Harlan G - The Man Behind The Success

Entrepreneur and ‘chef to the rich and famous’ Harlan Goldstein is one of Hong Kong’s most famous culinary celebrities. Having opened a string of successful restaurants with a larger than life attitude that springs from his roots in New York’s tough Lower East Side, Harlan has become a Hong Kong personality as well as a chef.

His fascination for cooking came from working after school in his uncle’s restaurant, and his career began with a training placement in a Florida kitchen at the tender age of 14. A formal apprenticeship followed at the prestigious Montreaux Palace Hotel in Switzerland, where he “learned French very fast” among a brigade of 80 French- speaking chefs.

Following stints in Lyon and Milan, he returned to the United States at the age of just 22 and was appointed to run a gourmet restaurant at the Hilton New Orleans. The restaurant subsequently collected a number of awards.

Harlan next studied under Michelin 3-star chef Jean Banchet at the renowned La Francaise in Chicago, before heading the fine dining restaurant at the Palace Hotel in Orlando, Florida. An appointment as executive sous chef at the Hyatt Regency in Hawaii followed, heading nine outlets with a brigade of 185, catering for banquets of up to 5,000 diners.

His first appointment as executive chef, at the remarkably young age of 28, was at Shangri-La’s China World Hotel in Beijing, where he managed 21 outlets and a team of 290. After two years he transferred with Shangri-La to Bangkok to study Thai cuisine.

He landed in Hong Kong when Shangri-La’s tycoon owner Robert Kuok gave him carte blanche to create a fine dining restaurant in one of the city’s most elite private clubs -- the Aberdeen Marina Club.

Over the next nine years he established the club’s reputation – and his own personal brand as a rising ‘celebrity chef’ -- with a clientele of tycoons and some of the most prominent entrepreneurs in Hong Kong and Asia. Within five years the club named its signature restaurant after Harlan, as a result of his popularity. The brand of Harlan’s was born.

His long-term dream was to open his own restaurant and his visionary and entrepreneurial resolve was tested during the SARS outbreak in 2004, when he took the plunge to open Harlan’s at IFC, in the heart of Central. Harlan's gained rapid renown among the city's influential and prominent business people and famous faces.

He next opened Tuscany by H in the heart of Lan Kwai Fong, serving traditional Italian cuisine in a Tuscan farmhouse setting. Harlan subsequently opened the exclusive private dining room Private H in a discreet location in Lan Kwai Fong. With seating for a maximum of just 14, it is not open to the general public and has a clientele of A-list invitees only.

In 2005 he also self-published 'Harlan's Undressed Dinner Collection', a photographic cookbook with over 30 of his sexiest recipes.

In 2006-2007 he embarked on his largest-ever project, creating the “ultimate dining experience” with a chic new three-venue concept on the podium of IFC2. The stellar 11,000 square foot venue features H one, an Italian-Mediterranean restaurant with grill and one of Hong Kong’s finest wine cellars; New York-style lounge bar ‘G Bar’; and The Box, featuring daily lunchtime buffets and available for private parties and corporate events.

In 2008, Harlan sold the IFC concept, including Harlan’s, and he focused his attention on Tuscany by H and Private H. He has also established a food & beverage consultancy, Concepts by H.

Summing-up his entrepreneurial flair, Harlan says:

“I don’t have an MBA but I’m street smart and employ good people.”