Superwomen of Shanghai: Camden Hauge

“I have always loved food; I always wanted to cook… When I was young my dad would help me make menus on the computer and I’d make my family dinner. I’d get cookbooks for Christmas and I would make New Year’s dinners. My mom sent me my first menu that I made when I was 10 - it was a raw menu - and she sent it to me when I opened my first restaurant. I have my first Betty Crocker cookbook here in Shanghai. My grandmother collected Gourmet magazine - she has stocks from the 1920s, 1930s… and I have them all. In Egg, you can see a page from a 1966 edition about how to cook the perfect egg.”?

If you have ever sampled the Sichuan Mala brownie at Egg or imbibed?a highball at Lucky Mart, raise your glass to owner and founder Camden Hauge.

?Many in Shanghai might recognize Camden from her resume of restaurants under her brand Happy Place group, or for being one of the women behind F&B social and educational events such as FEAST or CRUSH. And while one might categorize her as a Shanghai entrepreneurial expert of food and drink, she says what she is most passionate about is creating space for others to grow.

“I'm more of a connector; I’m someone who strives to create a platform for others to work. The idea of finding talent when [they’re] very young, and giving them space and feeding [their] growth, is something that I’ve felt very passionate about”.

She speaks about her former employees with admiration and respect, sharing how many who have worked in her former kitchens have now gone on to do their own things.?She takes pride in seeing how the younger generation of cooks, and those newly excited about F&B in China, are encouraged to grow in the space, adding that with Covid, it has given many aspiring entrepreneurs potential opportunities they might not have had in the past.?

“I?had lunch at Blaz yesterday. [The head chef] Chris was a bone surgeon first, and then went to Cordon Bleu and did a year-long conversion course. He had just graduated and saw I was doing Supperclub?and Chef’s Tables. For the Chef’s Table I give them a flexible space with an open format - they can choose to use it if they want, but it’s really up to them.”

Initially she worked at an advertising agency in London (Saatchi and Saatchi) and was offered the opportunity to go somewhere for three to six months to learn. She thought Shanghai would be the last place amongst the given options that she would ever live so chose here, and the rest, as they say, is history.?Her time, and more importantly, mentor figures, during her formative chapter played pivotal roles in her success. She shares she became one of the few people offered a full time job at her agency after an intensive summer internship program partly due to a female executive who was incredibly tough on her, but helped her to grow.?

“If I sent something with a grammar mistake, one misalignment, one formatting mistake - she wouldn’t even give feedback, she would send it right back to me until it was perfect. She made me cry many times, but she was phenomenal.”

?Camden adds that tough love (and attention to detail) helped her business development, and businesses develop. She adds that even one of her former employees remarked he would never have gotten his job at an investment bank had it not been for Camden being so hard on him with his own presentations.?But it was that foundation - and love for food - that helped her get her first start in Shanghai.

After arriving here (in 2012) she noticed there were many opportunities; there were no all-day dining concepts and only a few pioneers in the industry ‘like Austin [Hu] and Kelley [Lee]’. In order to ‘dip her toe in’ to the industry she started Shanghai Supperclub (a concept with a surprise Chef in a secret, immersive location where guests would mix and mingle).

While it allowed her to try something new, it also allowed her to ask others in the industry questions such as, “how they started, where did they get certain items, etc.” Since that initial launchpad, she’s gone on to host countless events, establish connective platforms and open nine venues (five of which were created and brought to life within six months). And while on paper all of this looked like success, she learned a lot along the way.?

“For a long time, what I thought I wanted was very linear: to grow and expand my restaurant group, have as much fun with that as I possibly could and enjoy my lifestyle that way. Obviously no one knows how hard things are until they climb the mountain and realize how steep the incline is. I would never change that path, but after the first year of adrenaline maintaining those spaces, I realized that actually operating across this many venues was taking away from what I loved in hospitality. I was [spending] so much time with paperwork and people management, I couldn’t connect to guests, [write] menus… doing what I loved. I was so exhausted by maintenance that I couldn’t do anymore growth.”?

She says that in August 2021 she decided to take a step back in order to get clear on what it was she truly wanted.“I had this illusion of success - all these places, brands, team members under my belt, to say I had this nice portfolio, but if your daily life isn’t fulfilling, I think it’s a very short term and a very short-sighted view of success.”

By January 2022 she had sold four of her venues and said that after what happened during the next few months it was such a “clear sign from the universe that [she] had made the right decision.”

“Being able to let it go saved my life before things got really bad. And now being able to try and redefine what I think of as being successful - it’s empowering to change your view of success. Now, I’m enjoying the day-to-day, having an amazing partner, being more strategic about moving toward consulting, as well as my brands… it’s much more fulfilling to me.”

It’s also given her new perspective on what she wants to do in her next chapter moving forward. Still involved with F&B, her next aim (beyond venues) is to help Chinese food and beverage culture shine outside of China.?

One step toward that direction was starting FEASTCON, a symposium focused on Chinese food and beverage culture that runs alongside her events agency’s long-running festival FEAST. In 2021, she decided to push the envelope of a classic festival format and along with providing a marketplace for people to eat and drink, also create a marketplace for people to learn. Based off of chef Rene Redzepi’s educational platform MAD, which she describes as TedTalks for F&B people, at the festival she now also offers a platform for those in the industry to give talks, Q&As and share more both online and offline.?

At the moment, she’s also working on a book to showcase some of Shanghai’s homegrown hospitality talent, which she describes as ‘third culture’: something Shanghai alone could create as a place where China meets the world: “It’s not fusion, it’s not 1+1=2, but rather 1+1=10.” Both of which tie in to something she’s been doing her whole career (perhaps at many times without her realizing it): allowing others to grow.?“It can be harder to see value in yourself when you’re not the one on the stage or in the flyer,” she admits.

“I’m more of a platform, I’m more of a connector. The first time someone categorized me as a connector it actually made me feel sad - because I thought it meant I didn’t have any talent. But then I realized that was my talent.”

As she looks to the future, she hopes to be doing more to help others realize their own dreams by supporting through consulting. The advice she offers is to start with something that is a real need of your own. Creating a concept that is in a ‘white space’, but also something that you truly desire to exist. She adds that there are numerous steps to creating a business, but there will be something that clicks when you know you are ready to launch. For her, it's once she's settled on the typography of her menu.

“Whatever you want to do - if you have an idea or a space, a budget or a random city you feel is fun… I want to help people create something really fun and compelling and bring it to life. Also match-making for brands. If a brand says we’re doing this activity, and we have a sustainability or creativity focus, I can help find talent or create that platform. Trying to work on more of that with the ultimate goal of really showcasing Chinese food and beverage around the world. I’m so proud of this community and Shanghai and all the chefs here who are coming up with things, which would not be possible in many other cities. I think people need to know about it.”

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In the Super Women of Shanghai ('SWS') series, we interview the female movers and shakers of the international community, who made herstory in the city.?We want the series to inspire females to define their herstory and move the dial to break the?glass ceiling.

SWS is brought to you by? Lauren Hogan ?(UP Clinic MarComs Manager) and? Marion Campan ?(Intandid Founder).

If you know a female mover and shaker in Shanghai, get in touch [email protected]