Rising Stars: Meet Matthew Ma

Today we’d like to introduce you to Matthew Ma.

Hi Matthew, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
We are a local mom-and-pop restaurant that specializes in handmade noodles, dumplings, and baos (buns). Our cuisine is mainly from Northern China with a little mix of Southern Chinese dishes. Our recipes are from two generations before dating back to our great-grandparents.

We have tweaked it a little bit and modernized the cuisine to make it better. Our goal at Happy Baos is to share our love of food so everyone can taste it and hopefully, it can bring them new joy in comfort food or make them a good memory of what they tasted in China. We hope that our flavors bring the authenticity of Northern Chinese cuisine to our customers.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
The road to our success has been very tough. At the beginning of 2019 is when we started and it was hard to appeal to the public with our food. Then Covid hit and we had to adapt to the toughest times.

We had to lay people off, cost of goods and supplies increased exponentially. It was hard to find workers when Covid started to die down. It was hard to keep everyone together and focus on the end goal during those times. However, in the end, we fought through and it made us stronger as a whole.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
We offer handmade dough products such as dumplings, noodles, and baos.

That is what we specialize in. Our soup dumplings and pan-fried pork buns aka Sheng Jian Baos are what put us on the map. I believe that we do these products so well is what sets us apart from others. As well as keeping the quality and using fresh ingredients.

Any advice for finding a mentor or networking in general?
My advice is always to listen to your mentor.

When looking for a mentor, my advice is to find someone that is at least 5 times smarter than you in your field.

Meaning that if they are super successful in their area then it’s always good to keep an open mind, take constructive criticism, and listen well to what they have to say.

Contact Info:

• Website: Www.happybaos.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/happy_baos/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/100063671614872/
• Yelp: https://m.yelp.com/biz/happy-baos-mesa

Image Credits
Tim Chow Studios