By Chung Yu-chen, CNA staff reporter
When Amy Rattigan came to Taiwan 14 years ago to meet her Taiwanese fiance’s parents, she never expected it would become her permanent home or a place where she could pitch fish and chips and cottage pie.
Yet 14 years later, Rattigan has survived the vagaries of the catering business to run two restaurants named Britshake, one in Taipei’s upscale Xinyi District, the other in the more relaxed town of Tamsui, that have Taiwanese hooked on British cuisine.
During that journey, Rattigan has honed her Chinese speaking and writing skills, overcoming the language barrier that initially seemed insurmountable and forced her to use Google Translate to communicate with suppliers and chefs to perfect her recipes.
She has also tweaked her menus to satisfy different types of customers in the two locations — Beef Wellington and braised lamb shank for Taipei patrons, fisherman’s pie and lighter bites for those in Tamsui.
None of that was a given when she came to Taiwan, or that she would even continue her career as a chef when she got here for what she thought would be a short-term stay.
Speaking to CNA recently at her Taipei restaurant while discussing with her chef the best berries to match with her scones, Rattigan said she taught English after arriving in Taiwan, but as a chef she was soon eager to pursue her true passion — cooking.
Taking the plunge
She faced the challenge, however, of establishing her culinary identity in a country renowned for its rich food culture in an industry that can often be unforgiving serving fare that might not cut it with local consumers.
“I was so scared for a start,” she admitted to CNA. “If you tell people about British food, it’s not got the best reputation in the whole world,” conjuring up images of “fried” or “brown” food.
Rattigan decided to make it her mission to change local perceptions. “We’ve got so many good foods at home, like cottage pie. So I thought maybe I could give this a chance,” she recalled.
Bold but still careful, Rattigan and her Taiwanese husband Alex opened a night market stall selling baked potatoes and milkshakes in Taipei’s Gongguan area. She also worked as a full-time English teacher during the day to get the stall going.
It took several months, but eventually, Rattigan said, the stand was getting plenty of repeat customers, giving her confidence to open a place of her own, and one that maybe had air conditioning.
“We left the night market because of the weather. When it’s hot like this, you don’t want to be cooking potatoes,” she said, laughing, on a day when it was in the high 30s centigrade outdoors.
Her next step was to open a small restaurant in Tamsui in 2012 that did well enough to where she and her husband were able to open a bigger place on the old street in Tamsui that is still in business to this day, but that led to Rattigan’s biggest setback.
A rewarding failure
Five years ago, the couple decided to open a second branch in Taipei high-end Eastern District. Rattigan thought she could replicate her Tamsui business model in that part of the capital, but it did not work out that way.
“Tamsui was going so well and we kind of got a little bit cocky…and then it was kind of a knockdown,” she said.
In tourist-packed Tamsui, customers were more interested in quick bites while touring the area, while in Taipei, people were more interested in taking their time and enjoying afternoon tea, she said.
“But I think it was the best thing to happen to us because it made us push ourselves, and we had to learn new skills,” she said. “I think those skills helped bring the business to the next level.”
When Rattigan opened a new Britshake in its current location in Xinyi District, “we redid our business model and target market, and it’s been fantastic.”
Complementing the restaurants are pop-up stands that run for one to two months at locations around Taipei selling mostly baked goods such as scones, brownies, and pound cake.
Currently overseeing a team of Taiwanese chefs, she has adapted her management style to be more direct with her local colleagues, a contrast to the polite English work culture she grew up with.
“In England I think we’re quite polite,’ she said, adding that English people don’t really say what they mean but understand what each other actually refer to.
For example, saying to a member of a kitchen, “it’s Ok, it’s not great,” people would know there is a double meaning and the “OK” might refer to the opposite.
In Taiwan, however, people would take “OK” more literally. “I realized I have to be more direct when the food product is not good enough.”
Having lived here for more than a decade, Rattigan finally got permanent residency in Taiwan in June 2023, which has made life in Taiwan much easier and reinforced that Taiwan is indeed home, though she has felt that all along.
“Any foreigner will tell you they originally planned to be in Taiwan for one year, and it turns out to be a lifetime,” she said.
“I’m really part of here now.”
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