Yu, K: MAD SPICY RESTO

Mad Spicy Resto is a half fact and half fictional story about a young man, Leo, who lost his family and life savings due to gambling addiction. The story narrated the idea that everyone deserves a second chance in life, and how Leo found his way back to a normal life through a journey of life discovery about his culinary talent, and how he was given an opportunity to launch a restaurant that employed ex-gambling addicts–that is, a work-integration social enterprise that seeks to empower the marginalized groups and those discriminated in the mainstream labor market and where a certain portion of its profits for community reinvestment purposes.

The story narrated the challenges faced by Leo and the team in starting the restaurant social enterprise and important concepts in social entrepreneurship such as motivation for social entrepreneurship (e.g., altruism, compassion), the hybrid logics that embody social enterprises (e.g., social and commercial logics), the distinction between charity, social work, for-profit and social entrepreneurship, the different models of social enterprises (e.g., low-cost model, buy-one give one model etc.), the different legal forms of social enterprises (e.g., community interest company), and marketing strategies in social enterprises. The challenges, opportunities and insights to operate such social enterprise more successfully are also included. We include reflection pages that summarize key points learned in different stages of the story – from the lens of the narrator.