Louisa Chu Interview - Living Your Dreams In This One Life

Louisa Chu is chef, writer, television producer and adventurer, and lives in Chicago, IL. After having worked as an entertainment reporter, she attended Le Cordon Bleu Culinary School in Paris finishing in both cuisine and pastry. In summer 2008, she went to Alaska to be her own chef on a fishing boat and lodge. Louisa’s dream is to open ephemeral restaurants around the world featuring experimental, frontier food. Together with her sister, Louisa would like to write a Chinese-American lifestyle guide, and help foster kids to help themselves, help others, and help dogs. Check out her culinary website at http://www.movable-feast.com.

Andrea: Louisa, where are you from originally?

Louisa: I was born in Hong Kong and raised in Chicago, then lived in Los Angeles for 7 years, then moved to Paris, and I have been living between Paris and Chicago for about the last 5 years.

Andrea: You have completed the courses in both cuisine and pastry in Paris.

Louisa: Yes; I went to Le Cordon Bleu Culinary School in Paris. When I lived in Los Angeles I worked as an entertainment reporter, primarily covering celebrity trials. It was very fun and exciting but also very depressing, as you can probably imagine, and so I thought, “What do I want to do when I grow up?” I always wanted to be a food writer. I grew up in the restaurant business in Chicago but thought I needed a little more formal training. I had considered going to the Culinary Institute of America in the US, which is the Harvard of culinary schools, or to Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, primarily because I have always loved French cuisine and every major culture’s fine dining history has had a reference to French cuisine. That is where Julia Child went who is a famous chef, cookbook writer, and television personality. I think it was clinched when right before I decided to leave Los Angeles and I was considering where to go, I went to one of the National Parks in Utah and talked to one of the park rangers. We were talking about this, and he had no idea, of course, about the CIA School. He knew about the CIA Spy Agency, but when I mentioned Cordon Bleu this guy, right in the middle of nowhere said, “Oh yes; of course!” He knew all about it. So I decided to go and live in France, in Paris, and study French cuisine at its very basic core. I studied cuisine and pastry. And one of the main reasons I went there is also because I received a scholarship from the James Beard Foundation, a culinary organization, to attend there, so that certainly helped.

I thought “What do I want to do when I grow up?” I always wanted to be a food writer.

Andrea: How did you get the scholarship?

Louisa: I had to write an essay. Every year they offer scholarships to attend culinary schools around the world and that was the one that I wanted. So I wrote an essay about my experience with food and submitted it. I didn’t hear anything for months and I thought, “Oh; I didn’t get it.” I had already decided to go, anyway. Then I found out maybe 2 days after I arrived in France that I won the scholarship.

Andrea: What were other jobs that you had besides being an entertainment reporter?

Louisa: My first job ever? I have been working almost as long as I can remember. Because I grew up in the restaurant business, I literally remember skipping one of my first days of kindergarten when I was 4 years old, I think it was to help open one of my family’s restaurants, and I remember folding menus. I can’t remember my first real job.

Andrea: During your college time you worked probably at your family’s business at the restaurant?

Louisa: Yes. During college I worked part-time at two of my family’s restaurants in the Chicago area. One was a Chinese/American restaurant; just a basic Chinese/American chop suey restaurant. The other restaurant was a Chinese/Vietnamese restaurant. I worked part-time on the weekend at both of those restaurants during college. But ironically, all through high school and college, I vowed never to work in the restaurant business ever. You know when you grow up in those situations you work every weekend and all holidays, and so in college I studied journalism. I actually bounced around a little bit. I studied economics and design, and then journalism is what I graduated with. My first job when I graduated was producing television and radio shows, which of course is a whole other chapter. Those were my first jobs out of college.

Andrea: So this first one was in the radio business?

Louisa: My first professional job after college was producing a pay-per-view television show. Two local radio hosts in Chicago were doing a New Year’s Eve special and I started out as an intern on that show. In the course of a few months, I became an executive producer.
After that, they were looking for a producer for their radio show, and asked me if I would stay on and produce their weekday show. So that was my first real long-term job out of college.

Andrea: And this second job was being an entertainment reporter?

