Alan Yau knows what it is like to part with one of his creations. It is a decade since the Hong Kong-born restaurateur sold his stake in Wagamama, the noodle restaurant chain that he founded in 1992 to bring Japanese-style ramen shops to the British public.

Hakkasan and Yauatcha, both Michelin-starred, marked the next step for a man regarded as one of the most innovative London restaurateurs of the past ten years.

Mr Yau’s introduction to Britain came in the mid-1970s as a 12-year-old who barely spoke a word of English. He was dragged from Hong Kong to King’s Lynn, Norfolk, where his father ran the kitchens of a chop suey house.

After university, Mr Yau paused to open a Chinese takeaway with his father. Time as a McDonald’s franchisee in Hong Kong, as well as work for KFC in London, followed. His experience of Western fast food, coupled with his roots in oriental cuisine, led him to open the first Wagamama, in Bloomsbury.

Its philosophy was combining “great, fresh and nutritious food in an sleek yet simple setting with helpful, friendly service and value for money”. With the revolutionary concept – for Britain, at least – of seating diners at communal tables, the Japanese noodle house was an instant hit. Mr Yau sold the business in 1998, when it comprised of two venues; Wagamama now has more than 50 outlets in Britain and another 30 worldwide.

Next Mr Yau launched Busaba Eathai, his Thai chain, before founding the Chinese fine-dining restaurant Hakkasan in 2001 and the dim sum and tea house Yauatcha in 2004.

Now 45, Mr Yau was appointed an OBE in the 2006 New Year’s Honours List. He said that his attitude to cooking echoed Bruce Lee’s thoughts about martial arts: “There’s the spiritual side and the physical side. To attain ultimate enlightenment, you need both.”

Mr Yau’s latest venture, Sake No Hana, a fine-dining Japanese restaurant in Central London, has received mixed reviews, with Giles Coren, The Times’s restaurant critic, labelling it “an insult to the city”. With no wine on the menu and the cheapest champagne at £30 per glass, some wonder if Mr Yau may have faltered.

His next project is Cha Cha Moon, a “fast casual” Chinese eatery in Soho, which he hopes can do for Chinese restaurants what Wagamama did for Japanese cuisine.

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