00:00Having the opportunity to provide for the community, for my customer, is why I still
00:05get up every day and do what I do.
00:06There's roadblocks, there'll be problems, there'll be noise, there'll be doubts, but
00:10you just got to remove all this and just push on and get to your goals.
00:30Hello everyone, this is Big Sam Young, and I'm the restaurant owner of Small Bistro in
00:35Castle Crag and Young Palace in Pots Point.
00:42My mum was a very good cook since I was very young, and she always cooks delicious food.
00:49My family's always have really good food on the table, and that's why I'm always a bit
00:54chubby because food is always a big event in our families.
00:58I really got into food when I was 13, when I left home.
01:03I live in a boarding school in Canada.
01:05I really want to eat soy chicken, but there's no soy chicken in Three Hills, Alberta.
01:11I called my mum and asked her how to cook it.
01:14I make it a few times and it wasn't really successful, but I just keep on making it.
01:18I finally got it, and I shared the dish with my fellow friends also coming from Hong Kong,
01:23and it almost brought tears to their eyes.
01:26And that's the time and date that I decided to dedicate my life to food because food brings
01:31happiness to people.
01:37I was a college dropout.
01:39I went to Washington State University, top ten party school in America.
01:42I went to Hong Kong to work in a cafe for the time being, and a bunch of my sous
01:48chefs and
01:48my chefs came from Australia, and I discovered this thing called working holiday visa.
01:54So I bought a ticket to Australia with $3,000 cash, and I came to Australia 16 years ago.
02:0114 days later, I lost all my money and my passport.
02:05I got stolen in the workplace.
02:07So I had to do any job to survive.
02:09So I actually worked in a cafe in Eastwood as a kitchen hand.
02:13At one point, I did 100 hours in a week.
02:17No day off.
02:19Hong Kong people is famous for being a hustler.
02:21It's always fast paced.
02:23It's a lot of energy, and I can never stop.
02:26And I'm always moving.
02:27I'm always playing my next move.
02:28Coming from Hong Kong, that's one of the big things with me.
02:32Then my friends back then recommended me to go to cooking school to get a qualification.
02:36I went to La Cordon Bleu.
02:38I was doing an internship in one of the business restaurants called Cafe Sydney in Circular Quay.
02:43When I finished school, I started with the best hospitality company in Australia called Maryvale.
02:50I worked in a few of their restaurants.
02:52So Mr Wong, Miss Juice, Queen Chow and more.
02:56Then I helped open Queen Chow Manly.
02:58Then I did Toddy's in Bondi.
03:01And then the last place was quite the most important place for me.
03:04It was Lotus in Potts Point.
03:13During COVID, everything all stood down.
03:15So I started my business, Room 10 in Potts Point.
03:18I started selling my takeaway home meals over there.
03:22Later on, when we can travel again, I specialized in-house luxury private dining experience called Big Sam Young Experience.
03:37In 2022, in May, we launched our first restaurant in small in Castle Craig.
03:43We didn't have millions of dollars to build a restaurant.
03:46And we just opened without thinking it.
03:48And it was a crazy experience.
03:50Because something that I've never seen in my life.
03:53Like, you've got people spending $16,000 for dinners between four of them.
03:58We were full on a Tuesday night.
04:00Two session, back to back.
04:02It was just intense.
04:03Just very crazy.
04:04The hype was there.
04:05It wasn't meant to be a success.
04:06It's supposed to be a learning curve of running my own first business.
04:10But then it outperformed, I can ever imagine.
04:14We sold more than 8,000 lobsters in 40 months.
04:18Five tons of beef.
04:2095% of my customers in small is actually not from the North Shore.
04:24They're all coming from Melbourne, Brisbane, Singapore, London, India.
04:31Small will always have a very special space in my heart.
04:34Because it's a true testament of starting from zero.
04:40After year one of small, I think the ambition part really come, right?
04:43I really want a second restaurant immediately.
04:45I think after seeing the performance of the first restaurant,
04:48it took a bit of time and frustration to look for the perfect site.
04:51But after that, I saw this site become available.
04:54I come see it and then knew that this is the perfect site for my Chinese restaurant.
05:01So, Yang Palace is a local neighbourhood Chinese restaurant inspired by Chinatown around the world.
05:11Catalyst Street is a little bit gangster.
05:13I don't know if they're, you know, I love their energy, right?
05:15It's a little bit naughty.
05:17It's a little bit gangster.
05:18It's a bit luxe.
05:20But I just think that that really feel the vibe with my brand and that hustler man energy.
05:26I think that's really suits.
05:29My family come from a blue collar family in Hong Kong.
05:32And we were in the government subsidised housing.
05:35And growing up, I see my parents' struggles.
05:37And they gave everything they had for me.
05:40When you see your parents struggle, it hits different, right?
05:46Because you want to provide for them and you want to make sure that you want to do better than
05:50them.
05:51It's like lobster, right?
05:52I'm the famous lobster guy in Sydney.
05:54My brand is associated with lobster.
05:57And people often ask me why I love lobster so much.
06:01It's because I could never afford a lobster before.
06:03I tell myself I need to work hard and I'll bust my ass off so I can eat a lobster
06:09anytime, anywhere I want.
06:11And I think that's the motivation of trying to make it in this city, right?
06:16And I think the bigger ambitions you have, the harder you hustle, the luckier you get.
06:22And that energy just feeds into more bigger ambitions.
06:27I think investing yourself with the right people, the right circle is the most important part that you can do
06:33to invest in yourself.
06:35Spend the time and the energy with the right people.
06:36Spend the time and the other people who inspire you, who push you further.
06:40The stake ambition project will really help me to transform Young Palace courtyard, bring it to life.
06:48I think this will be the place to be at in summer because it's going to be like rosé and
06:53Chinese food all day long.
06:55I would like to install some heaters outside for the wintertime as well so we can seat more people, you
07:02know, and make this space just really nice.
07:03There's a lot of congratulations to me and so many people told me I've made it, but I actually would
07:09strongly disagree.
07:10I think I just got started. I just start warming up so it's time to go hard and go chase
07:16that next restaurant, I think.
07:18As an entrepreneur, we never stop, right?
07:21When I can wake up every day and I'm passionate about what I do every day,
07:27at the same time I can help different people in their lives, I think that's a success for me.
07:42I'm just two things that I can do.
07:45I'm content to add to me.
07:48You're free.
07:49You're free.