Louisa: No, that was about third or fourth. I think I produced another couple of radio shows in the Chicago area and then I moved out to LA. I was working in production companies and as a producer for some small film projects, and between that I was also freelancing and had my own network where I wrote and reported entertainment stories from LA. I developed my own network of independent radio stations; mostly alternative music stations that didn’t have a very serious news department. I was covering entertainment stories and a lot of those happened to be about celebrity trials. Those are the types of stories that everyone is interested in. At the time I arrived it was at the end of the OJ trial, and I left right at the beginning of Wynona Ryder. It was quite an interesting time.

Andrea: How did you recognize that you needed a change from being an entertainment reporter to attending Le Cordon Bleu in Paris?

Louisa: It was three things that happened at the same time. One was the Wynona Ryder story; I don’t know if you remember when she was caught shoplifting at Saks Fifth Avenue in Beverly Hills? I lived right next door to that Saks Fifth Avenue and used to walk my dog there. I knew people who worked there and so I had heard what happened from them. I had already seen how stories are spun by celebrity PR people, but to have that happen almost right outside my front door, and then to hear the other side of it, and see how those worlds of reality and fiction had nothing to do with each other was so disturbing. I thought, “Wow! What a disturbed place it was that I was living and working in.”

I had already seen how stories are spun by celebrity PR people, but to have that happen almost right outside my front door, and then to hear the other side of it, and see how those worlds of reality and fiction had nothing to do with each other was so disturbing.

Andrea: So the truth was so much different than what reporters wrote about it?

Louisa: Yes. The reporters were writing primarily what the publicists were saying.

Andrea: You said that the reporters take what they write from the publicists; but the publicists, where do they get their information?

Louisa: From their heads. I shouldn’t say that this happens with all publicists, but their goal is to make their client look good and many of them do that very well. That was the first thing.
The second thing was that one of my neighbors who I thought was the nicest guy in my building was arrested by the FBI for some sort of fraud. I was already planning on moving out by that point, but had not quite decided when to move to Paris, and then they literally raided our building. It was like, “This is so disturbing!”
Then the third thing was about one of my sister’s neighbors in her building. I should say that my neighbor had celebrity connections to his family as well, and had gotten involved in some sort of scam so that the FBI raided our building. My sister’s neighbor was a 17-18 year old girl from Indiana who died after a drug overdose, and her body was discovered in her building a day or two later. She was another one of those tragic Hollywood stories – a young girl who came out from the Midwestern United States to be a star and this is what happened.

It was all those things happening at the same time. It really seemed to say, “You are done.” My boyfriend at the time had decided the year before that he always wanted to be a yacht captain, so he went to England to a school where he studied how to be a yacht master. He got his certification as a Royal Yachting Association Yacht Master, and then the next year it was my turn. I was going to be a food writer, so I moved to France and that is what we did then. It was a series of good and bad events which led up to this.

Andrea: Did this culinary school, Le Cordon Bleu, meet your expectations?

Louisa: It exceeded some of my expectations, actually, but also did not meet others. It exceeded my expectations in that it allowed me to experience the actual cooking part of it, far greater than I ever expected. I should emphasize that originally I had decided to go to Le Cordon Bleu only to be a better food writer, not to be a chef. Le Cordon Bleu is a 9-month program in the school, and then another optional 6 months training at restaurants in Paris. It was about a year and a half total. Then I was going to be a full-time food writer, not a chef.

Once I started cooking at Le Cordon Bleu, I saw the comparison between the cooking that I had grown up with, which was good, but certainly not at a fine level at all. Le Cordon Bleu allowed me to experience cooking at an extremely high level. It was like going to a space camp or an Olympic camp. Your whole life you had been just finger painting and then suddenly you are working with fine artists. It was amazing, and that was what has led me into cooking at an extremely high level for the past few years. That was one of the things that exceeded my expectations.

Le Cordon Bleu allowed me to experience cooking at an extremely high level. It was like going to a space camp or an Olympic camp. Your whole life you had been just finger painting and then suddenly you are working with fine artists.

One of the things where it failed my expectations was that I was expecting that everyone else was there for some very serious reasons, too, and I thought that we were all going to sit around in a cafeteria and talk about food and have some great experiences. But sadly, most of the other classmates really just wanted to get in and out of there as quickly as possible.

