Food and Family: The Personal Forces Behind Steve Leung's Signature Interiors

Steve Leung's signature interior design approach is shaped by his personal life, integrating family influences and his passion for food and hospitality. His core principles of perfection, simplicity, and practicality guide both residential and commercial projects.

Camille Rousseau

October 14, 2026 · 3 min read

Steve Leung's interiors are shaped by two forces he names himself: his family and his food. The Hong Kong designer, best known for both interior design and, as the South China Morning Post reports, being an avid restaurateur, describes residential design as "a deeply personal journey" and hospitality design as the creation of a cohesive experience for a diverse, unknown audience. His stated philosophy of "perfection, simplicity, and practicality" binds the two together, and his own projects show how personal life feeds professional practice.

The Personal Touch: Family as Design Catalyst

Leung's family relationships have directly inspired specific residential projects. Speaking with Interior Design, he described his holiday home One of a Kind, known as Ooak, on Lamma Island—a pair of village houses chosen for their privacy, exclusivity, and panoramic sea views, yet only ten minutes by water from Hong Kong island's Ap Lei Chau pier.

The home's purpose is inseparable from his daughter Stefanie's career. Leung explained that Stefanie qualified and worked as a lawyer for five years, but her dream was to be a chef; one day she told her family she had quit her job to pursue that passion full time. The pandemic, which halted Leung's relentless travel schedule, gave him the chance to spend more time at home helping his grown children, Stefanie and Nicholas, realize their dream careers.

A second family project extends the theme to Japan. Leung describes his OOAK Niseko Holiday Dream Home as "a labour of love and a family home deeply rooted in design and in one of my most favourite locations in Japan."

A Culinary Perspective: Food and Hospitality Design

Leung's culinary interests are not confined to his daughter's kitchen. His business has grown to include Steve Leung Hospitality, and his group's restaurant designs are fixtures across Hong Kong—from the Mango Tree flagship inside Elements shopping mall to the more recent Swim Club at the Kimpton Tsim Sha Tsui hotel, as reported by the South China Morning Post.

His own restaurant work includes The China House by Chef Fei at Mandarin Oriental Bangkok, one of the latest restaurant designs from his firm SLD. That project sits within the hospitality context Leung describes as inherently complex: hotels involve many spaces with specific functions—guest rooms, food and beverage outlets, entertainment facilities, and back-of-house areas—where the challenge is balancing aesthetics and functionality across all zones.

Steve Leung's Design Philosophy: Personal vs. Professional Application

The clearest way to see how one philosophy serves two contexts is to place Leung's own descriptions side by side. The table below juxtaposes his stated approaches to residential and hospitality design, showing how the same underlying principles adapt to serve either a specific family's lifestyle or a diverse, unknown audience.

Steve Leung's design philosophy applied across personal and professional contexts
Dimension	Residential Design (Personal Homes)	Hospitality Design (Commercial Venues)
Design Context	Private spaces tailored to the client's lifestyle and preferences	Public spaces shaped by the hotel operator and the specific brand's DNA
Primary Goal	A "deeply personal journey" reflecting the individual or family	A cohesive experience balancing aesthetics and functionality across zones
Key Influence	Family relationships, such as his daughter Stefanie's culinary career	His experience as a restaurateur and understanding of kitchen needs
Example Project	Ooak, the Lamma Island holiday home supporting his chef daughter	The China House by Chef Fei at Mandarin Oriental Bangkok
Principle Manifestation	Practicality serving one family's daily life and dreams	"Perfection, simplicity, and practicality" applied to functional commercial kitchens and guest spaces

The distinction, as Leung himself draws it, lies in the relationship with the end-user. In hospitality, he designs for a diverse, unknown audience; in residential work, he works closely with an individual or family, delving into their preferences and lifestyle. The framework that emerges is one of designing for a deeply personal journey on one side and a cohesive brand experience on the other—two expressions of the same principles.