Maisan Leung has loved cooking and eating for as long as she can remember.; that kind of makes sense when you hear she’s from Hong Kong, where good food is an obsession. One of her favourite dishes has always been a good wonton soup, but all the ones she tried in New Zealand were more Northern Chinese in style. “Wontons are a real taste of my childhood so I tried to recreate a soup here with a seafood broth cooked for four hours and additions like dried flounder, fried shrimp and a local dried parma style ham.” After four months, Maisan and her husband (a chef) felt like they had cracked the perfect recipe and, after going through The Kitchen Project programme, took their new brand Comfort Bowl to markets around Auckland. “People have really enjoyed it, the wonton pastry is a bit thinner than what they had seen before and they love the flavour.” Maisan especially enjoys selling her soup in places where migrant food is not prolific – people are really interested in being introduced to our food, and we love sharing it with new communities. We also love incorporating other communities into our food with fusion specials like kimchi or Thai red curry broth. “It’s not just about being a food business, it’s about meeting people, mixing with different cultures and sharing a little bit of our Hong Kong story with them.”