Andrea: So they were not really interested in talking?

Louisa: Some were, but for the most part it was kind of like a junior year abroad. You had to be 18, so it was a chance to get away from family and friends and drink.

Andrea: Some of them really didn’t appreciate the opportunity that they got there?

Louisa: Exactly.

Andrea: That is a shame.

Louisa: It was completely. For example, you sit through a three-hour demonstration or an hour and a half demonstration. You had three hours then to go and make the dish that you had seen demonstrated. Well, I had fully intended to take every minute of those three hours because that is part of what you paid for, the time that you are there, and so I loved it. They did the grunt work in the shopping and a lot of the basic prep work, and then you get to go in and just cook the dish, which was amazing and wonderful. Then we also had the opportunity to take home all of the food that we cooked in the class. I was like, “Yes! Of course!” A lot of the students who were there were by themselves. A lot of them, sadly, would just try to get through and cook everything that they had to cook as quickly as possible, and didn’t necessarily care about the quality because they were just going to throw it all away. That was kind of disappointing. But otherwise I really loved and appreciated the experience.

Andrea: How long did you stay there?

Louisa: In the school itself it was about a year, and then after that I did the internship, which was about another 6 months in total.

Andrea: What did you do after that? Did you stay in Paris or did you return to Chicago or Los Angeles?

Louisa: I stayed for a few months after I finished and then I came back to Chicago. I was waiting for my work visa because I had spoken with the chef that I had apprenticed with and told him that I wanted to work for him, not as just an apprentice or an intern, but to be hired and paid. What I should specify too is that the apprenticeships are unpaid. Then I came back to Chicago to wait for my work visa and then I did another stage at a restaurant called El Bouli in Spain. I should also specify that the restaurant where I staged in Paris; actually it was two separate stages; the first was a pastry stage at the Hotel Plaza Athenée and then the second was a cuisine stage in the fine dining restaurant in the same hotel. That was the restaurant Alain Ducasse. Then after I left the internships and left school completely, I did another stage at El Bouli.
Andrea: Did you learn French?

Louisa: I already spoke French. Let me say that I had studied French in high school and in college and so I could read and write French and understand it fine, but had never really had the chance to speak French. But when I was working there, I learned a whole different kind of French; a lot of profanity and a lot of sexist, racist terminology that I had never learned before. It can be a very aggressive language and I would have to say that even now, when I need to speak French again, I have to adjust myself to the audience and make sure that I am speaking polite French. Sometimes it is almost like a post traumatic stress disorder and I might respond too harshly to someone. So I had to learn a whole new kind of French.

Andrea: Did you learn some food expressions?

Louisa: The food expressions are the ones that I knew already just about better than anything else. It was really just the conversational chit-chat and insults that I had to learn. Those are the sort of things that you learn in real-life situations that you don’t ever learn anywhere else.

Andrea: After this time, where did you go?

Louisa: After that, I was in Spain, and then after Spain I came back to Chicago for a short while; I think a few months. And then I moved back to Paris because I got my work visa and was hired to work as a chef at a restaurant called Les Ambassadeurs in the Hotel De Crillon in Paris.

Andrea: Now you are not in Paris anymore, so you went back to the US again?

Louisa: Yes. I was really splitting my time between Paris and Chicago for some years and working as a consultant on some different projects, doing food travel tours and working on television production, and also working as a food writer. I have really been trying to do as much as possible in all three areas that I always enjoyed, which is cooking, writing and producing television.

I have really been trying to do as much as possible in all three areas that I always enjoyed, which is cooking, writing and producing television.

Andrea: You have a variety of professions that you can lean back on.

Louisa: Thank goodness, because each of them alone is a little bit scary to depend on. The good thing is that I really do love doing all of those things..

Andrea: I heard that you went to Alaska for awhile?

