Kylie Kwong - Wok's Cooking

Happy Teams

Watching the way she relates to her staff and how they relate to each other, it’s clear that staff are another important factor affecting how well the restaurant runs. She is determined to make certain she has the right team every night. "You need to have a very tight, efficient team and [ensure] they’re not overworked and they’re happy. I try to maintain a certain level of happiness or energy here—it’s very much how I run the business."

In fact, much of how Kwong runs the business results from the way she runs her life, which she explains is quite intuitive and unorthodox. "I always navigate my life by my feeling and intuition. I go with what feels right, and so that’s very important to the way the restaurant is each night as well. Restaurants to me are based on feelings, dynamics and the energy, and when you walk into a restaurant you feel the ambience and so on. It’s an integral part of the whole thing, so it’s very important to maintain a certain level of energy here."

Kylie recognises her staff have very individual skills and strengths that others may not have, so she matches staff to the correct role as well as the to the best nightly team to ensure the kitchen and service staff are working at their peak. "It’s working out what makes each individual tick and putting them in certain places that your business needs them to be," she says. "I also look at their individual personalities and I don’t stick square pegs into round holes."

In doing so, Kwong believes she is a good employer, creating a working environment her staff want to be part of. In turn, she insists, this creates a better product from her staff. "If they’re happy about that, then they will cook better."

Ensuring the business is run the way she intended from day one, Kwong turns her attention to training her staff well. "I like training people. I’ve got two guys who run the kitchen and another man who runs the floor," she says. "Through those three individuals I can get across all my thoughts and feelings about how I want to run the business."

It is important to Kwong for her head chef and floor manager to concentrate on managing their teams so they can perform better, without getting bogged down with less important details such as paperwork. This she says helps them to respectively cook better and "be very gorgeous every night".

After the first two years spent doing the hard yards, working in the kitchen every day and building the restaurant’s reputation, Kwong now acts more as manager of the business, where she is able to work on the business rather than working in it. And although the restaurant is open seven nights a week, Kwong is content to work maybe two or three nights per month as well as a few day shifts, allowing her to do something different every day. "I like the fact that I can do things, like, the flowers and the wine list as well as the cooking and all of that. I hand-write the specials every day and I can control the menu and I like the fact that the business changes and evolves … and we go with whatever we need to go with at the time."

She employs people who have contrasting skills to her own to cover any weak points, such as accounting. "My mother does the books: BAS, GST, superannuation, she pays all the bills. She says to me ‘you’re good at making the money and I’m good at managing it’. She’s very practical, where I’m a bit more … I like beautiful things!"

Kwong concerns herself with being a democratic, fair, and understanding employer, constantly thinking of ways to keep her staff happy and feeling appreciated and respected. She does this by formulating the rosters a few weeks in advance, paying them competitive wages and salaries, understanding they have a life outside the business and giving pay and performance reviews when she says she will. "It’s just treating people like they want to be treated."