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| Sonsing with his trademark extra-large pizza |
A young Hong Kong-raised Filipino entrepreneur who made his mark on the city’s food and restaurant industry by offering the biggest pizza in town has passed away.
Roland Joseph Sonsing, better known among his friends as RJ,
died on Apr 11 in his hometown of Taguig
City
RJ is the eldest son of Ollie Sonsing, a musician who came
to Hong Kong in the 1970s when Filipino bands and
entertainers were in great demand in the city’s nightclub and restaurant
circuits.
He was in the Philippines
when death overtook him, according to his younger sister Regina
Friends who broke the news about his demise said Sonsing
suffered a heart attack.
Sonsing was one of four young Filipinos in Hong
Kong who were featured in the South China Morning Post nearly
three years ago about their struggle to rise above the discrimination and
marginalization that ethnic minority children suffer in this city.
The article details how Sonsing had worked in the kitchen of
Paisano pizzeria– then known as serving the city’s biggest pizza - until he
rose to the position of general manager and executive chef.
Not content to remain an employee, he took a bold move in
2013 and set up his own pizzeria, Checkmate Pizza, in Praya, Kennedy Town Hong Kong and its
equally sought-after buffalo chicken wings.
Checkmate takes pride in serving 30-inch pizzas, while
Paisano’s biggest measures 24 inches across.
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| Checkmate Pizza's Hung Hom branch opened in 2017 |
In 2017 Checkmate Pizza opened a branch in Hung Hom, with
Sonsing welcoming guests with free pizzas and drinks.
Sonsing and his siblings came to Hong
Kong when he was five years old to join their father, who was a
musician at a nightclub in Tsimshatsui, and his mother, who was a quality
control engineer for a tobacco company.
He and his younger sister
After secondary school, he went back to the Philippines to enroll in college, staying with
his grandparents in the family compound in Tipas, a lakeside village in Taguig City
He spent a few years in Taguig, got married and had one
child, before deciding to return to Hong Kong in 2005 when he realized that
finding a job that paid a decent salary in Manila
He and his wife had three more children since,
but Sonsing decided his family should stay behind in Manila
Sonsing also said that although he had lived in Hong Kong for more than three decades, he still
considered himself a Filipino.