Louisa: Yes. Last summer I was the chef for a fishing boat and lodge in Alaska. That came up out of the blue. In early May I got an urgent call from a childhood friend. This is actually a funny situation. It was a girl that I was best friends with in grade school as a child, but not since then. We had not been in touch for a long time. Her boyfriend was a fishing boat captain and had a small lodge, and his chef had just been arrested. It happens more often than you think in Alaska. So they were trying to find a new chef as soon as possible. I got the call on a Friday, and the following Sunday their first clients were going to arrive for the fishing season in Alaska for three to four months. As I was trying to help them find a replacement, I kept thinking, “I have always wanted to do this. I have always wanted to go to Alaska and cook there…” When you get into the chef circuit, you hear about these stories, “Oh so-and-so went to Alaska for the season…” and you think, “That is very exciting!” And at the time on the Discovery Channel here in the US, they were running a series of TV shows called “The Alaska Experiment” and “It’s Tougher in Alaska.” Seeing all of these things combined I thought, “Oh, this is very exciting!”

As I was trying to help them find a replacement, I kept thinking, “I have always wanted to do this. I have always wanted to go to Alaska and cook there…” When you get into the chef circuit, you hear about these stories, “Oh so-and-so went to Alaska for the season…” and you think, “That is very exciting!”

I thought, “Why don’t I do it?” I made a list of the pros and cons, and finally I thought, “OK; I am just going to do it!” I made the decision over the weekend, I bought my ticket to go, and by the following Friday I was in Alaska. I arrived late at night and that Saturday I spent the whole day cleaning this crazy lodge and kitchen, freezers and everything. By Sunday night we had our first clients arrive and I was up there cooking for the entire fishing season. It was amazing and wonderful, beautiful – haunted, I think – but it was stunning and a beautiful experience. My plan is to go back again. I loved it.

It was amazing and wonderful, beautiful – haunted, I think – but it was stunning and a beautiful experience. My plan is to go back again. I loved it.

Andrea: How did they know your address and telephone number and ask for help?

Louisa: This was through my childhood friend who was dating the fishing captain. They knew I was a chef and thought that maybe I knew someone and then it turned out that I came up and did it myself. It was amazing.

Andrea: Did you also get an opportunity to visit something in Alaska and have a look around?

Louisa: Not so much. I had a look around only in the town itself because the town is actually an island. It is a fairly big island, but it has about 14 miles of road and about 8000 residents so you only get on or off by boat or plane. I explored the island as much as I could, but every day I woke up at 4am to cook breakfast for the fishermen by 5am. I would pack their lunches for the boat and then do all of the shopping, and then dinner would be served by 6pm. It was nearly 24 hours/7 days a week of work for the entire fishing season. It didn’t really give you much time to explore the town, much less Alaska itself. It was so beautiful; eagles everywhere and whales outside my bedroom window. It was absolutely amazing.

Andrea: So you were there in the summer when it is warmer?

Louisa: Yes, it was in the summer. This town is called Sitka, and is situated in the southeast of Alaska, so it is in the world’s largest temperate rainforest. The temperature usually hovered around 65 degrees Fahrenheit and it rained nearly every day. It would clear up for a little bit, but it would be chilly and rainy. The sun didn’t set until midnight and it would start to get light again by 4am. It was so stunningly beautiful.

Our primary catches were salmon and halibut so I had salmon and halibut nearly every single day. I said by the end of the season, “It is going to take me a little while before I can eat salmon and halibut again.” The funny thing is that I ended up having to come back to Chicago to work on a television show during that time, unexpectedly. I was working in Alaska nearly 24 hours and 7 days a week, and then had to leave for about 2 weeks. Then I went back.

Andrea: What did you do when you returned to Chicago?

Louisa: I worked on a TV show called Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations, on the Travel Channel. It is a food and travel show in the US, and I know the show is on internationally, but I don’t remember what it is called. Anthony Bourdain is a chef and a food writer. He has a reputation of being the original bad-boy rock-and-roll type of chef. He was coming to Chicago to do a Chicago episode. He goes to a different country or city every week and explores what is going on there. I had worked on that show’s very first episode in Paris, so when they were coming to Chicago, they asked me if I would work on it, and I said, “Absolutely!”

Andrea: So now that you are in Chicago; what are you doing currently?

Louisa: I am working as a freelance food writer and a freelance chef. I have a restaurant project that I am working on, that was supposed to launch in the dead of winter, but that has been put on hold a little bit right now until the economy improves, hopefully.

