The character arc of Kylie Kwong
A life drawn by Character Arc from the public record
Born on 31 October 1969 in Sydney, a third-generation Chinese Australian. Between then and now sit schools in Epping and Cheltenham, the fundamentals of Cantonese cooking learned beside her mother, apprenticeships at Rockpool and Wockpool and at Restaurant Manfredi, a restaurant in Surry Hills opened in partnership and later owned outright, a switch in 2005 to entirely organic and biodynamic produce, an inaugural sustainability award in 2009, a fair trade tableware range made in Vietnam, a move to larger premises in 2014, and a closure announced in 2019 in her fiftieth year. The line below draws the story so far, in order.
Drag along the line to move, pinch or use the buttons to look closer. Tap the line to pluck it, or any mark for its card. Drawn from the public record of her life; the sources are at the foot of the page.
Who is Kylie Kwong?
She switched the whole kitchen to organic. In 2005.
She went to school in Epping and at Cheltenham Girls High in Sydney, and as a third-generation Chinese Australian she learned the fundamentals of Cantonese cooking at her mother side, which is the oldest and best kitchen training there is. She did most of her apprenticeship at Neil Perry Rockpool and Wockpool, and later at Restaurant Manfredi.
She opened her first restaurant, Billy Kwong, in Surry Hills. The name does not come from a relative: it comes from the partnership with the Sydney chef Bill Granger under which the restaurant was founded. She later became the sole owner and kept the original name.
In 2005 she did something that is now ordinary and was then close to eccentric. The restaurant moved entirely to organic and biodynamic produce. In her own listing: only organic and biodynamic fruit and vegetables, poultry, meat and noodles, all the soy sauces, sugar, vinegar and oils organic, and fair trade tea, coffee and chocolate. She explained it by her Buddhism, saying she wanted her work and social life to reflect it, that offering customers healthy, life-giving, precious food was the best way she could help them, and that of any book, restaurant or television show she would always ask whether it was sustainable and whether it was about uplifting and elevating the energy rather than depleting it.
The recognition came in 2009, when Billy Kwong received the inaugural Sustainability Award from the Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide, for initiatives including an option for diners to donate to a renewable energy credits programme bought from a wind farm in Hebei province in China. The restaurant served only filtered Sydney tap water and offered no bottled water at all, which in a restaurant is a small decision that costs real money.
On 1 October 2011 her first tableware range went on sale in Oxfam shops around Australia, a joint project with Oxfam hand-crafted by one of its fair trade producer partners in Vietnam: a soup bowl and a rice bowl with matching plates, a soup spoon, a teapot, a teacup and a coffee cup. In 2014 she moved the restaurant to larger premises at Potts Point, co-owned with the chef Andrew Cibej and the seismologist and businessman David King. And in 2019 she announced its closure, citing a desire for change in her fiftieth year, and that November was appointed an ambassador for food, culture and community.
The moments
Kylie Kwong's timeline.
The 1960s
Born in Sydney
Everyday. Sydney, 1969.
The 1980s
Cantonese, beside her mother
Milestone, and it changed everything. The oldest kitchen training there is.
The 1990s
Rockpool and Wockpool
Milestone, and it changed everything. Two of the best kitchens in the country.
The 2000s
Billy Kwong opens
Milestone, and it changed everything. Her own room, under a name that was half somebody else.
Everything organic
Milestone, and it changed everything. The whole kitchen, in 2005, when nobody was doing it.
Her reason for it
Milestone, and it changed everything. Her own words for why the sourcing changed.
No bottled water
Milestone, and it changed her direction. A small decision that costs a restaurant real money.
The first sustainability award
Milestone, and it changed everything. The first one they ever gave, and it went to her.
The 2010s
Tableware, made fair trade
Milestone, and it changed her direction. She had the bowls made by a fair trade workshop in Vietnam.
A bigger room at Potts Point
Milestone, and it changed her direction. Fourteen years in Surry Hills, and then a bigger room.
Keep the restaurant, or close it
Crossroads, decided.
The paths laid out: close it while it is good, taken, or keep it running. She was appointed an ambassador for food, culture and community that November.
She closes it, on purpose
Milestone, and it changed everything. She shut a celebrated restaurant because she wanted to change.
Ambassador for food and community
Milestone, and it changed her direction. Out of the kitchen and into the wider job.
She closed a celebrated restaurant while it was still good, which almost nobody does, and went to work on food and community instead. What she set moving was a whole kitchen turned organic in 2005, before it was a marketing position, because she had a reason for it she could say out loud.
Your turn
Every line draws a unique story.
Hers ends a chapter on purpose, at fifty, with the restaurant still working. Yours is already further along than you think, and drawing it takes about five minutes.
Kylie Kwong: frequently asked questions
What people ask about her line.
What is Kylie Kwong's character arc?
What was Billy Kwong, the restaurant of Kylie Kwong?
Why did Kylie Kwong go organic?
What award did Kylie Kwong win for sustainability?
Why did Kylie Kwong close her restaurant?
What tableware did Kylie Kwong make?
Where does this timeline of Kylie Kwong's life come from?
More character arcs
Lives that rhyme with her.
Sources
- Kylie Kwong, English Wikipedia biography, filed under living people.
- Her own statement on Buddhism and sourcing, as quoted there.
- The Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide Sustainability Award, 2009.
- The Oxfam Australia tableware range, October 2011.