Brandon Yau '09

Entrepreneur,
Hao Hao Chinese Kitchen

q: What do you do?

a: Run a brand new Chinese restaurant in Kissimmee that just opened on July 28. I work 70-80 hours a week doing everything from cooking to cleaning. My father's a chef and said that I have a gift for this since it only took me three days to master making all the sauces. I wrote part of the business plan for my Leadership and Strategic Management in the Hospitality Industry class, and presented it to the bank, and I got the loan.

q: What's your favorite part of the job?

a: Being my own boss. I get to embrace my creative side. Also I meet new people from all over the world every day. A family with a terminally ill child happened to come in yesterday, here in Orlando because of Give Kids the World. I was so happy to be able to provide them with a free meal, as an act of faith.

q: What's the greatest challenge?

a: Maintaining a positive attitude. Dealing with recessive times, I need to be creative in how I market and sell our product. I have a very large marketing budget, an important investment for any business, regardless of whether or not it's currently making a profit. I thought I'd be doing mostly take-out but we're getting a lot of dine-in business and repeat customers because of the food and decor. This is real home cooking where we make everything fresh every day, even our own egg rolls and dumplings.

q: Do you stay in touch with any other UCF hospitality alums?

a: Katrina Schoenfeldt '09 is helping me with some of the marketing here, and my best friend Jeff Reeves '09 will also soon be working here. I still come by the campus to see Rosen faculty and staff, including Vivian Ray, Renee Bence, Dr. H.G. Parsa and Dr. Fevzi Okumus.

q: Outside work...you're most likely to be seen?

a: Sleeping in my hammock. My hobbies are home and auto repairs.

q: Your biggest accomplishment since graduating, outside your career?

a: Paying off my car. At age 22, that's a good feeling.

q: How did UCF prepare you for what you do?

a: It didn't teach me anything about owning a restaurant, but taught me everything about who I am. At Rosen, I clashed with authority quite a bit. On one of the team projects with other students, I argued with the other team members so much that I ended up quitting. I did the whole project on my own. It confirmed for me that I could never work for someone else.

q: How could the hospitality program have been better?

a: I could have been more tolerant of my classmates. From freshman year, I could see that most didn't have the same goals as I did. They just wanted to go to class and get by so they could graduate and get jobs. They weren't as concerned with getting the managerial tools necessary to become business owners.

q: A UCF memory?

a: The wisdom of Dr. Bill Fisher. He taught us that we're never above our employees. He helped me learn to be more empathetic with people.

q: Favorite meal in Orlando?

a: Here at Hao Hao Chinese Kitchen, our Singapore Style Mei Fun (with Curry Sauce), which is my Dad's own recipe. It's a traditional Chinese dish with his own special twist. The extra ingredients are secret and I won't tell anyone. All of our sauces are homemade every day and we prepare every meal as it's ordered so we can customize it to exactly what you want.

q: On your iPod?

a: Bob Marley. He taught me the one religion of loving each other equally, which is important for all of us in the service industry. Customers will come in being annoyed after a long day of waiting in lines at Disney. You can tell that some of them looked forward to spending more time with their families on vacation, but perhaps that particular day it was too much time spent together. If they're in a bad mood you still need to be positive and treat them well.

q: Little known fact about you?

a: I'm learning how to swing dance.