Andrea: Which restaurant are you working at?

Louisa: Right now I am not working at any particular restaurant. I am consulting on some different projects or else working as a private chef or caterer, and also teaching some culinary courses; some specific skills to clients who want private instruction. I have had a couple of offers to work in restaurants, and I have to say that after having had the freedom of being the chef in my own situation in Alaska last summer, it is a little bit difficult to try and confine myself to someone else’s kitchen. Chicago does luckily have some of the best restaurants in the world. There are some restaurants where they are doing things no one else is doing anywhere. That is wonderful, but still it is a little bit difficult to do someone else’s food right now.

Andrea: Did you ever find yourself in a situation where you didn’t dare to live your dream?

Louisa: Yes, I would say that right now I feel like I am not daring to live my dream in starting my new restaurant concept. There have been situations where what I chose to do did not seem like the most magical thing; for example, going to Alaska last year. There is no real reason why it made sense for me to go, because I was working in Chicago. It is a major food city. So why in the world would I go to that small town in Alaska? Everyone else was saying, “Why don’t you stay in Chicago or go to New York or go and cook in Paris again?” Instead I went to that very small town in Alaska.

So why in the world would I go to that small town in Alaska? Everyone else was saying, “Why don’t you stay in Chicago or go to New York or go and cook in Paris again?”

Andrea: It is more adventurous of course.

Louisa: It is more adventurous, and overall, it completely made more sense. It didn’t make more sense on paper, quite frankly – my next move should have been going to New York. But going to that small town in Alaska felt more right. I wanted to do it. And ultimately it was so much better because I had the chance as a chef and a food writer and as someone who wants to show these stories on television, to get a real experience, rather than be sent on an assignment to do a story. To have had a chance to work with these products that I created and then meet the people that I met, was so incredibly valuable.

And ultimately it was so much better because I had the chance as a chef and a food writer and as someone who wants to show these stories on television, to get a real experience, rather than be sent on an assignment to do a story.

The first time I went out fishing was crazy. I had clients who were men in their 70’s who had been fishing their entire lives. They had been out on boats since they were children. Then there were visitors from California who had been fishing their entire lives in the Pacific Ocean. They came up to Alaska and were acting tough that first morning at breakfast, then came back at night so sick and worn out. I had been fishing before, but had never really been out in those sorts of conditions. My ex-boyfriend who was a yacht captain had gone sailing with me, and I thought we had been in pretty rough waters, but my God, the waters in Alaska were like those in the movie The Perfect Storm. It was unreal; the waves and the boat would literally be pitching back and forth. The first time I caught my own king salmon, for example, it was amazing to survive the trip out and then to catch that kind of fish. I thought, “OK; I have just pulled out this magnificent creature from the middle of the ocean and now I am killing it and I am going to eat it.” To be in that experience makes you feel so much more connected and respectful of the end product.

I thought, “OK; I have just pulled out this magnificent creature from the middle of the ocean and now I am killing it and I am going to eat it.” To be in that experience makes you feel so much more connected and respectful of the end product.

Getting back to your question, right now I feel like I am not living the next part of the dream, quite yet, that it is being deferred because there are unfortunately a lot of other greater issues at play with the economy.

Andrea: A lot of big companies were founded in a bad economy situation; did you know that? I think if you can survive this bad time then you will survive all times.

Louisa. I will be so excited to see how this plays out on your website and your book because that is exactly the kind of thing that is very promising. Like they say, hopefully the best ideas will survive. Yes, it is a temporary setback.

Andrea: So it is a challenge to make your idea even better so that it will survive a bad economy?

Louisa: I have certainly been adjusting and we will see. I have some plans and I will let you know as soon as or if it happens this year.

Andrea: What kind of concept for a restaurant did you create?

