, Chinese, Indian, and Japanese to salad bars, sandwiches, and hot roasts, we sell it all at [Great Food Hall]! Keeping up every day with the working crowd in Admiralty and residents around the area is not easy. As the seasons and tastes change, we talk to our customers to keep things fresh with what we can offer them.”
The supermarket location boasts over 12,000 delicacies to devour from all seven continents. The sandwiches, noodle dishes, cakes and pastries, pizza, and sushi served in-store, all developed or refined under Charmaine’s leadership and her team.
PARKnSHOP’s cooked food programme earned an upgrade last year with the launch of Food Parc in Wan Chai, a 20,000 square-foot supermarket and food hall inside the Hopewell Hotel Mall complete with six food counters and their new Cook & Buy initiative.
“With Buy & Cook, customers can shop in-store for ingredients and share with us to cook them the meal, free of charge.” The cooking service is available every day when customers purchase a minimum of HKD120 of groceries.
Charmaine is regularly joined by leading chefs such as chef Olivier Elzer of Clarence and David Lai of Neighborhood to host live cooking workshops with social enterprise r é n and disadvantaged youths.
Also located inside the supermarket is the TREAT VIP Lounge, a Hong Kong first, welcoming customers to enjoy wines and spirits sold at Food Parc and bookings for private parties to enjoy a customised menu using premium ingredients crafted by Charmaine and her team.
“We are bringing PARKnSHOP up a tier,” Charmaine says.
Take a trip down to your local PARKnSHOP supermarket for a taste of Charmaine Cheung’s cooking.
