As we get able to launch CODE’s 30 underneath 30 class of 2022/23, we glance again at CODE’s 30 underneath 30 alumni.


Few restaurateurs have constructed their model with the artistry of BAO. The enduring graphics have to turn into a beacon of their design-led hospitality and a signpost of the place to search out among the capital’s most scrumptious bao buns.

It’s no shock to study that co-founder, husband, and spouse Shing Tat Chung and Erchen Chang, each attended artwork faculty. In truth, it’s the place they met and the place the primary threads of BAO had been stitched collectively.

In 2016 the pair landed a well-deserved spot on CODE’s inaugural 30 underneath 30 records. BAO Soho and BAO Fitzrovia had been in their infancy, albeit with a prompt cult following. The trio, which incorporates Chung’s sister Wai Ting Chung, went on to construct a mini-empire with websites in Borough, Kings Cross, Shoreditch, and a knockout Rice Error takeaway field to battle by means of their COVID closures.

As we prepare for the announcement of CODE’s 30 underneath 30 class of 2022/23, we glance again at the couple and the makings of their iconic model.

The BAO character – a man consuming a bao bun – has to turn into a beloved part of London’s restaurant scene. What was the inspiration for him and in the way was he created? 

The BAO character originated from one in all Erchen’s artworks that were additionally exhibited in her diploma present, in addition to New York. It was an efficiency titled ‘Learn how to be a lonely man – and the drawing was a part of the setup – it depicted the right lonely man pose. Quickly after her commencement, BAO was shaped. Our BAO character is an evolution of this character. Erchen was all the time impressed by Japanese B films – notably the traditional wage man character – a stereotypical man who wore oversize fits, dined alone, and had very explicit feelings.

Did you each examine artwork? 

Sure, Erchen and I met at the Slade Faculty of High-quality Artwork – simply across the nook from BAO Fitz. I went on to review Design Interactions at the Royal School of Artwork earlier than we began BAO. While we began learning about additional conventional artwork purposes, we each ended up in direction of extra the conceptual facet of artwork. However actually, that fast turnaround of labor, from concept to materialization (and particularly within the Royal School the place it was three weeks of Temporary – Create – Make – Current, on repeat) was how we flowed into creating BAO, which was very a lot the identical inventive work ethic however on this case with our different ardor – which is meals.

What method do you employ for drawing?

We do varied varieties of drawings and illustrations. When it comes to the BAO illustrations you see extra generally, it’s all about sketching and re-sketching, and tracing till it will get to the closest kind. I then take it into Illustrator on the pc to then flip it right into a graphic. We’ve got all the unique drawings and plenty that by no means make it – we should always do an exhibition one time.

A few of the different BAO imagery is extra graphic and appear pc generated (I’m pondering of the buildings and the BAO Borough menu photos). Do you feel different artists do these?

Sure, undoubtedly. We love working with pals and in addition artists and illustrators that we come by. One of the many rewarding points is giving a platform for rising illustrators. We take pleasure in utilizing totally different artists in BAO as a result it illustrates and provides one other sort of interpretation of the world we need to depict. It’s not simply 2D drawings and illustrations. It additionally expands into different kinds and people’s crafts deserve the identical consideration as you’ll to commissioning an illustration. For instance, we work with our pal Anna who does hand-thrown pottery for our eating places and every restaurant adapts a distinct type.

The artist you’re referencing for the computer-generated graphics is @isometricpixelartist – his type is so distinctive and it actually helped give Rice Error the retro gaming type we had been after.

The BAO t-shirts have a cult following. How and when did you determine to create merchandise for the model? 

We first had the BAO tote. And it was an arbitrary resolution – most eating places and cafes had one. However, what adopted was fairly fascinating. We observed that lots of people had been taking the tote overseas and representing BAO, tagging us on Instagram and many others. It additionally acquired to some extent the place different individuals noticed the BAO bag in several international locations and despatched it to us.

Having merchandise was additionally one other platform to be inventive with and in addition to reconnect to our pasts of style, design, and artwork however it’s actually solely now, due to lockdown, that we started to assume extra about how we might broaden our online retail providing. It’s one thing that made quite a lot of sense from an enterprise perspective and was quite a lot of enjoyable too. A few of Erchen’s new items embody restricted version riso prints, in addition to teapots. That is one thing we’re constructing day after day.

All the brand-new t-shirts are restricted versions, so as soon as they promote they’re gone. The Weeping Sake is sort of an enjoyable one – we’ve launched two thus far: the 15% and the 20% Tears. Because the tears enhance, the man will get older and older and sadder. We’ve got additionally given a handful of personalized t-shirts to the workers which have stayed with us for a really very long time (what we name BAO Originals). Erchen attracts the member of workers with a really previous BAO Man holding one another. It’s nice.

The BAO website has journey guides – do you see yourselves as vanguards of the Taiwanese expertise and the way usually you go there to analyze and immerse within the meals scene?