Louisa: I shouldn’t say that I created the concept, because it is based on the temporary restaurant concept that has popped up in France the past few years. In the US, they are called pop-up stores. For example, Nutella opened a temporary restaurant in Paris for 40 days to celebrate their 40th anniversary. During some of the food festivals, a big chef will go into a butcher shop and open a restaurant for only one night or one week. Or another big chef opened a temporary restaurant inside a department store for 30 days. It is promotional for the chef and the product. What I really like about the idea of an ephemeral restaurant is first of all, I do love the restaurant experience; everything from welcoming someone as a host to creating an experience for them as clients. I love the idea of experiencing something new and different, and that is not something that has really been explored much in the US. There are some things that are similar like the secret restaurants or the secret supper clubs but that is a little different. Alaska influenced me greatly. I want to feature a very modern type of food that is a little bit more extreme, such as frontier style food and wild game. I imagine a modern presentation of a modern experience. I call it basically an ephemeral restaurant featuring experimental, frontier food.

What I really like about the idea of an ephemeral restaurant is first of all, I do love the restaurant experience; everything from welcoming someone as a host to creating an experience for them as clients. 

Andrea: That is cool. I really like your idea. How long would you like to offer this restaurant?

Louisa: The plan would be to have it open from one full moon to the next full moon.

Andrea: Then afterwards, what would you like to do?

Louisa: I would love to do it in different places. As much as I love the whole restaurant experience, being locked into a single restaurant is very limiting. I loved being the chef in Alaska, although it was hard working almost 24 hours, 7 days a week, but I loved it. However, you get burned out. I would love to do the same thing in different places like Chicago and Shanghai and Paris and just wherever. To work with the local ingredients and have a connection with the diners and the local culture and to constantly have the freedom to move to different places would be great.

To work with the local ingredients and have a connection with the diners and the local culture and to constantly have the freedom to move to different places would be great.

Andrea: I can see that you would like to stay flexible.

Louisa: I also hope to apply the other things that I do with all of that, which is to write about it and film it.

Andrea: Except for this restaurant that you have not founded yet, do you think you live life to the fullest?

Louisa: For me? No. For the average population? Yes. I want to do more and sometimes I really can’t. But for the average person, the life that I live is incredibly fortunate and I really do appreciate that. I have had the best jobs in the world, but the bad thing about it is being a bit of an adrenaline junkie where you need more and more to keep you going. I don’t live my life to the fullest but I probably live it too full for my parents.

I don’t live my life to the fullest but I probably live it too full for my parents.

Andrea: What would you like to add to your life?

Louisa: It is funny because my sister and I were just talking about this over the weekend. I know that one of my life’s goals eventually is that we would like to help foster children and teenagers or young adults as well as have a dog sanctuary. It makes sense to me to put these things together. My sister and I don’t plan on having our own kids, but we really enjoy mentoring. We hope to get to a point where we can help foster kids to help themselves, help others, and then help dogs. I am obsessed by dogs. I adopted a dog in Alaska last summer and I feel that there is a very strong bond between people and dogs. Dogs can give people, especially some of these kids, a strong sense of self worth and accomplishment. What I would like to do is to add more service to my life.

What I would like to do is to add more service to my life.

Andrea: Do you still have this dog that you adopted in Alaska?

Louisa: Yes.

Andrea: What does your best possible life look like?

Louisa: What would be my dream life? My best possible life would be my sister and I working together with our compound, where we have a sanctuary for abused kids and abused dogs and a place where we can teach them and ourselves, too, skills for living, such as food, and the beauty of life.

My sister is a designer. She is a paper products designer, primarily designing luxury paper goods for a company called Paper Source. She designs mostly kits and projects. Do you know Martha Stewart here in the US? She does projects, like for holidays she will do design cards or favors for weddings and parties, or flowers. Her primary medium is paper.

Andrea: So what would you like to attain together?

Louisa: What we would love to do is something that would be our center. We would do a lifestyle guide – books, magazines, television – that would deal with cooking and crafts, and focus on connections through personal milestones; everything from birthdays to weddings and funerals; really learning how to connect those milestones of life.

We would do a lifestyle guide – books, magazines, television – that would deal with cooking and crafts, and focus on connections through personal milestones; everything from birthdays to weddings and funerals; really learning how to connect those milestones of life.

Andrea: Anything else that you would like to have in your dream life?

Louisa: Horses. I have always felt like one of my personal goals or signs of success would be to have a horse. I love horses. To me it speaks to that idea again of being in the wide open spaces and to have an animal connection. This is a bit naïve because I never had a horse before.

