Steve Hou is a qualified aerospace engineer who has turned his skills to making sweet treats including mooncakes. It’s a surprising change of gear, but the 36-year-old is flying high.
“Our Chinatown store [in Sydney] is busy like never before. Everyone's coming to Chinatown to buy mooncakes," the Sweet Lu managing director says.
“Baking is not an easy job. You have to wake up early and now that it is the Moon Festival, you don't know when you can sleep.
“But when you see happy faces on your customers in your shop, all of this is worth it.”
Mooncakes date back thousands of years in Asia. The round shape symbolises a full harvest moon, and can be filled with sweet or savoury ingredients including red bean paste, minced pork, salted egg or crushed nuts.
Mr Hou says Sweet Lu has already sold more than 50,000 individual mooncakes this year.
Sweet Lu's Steve Hou and Lucy Lu with mooncake gift boxes Credit: SBS / Sandra Fulloon
Mr Hou is in business with his wife, Sweet Lu's creative manager Lucy Lu.
Her artistic talents are on show at their two outlets in Sydney's Chinatown and their soon-to-open Newtown store. Both are decorated with colourful paper flowers.
Ms Lu was born in China and studied animation in Beijing and describes the Moon Festival as the second most important in China after Lunar New Year.
"The Moon Festival is a bit like Thanksgiving Day. It's not only for the family, it is also for the friends, for the staff, for your colleagues.
"It is a time to say 'thank you’s' and to give love to people."
Across Australia, locally made mooncakes are 'flying off the shelves' and Sweet Lu’s nine varieties are selling like proverbial hot cakes.
“We have already sold more than 10,000 gift boxes and that is amazingly the biggest sales since we started the business,” Mr Hou says.
“At our factory, we don't need to warm up the oven anymore in the early morning, because it's running day and night. It is pretty busy.”
The Mid-Autumn or Moon Festival is usually held on the full moon around the 15th day of the eighth lunar month in the Chinese calendar.
Families celebrate by giving mooncakes and many attend lantern parades and stage shows held in cities across China, Japan and Malayaia.
As the Asian diaspora continues to grow in Australia, mooncakes made in China, Singapore and Malaysia remain popular, but in recent years there's an upswing towards Australian-made products.
Omar Hsu owns Ommi’s Food and Catering in Sydney’s inner west and says business has more than doubled compared with last year.
“We make traditional Taiwanese flavours like golden mung bean with pork. Most of our customers are Taiwanese, at least 50 per cent, and this is a very popular Taiwanese flavour,” he says.
“We also make a pineapple and salty duck yolk mooncake. I think it's one of our best.
“But we don’t want to lose that traditional flavour from our memory. We want to make something that people already love and make it better,” he says.
Demand for imported mooncakes has declined during recent pandemic disruption.
“International shipping has struggled, so if you get mooncakes from overseas, you may need to wait. And then maybe [when the order finally arrives] it's already past the Moon Festival.
“So, a lot of people looking for to buy locally made mooncakes this year.”
Ommi’s has already sold more than 600 gift boxes and Mr Hsu hopes over this weekend that number will rise to 1,500 boxes, a total of 10,000 individual mooncakes.
“Our customers are supporting small, local businesses and I really appreciate that,” he says.
Mooncake production at the New Shanghai workshop Credit: SBS / Sandra Fulloon
“Our mooncakes are all handmade and freshly baked,” says New Shanghai strategy manager Anthony Tam.
“So customers at our shop can buy them warm, because that is the best way to eat mooncakes.”
At the Ashfield workshop, mooncakes are produced daily to sell either in the Liverpool Road shopfront, in the New Shanghai restaurant chain or via online gift orders.
Mr Hou says this month is Sweet Lu's busiest for the whole year.
“Our factory at Marrickville supplies our shops, and we run three shifts each day. Now the factory is not big enough, so we are looking for bigger options.”
It’s a rapid expansion for the fledgling business which started only six years ago, initially in the couple’s home.
Mr Hou says lava custard remains Sweet Lu’s most popular flavour, and sourcing quality local produce is key.
“It's all about freshness in Australia, everything is about the freshness,” Mr Hou says.
Innovating with new styles helps to keep customers intrigued, he says. But the most important aspect of giving mooncakes is the message.
“Chinese people don't say ‘thank you, I love you’ every day. But this is the very important moment.
“So, we use gift boxes to pass to the families, pass to the colleagues, staff and your clients,” he says.
