Chris Kan remembers being at work in a restaurant in Australia when he received a phone call from his mother Mabel Kan a few years back.
Mabel and Chris’ aunt Eileen have been running Pearl Garden since their mother-in-law Pauline Kwan Suk Yan - the founder of the restaurant passed on - and they too were getting of age.
“They asked if I wanted to get involved with running Pearl Garden, and I said yes,” Chris said.
“Pearl Garden is so much a part of the Kan family I cannot imagine it being passed on to anyone else.”
Pearl Garden Restaurant opened in 1975 and it was one of a tiny number of Chinese restaurants in Auckland at the time.
Pearl Garden opened with just 30 sets of plates, bowls and cups and 30 sets of chopsticks.
The original restaurant, located on the ground floor to where the current one is, had just eight tables.
Chris described the restaurant as an extension of the family home - where family dinners are eaten and where he grew up playing with his cousins.
One special dish still connects him to his late grandmother Mama Kan: the Chun Chiew Chicken or FJ8 on the Pearl Garden menu.
To commemorate the business turning 50, Pearl Garden is offering a special dinner set menu featuring three classic, nostalgic dishes including the chun chiew chicken for $50.
The other two dishes on the set are crispy beef and vegetarian delight, and will be available from Monday 7 Oct to 31 Oct 2024.
“This dish is truly my grandmother’s answer to KFC, chicken thigh fillet with a crunchy exterior tossed in her secret recipe spices,” Chris said.
“I remember growing up with this dish, it’s a family staple that is so well loved by so many of my friends too.”
Just like it was 50 years ago when kale was nearly impossible to find in New Zealand, the Chun Chiew Chicken is served on a bed of crispy roasted bok choi leaves.
Chris’ late grandmother, affectionately known as Mama Kan, is believed to be one of the pioneers of the yum cha dining-style and authentic Cantonese dining in Auckland.
Mama Kan’s aim was to introduce higher quality Chinese cuisine after migrating here from Hong Kong with her husband Kan Za Ming.
Mabel said what you’d find on menus at the few Auckland Chinese at the time were mainly chop suey and chow mein, where mostly cabbage and cauliflower were used as ingredients instead of Chinese vegetables.
Pauline and Za Ming first came to New Zealand in 1974 to attend their son Peter’s wedding, they fell in love with Auckland and decided to stay.
Being a chef, cookery teacher who had her own television cooking show in Hong Kong, and a cookbook author, Pauline felt she could level up Chinese dining here.
Connecting with Chinese market gardeners and managed to get supplies of bok choy, water chestnuts and bamboo shoots, and introduced dishes like the yam basket and deep fried ice cream.
Pauline introduced yum cha - literally translated as “drinking tea” in Cantonese - but is truly a brunch style of southern China and Hong Kong of eating small servings of a variety of dishes that are shared.
“It was a challenge to get Kiwis used to this new concept of Chinese dining or even to the idea that the dishes are meant for sharing,” Mabel said.
Today Mabel’s son Chris manages the restaurant operations. He said their main customer base were New Zealand Chinese, but today they make up just 20%.
About 40% were now recent immigrants and the other 40% were non-Chinese New Zealanders and international visitors.
In the Pearl Garden kitchen today are two chefs who specialise in Cantonese dishes and five yum cha chefs, all hailing from the southern China province of Guangzhou.
Eileen Kan, another daughter-in-law to Pauline, who had been involved with Pearl Garden since its opening, said it’s hard to imagine how much had changed in the last 50 years.
Pearl Garden has hosted weddings, birthdays, and christening parties and Eileen said many customers had become lifelong friends.
“We have customers who have been coming here since the 70s, and then their children and now their grandchildren are dining here.”
Pearl Garden Restaurant is at level 1, 1 Teed St, Newmarket.
This article is brought to you in partnership with Pearl Garden.