Andrea: Do you know how to ride a horse?

Louisa: A little bit; not much. It’s funny because I hear on both sides from friends who do have horses or have had horses and say, “Oh yes that makes sense!” and then other people who say, “Oh that is crazy!” I think it would feel right to have a horse. That speaks more of the symbolism of having the space to do that sort of thing.

Andrea: Professionally, what does your best possible life look like?

Louisa: I think that would be part of it; it would be to establish a foundation for everything that we do professionally. But for me personally, I would love to be able to have the ephemeral restaurant concept worldwide; to celebrate local and seasonal food and cooking techniques, as well as to continue working as both a writer and TV producer. Those would be the core of what I would like to do.

For me personally, I would love to be able to have the ephemeral restaurant concept worldwide; to celebrate local and seasonal food and cooking techniques, as well as to continue working as both a writer and TV producer.

In working with my sister I hope we would be able to emphasize a Chinese-American lifestyle guide, because that is something that we know is missing. We are not Chinese; we are Chinese-American. It is a huge difference. My maternal grandmother died fairly suddenly, then 7 weeks later to the day, my grandfather died. 7 weeks is the traditional mourning period in Chinese culture and so he died 7 weeks to the day after she did, almost as if to say that he has mourned her for 7 weeks and now he is going to go, too. There were so many things that we realized we didn’t know about how to honor this particular life’s milestone. We felt that there was a missing link there. We want there to be a connection to our own family history, but then also to help honor my parents, who are still alive.

Andrea: Do they all live in Hong Kong or are they in the US right now?

Louisa: No, they were all in Chicago. Both of my maternal great-grandfathers first moved to Chicago and then my maternal grandparents. My family has all been in Chicago, and I still have a lot of family on my father’s side that are in Shanghai and Beijing and there are some relatives in Canada. There are some rituals that we share, of course, that are Chinese, but some of them are almost specifically Chinese-American, so I would like to have that guide for Chinese-Americans that explains for example how do you have a proper Chinese-American funeral or wedding, and how do you do it in a way that honors your history. One basic question is how to do it so that it is beautiful and memorable too. With my culinary background and her design background we feel that there is a lot that we can do with it.

Andrea: Have you already started working on it or is it just an idea?

Louisa: It is an idea that I have had for some time, but it is only recently that I have spoken with some editors who are very interested. We are working on a book proposal for the first guide and I am not quite sure yet if it is going to be per specific milestone; for example a weddings guide or an overview of all of the different milestones.

Andrea: So you have more or less started. Have you always been supported by your family and your friends?

Louisa: Yes and no. Overall, they were very supportive. But on specific things, they have raised questions of doubt. “Why are you going to Alaska?” or “Why do you want to…?” When I told my mom that I was going to France to work as a chef, she couldn’t understand it. My family had all worked very hard to get out of the restaurant business because that was something to simply make money when they first moved to the US so that their kids could go to college and not have to work a labor job. It was like, “Why are you working or cooking in a kitchen?” Then I had to explain to them that it was very different, and I have to say that I don’t think that they really understood. Now there is this whole celebrity chef culture and so they understand a little bit more now the possibilities that are out there. So, my family was generally supportive but certainly there have been questions about my sanity.

Andrea: How should one treat a person who tries to restrain one from creating one’s best possible life?

Louisa: I think it depends on the person. I think some people can be outright ignored. Other people if you have either a history with them or if you respect them, then you respect their attempt at restraint or questions and you have to answer them for yourself more than anybody. So it really depends on the other person. Ignore or answer.

Andrea: But don’t just follow their advice? Do you think you should follow their advice?

Louisa: Not unless they are paying. I think that Cher said it best once when she said that life is not a dress rehearsal and over and over this has proven to be true. We do only have this one life. I didn’t mention that in the past few years, in 2006 and then again in 2007, three members of my immediate family of 5 people were very seriously sick; my mother, my father and my brother all nearly died. It was incredibly difficult and simultaneous that they were not well. It is moments like that which remind you that this life can be over. As long as we try to live a good life that does not harm other people, either physically, emotionally, or financially or all of that, then why not try to live the life that you really want?