We strive to return yearly. Generally even twice if we have now particular analysis merchandise. Erchen is from Taipei – so it is sensible to attempt to return as a lot as attainable but additionally essential when it comes to meals and re-immersing in Taiwanese tradition. Taiwan is properly referred to as a meal vacation spot in Asia – nevertheless, once we began there wasn’t a lot of training around Taiwanese delicacies – so we felt it was essential to teach Taiwanese tradition not solely by means of the eating places, but with guides. While Taipei is extra explored – it may be exhausting to search out guides for the opposite cities in Taiwan – which is one thing we’re engaged in. Nonetheless, though the main focus may be very a lot Taiwan, we don’t prohibit our inspirations to only right here. Café BAO (which was resulting from opening this 12 months in King’s Cross) is closely impressed by Western-type cafes in Asia – particularly Kissatens. So we have now an Osaka information lined up that showcases a few of these older type eateries. Shifting ahead, we do not solely need to have guides, however, eating places perform as an illustration of a space. We attempt to create eating places as our interpretations of varieties of consuming traditions (Grill tradition, Western type eating, Streetfood, and many others). And that’s represented by our travels and thus guides.

Lockdown has created each difficulty and alternative. Your Rice Error model was a direct hit – how did you determine what it ought to be? 

As quickly as we began to see gross sales dip close to Chinatown, we knew we would have liked to assume severely about making a supply providing. Supply was all the time one thing we had thought of, however, we’d by no means actually settled on the small print. As issues began to escalate with COVID-19, we knew we would have liked to take a seat down and be inventive.

The principal concern with supply was that we didn’t really feel BAO was fitted to the journey. For those who’ve ever eaten a Basic BAO in one in all our eating places, you’ll perceive how the concept of sending one off on the again of a motorbike may very well be anxious. We hated the concept of issues turning up in a manner we wouldn’t be joyful to serve them in a restaurant.

Then we began pondering past BAO. We’d all the time had this concept about making a restaurant with rice because of the core product. There’s an award-winning grain of rice we use in all our eating places that comes from a spot known as Chi Shang in Taiwan. We’d usually talked about doing one thing with it on a much bigger scale – whether or not that was a restaurant idea or a pop-up, we weren’t certain. We took that little seed and grew it into Rice Error.

And the way did you determine the identification and design – and create it? Even the directions have a really particular personal look and manner of explaining. 

The identification was surprisingly simple – Rice, as a result of rice, was the core product, and the Error as a result of the entire scenario felt like an error. It felt fairly like a becoming identity for a model born out of a catastrophe. Certainly one of our ethos at BAO is to even be unconventional – so Error felt proper.

The subsequent step was to create the brand and a little bit of a model essence. I all the time assume it’s finest to begin from right here, as if it’s executed properly it may well actually inspire the remainder of the journey and get individuals behind the concept. We wished for one thing daring and sharp and it actually complimented the bamboo containers that we sourced. All of the packagings in Rice Error is biodegradable.

I then acquired began designing the website and handed it over to our pals at Twelve Studio who remodeled it into a totally useful website and prepared for orders. We had been blown away with the reception Rice Error acquired in its first few weeks and are trying ahead to see which course it would take post-lockdown. We’ve had a global visitor chef collection too, which has been nice – and elements of the proceeds go to St Mungos.

Extra lately there’s Name Suzy, which once more had a central character absolutely shaped. Is she primarily based on anybody in actuality? 

Sure and no, however, Erchen did joke that it appeared like my mom when she was youthful… so perhaps it was unconscious. My mother and father did personal takeaways so it does make sense. The start line, nevertheless, was extra the identify Suzy which was taken from lazy susans – one thing that’s related to the previous Chinese language eating places we really feel nostalgic about. From Suzy, we wished to kind a personality that may turn into the brand.

And that picture of somebody at a counter answering phone calls is synonymous with Chinese language takeout. Name Suzy additionally has that ring to it – I assume much like ‘Name Saul’. So Name Suzy – in your Chinese language takeout wants.

With the theme of the Chinese language takeout we wished to make use of the American-type takeout containers – they’re sort of a cliché – however, we love that. And we wished the design to be a bit extra vibrant and nearer to the intense colors of Taiwan. For Name Suzy, we didn’t work with anybody else. So the illustrations had been drawn by Erchen. And the graphics and packaging had been executed on the pc by me. Pictures that were used within the packaging were additionally executed by us. We don’t usually do this kind of factor ourselves resulting from a heavy workload, however, on occasions like this it is sensible to do these items ourselves. It’s fortunate in a manner – as a result, it enabled us to launch Rice Error and Name Suzy rapidly. In a standard scenario (if we needed to pay a designer and many others) it in all probability wouldn’t have come to fruition – or at the least not as rapidly.

Please inform us: the Bakery Items field within the BAO package – is he holding a bao bun or is he trying unhappy?! 

Each – he’s holding a BAO bun and he’s unhappy, however, he’s proud that he has made that BAO.


Shing Tat Chung and Erchen Chang were featured in our 30 underneath 30 class of 2016. CODE’s 30 underneath 30 class of 2022/23 record can be introduced on Wednesday 7 December.

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