Irene Hua, Chef

Irene Hua, a chef at Dumpling Shack, describes her experience of working in hospitality over the past year as, “a real rollercoaster of incredible highs, camaraderie and community, and lows of anxiety, stress and uncertainty”.

Her experiences — learning new skills, stepping up for others, navigating the world of work in a year of furlough and uncertainty for businesses — are not unheard of in a year that saw a 99.77%  year-on-year decline in seated diners across the UK. Starting the year at Stoney Street in Borough Market, she switched to making pasta at Ombra later in the year and landed at her current workplace earlier in 2021.

In a year dominated by uncertainty, she knows the road back won’t be easy. While she’s thankful for increasing awareness amongst diners that working in hospitality is much harder than it seems, she’s keen to stress there will be reopening pains. “Please bear with us as we reopen,” she says. “A lot of us are a bit rusty from not working for so long!”

And shaking off the rust has just been part of the battle, as she has struggled to implement the government’s vague guidelines, and tried to reconnect with the food of her heritage in the face of rising anti-Asian discrimination. For workers like herself, reopening is just the beginning.

Her story of the past 12 months follows.