We do only have this one life.

One of the amazing things about living in LA was that it really was a town where you saw people constantly who were living and fulfilling their dreams. Of course what I also saw a lot of times, especially in my work, was the sad underbelly side. People who lost everything tried to live their dreams. So it is a choice that you try to do the best you can in your life without hurting someone else. The only time that I would consider following along with someone’s advice would be if they provided everything and you provided nothing or if you harmed someone else.

So it is a choice that you try to do the best you can in your life without hurting someone else.

Andrea: So based on what you have learned and experienced, what advice would you give to people who want to create their best possible lives?

Louisa: I think the first thing, and something my mother would be very happy about, is educating yourself. My mother has always thought that I would be a doctor and now she still thinks that I can do whatever I want to do on the side and still be a doctor. There are so many resources that are available now, for example, your website and your book. You have a goal perhaps of doing “X”. Try to learn about “X” as much as you possibly can and then try to figure out the path between your life now and what you want it to be, and then just take the steps to do it. It is a universal truth that it’s steps; it starts out with small steps, like working out or learning a language.

You have a goal perhaps of doing “X”. Try to learn about “X” as much as you possibly can and then try to figure out the path between your life now and what you want it to be, and then just take the steps to do it.

In the beginning it seems like baby steps and then sometimes you get pushed over an edge and you have to take the big leaps. That certainly happened in my case where I have had to jump into situations when I didn’t know if I was ready. But for the most part I was ready, because of all the preparations that I had done. So to live your best life, prepare for it as much as you can.

So to live your best life, prepare for it as much as you can.

Andrea: …and then jump!

Louisa: And then also having a sense of humor about it is a big thing, too. Sometimes we can look at things and think, “This is really depressing…” and then at a point you just shrug your shoulders. Even with the world economy right now, I keep thinking, you know what? Oh well! There is not much that you and I are going to be able to do about it, so I stopped listening to that kind of news because I am still pretty much doing what I have been doing. I am trying to adapt as much as I can, but the worrying does not help. I try to have a sense of humor about it and to see how absurd things are.

I try to have a sense of humor about it and to see how absurd things are.

In 2006, I was planning on taking my parents back to China for the first time and I was worried about how their health was going to be. I took them to the doctor because the last thing I wanted to do was have to find an emergency room in China. As I was doing that for them, out of the blue my brother got very sick from an infection. He had had both hips replaced before and he had to get both hips replaced again, and he nearly died from this infection. I thought, “Are you kidding me?” I am worried about my parents and trying to take steps in order to prepare for the trip with them, and out of the blue my brother gets sick. But the good thing about that was that it was one of those challenging situations that you learn a lot about and that makes a lot of other things in your life seem trivial and absurd. So prepare as much as you can and have a sense of humor because otherwise you are not going to have fun.

Andrea: Perhaps having fun is also part of living your best possible life.

Louisa: Oh yes! A big part! For those of us who are fortunate enough to do that. My sister and I, we have that life plan of helping kids, and we know that a lot of what we receive in return is that help back. Some of the kids that we have met and have worked with, they are so amazing, so positive and so resilient and we think, “If they can be that positive, what do the rest of us have to be complaining about?” Fun is a big part of it.

Some of the kids that we have met and have worked with, they are so amazing, so positive and so resilient and we think, “If they can be that positive, what do the rest of us have to be complaining about?”

Andrea: Where did you get to know these kids?

Louisa: We got to know them through mentoring programs, and most recently we have worked with a couple of different groups and we have done fundraising. We met some kids just on a very superficial level, which is why we are hoping to do something through official mentoring programs in our area. We were talking about maybe doing Girl Scout leaderships because we did that when we were kids.

Andrea: Do you have any regrets?

Louisa: Of course. I think that only insane people don’t have any regrets. I think that all of those goals that I try to work towards are born out of some of the regrets. I still take some things too seriously and I don’t have as much fun as I could have or should have. So from the regrets we learn and then we improve.

So from the regrets we learn and then we improve.
 

Andrea: It is always like that for everyone.

Louisa, thank you very, very much for this insightful and thorough interview!