Carrying on a Chinese food legacy
Updated: 2015-04-17 11:41
By Niu Yue in New York(China Daily USA)
|
||||||||
Stephen Chen (left), Joyce Chen (center) and Helen Chen appear in a family photo together in the 1970s. Provided to China Daily |
The mission to continue to popularize Chinese food fell to her children. Joyce Chen Restaurant closed in 1998, partly due to intensifying competition from a surging number of Chinese restaurants, some of them run by people who once worked for Joyce Chen.
The business, Helen said, was also too time consuming. "It is one of those businesses that are 24/7," she said. "You don't really have the family life that people who just work nine to five, Monday through Friday have."
Stephen is now running Joyce Chen Foods, a sauce, condiment and frozen food brand. Through co-packagers, the products are available in stores all over the United States.
"We try to be organic, gluten free, lower in sodium, all natural, all quality," he said. "My mother's name is on it, and I don't want to do anything to embarrass her name."
Helen was initially running Joyce Chen's cookware business, but sold it to a Chicago company in 2003, as more capital was needed to keep the company growing.
"At a certain point, many companies that have been established by families or individuals eventually sell," she said. "You just cannot keep on growing and growing, and just have the family run it. You can stop growing if you want, but the business will eventually fail."
Instead, Helen has written three cook books herself, and she created her own cookware brand, "Helen's Asian Kitchen", which is distributed by Harold Import Company in Lakewood, New Jersey.
Helen has also inherited her mother's idea of making the food business "not just a business, but a cultural exchange center". She is now teaching cooking at Boston University, and also giving classes to children interested in cooking with the help of a non-profit organization.
"I explain about the cuisine, but I also try to put together how the culture, the geography and history of China are really expressed in the food," she said.
She told China Daily that a lot of knowledge was behind food. For example, when Chinese people refer to meat, they usually refer to pork instead of beef. It is partly because of China's geography, with only around ten percent of land arable.
"The land cannot be put aside for grazing animals. We may have a lot of cows in the Mid-west and Argentina, but not in China," said Helen.
When the last of Joyce Chen's restaurants closed, Boston Business Journal said the "last pieces of the Joyce Chen empire fell."
Her eldest son Henry's retail store "Joyce Chen Unlimited" was closed in 2008 one year after his death. But Stephen told China Daily that what he and Helen are doing is "touching more people than having a restaurant".
"In a restaurant, you are limited by how many people can sit down. But now, we sell to supermarkets and cookware stores around the country. And you just gain a big audience," he said.
Both Helen and Stephen are continuing to spread Chinese cuisine and the culture behind it. "It's not just about passing on Joyce Chen, but the spirit of what she was doing, which is the legacy of the Chinese food culture, said Helen. "China is the only living old civilization in the world."
Lu Huiquan in New York contributed to this story.
- Fourth generation of 'face-kini' soon to hit beach in Qingdao
- Tibetan town captures photos of their 'panda deity'
- 600 arrested in Beijing's vice crackdown
- Building collapse in Guizhou caused by landslide: govt
- Xi welcomes Japan delegation but warns against historical distortion
- Chinese Vice-Premier stresses flood control
- Ireland becomes first country to vote for equal marriage: PM
- Gov't declares high alert after landslide blocks Kali Gandaki River in Nepal
- Restorers give shape to Pompeii victims
- China, Russia end joint naval exercises
- Japanese visit underlines thaw in relations
- China, Brazil cooperation can ride 'winds and tides'
- Premier talks with Chinese entrepreneurs in Peru
- Tourists enjoy themselves at Mingsha Hill desert
- Colombia: A birdwatcher's paradise
- Journey of a migrant girl from village to ad world
- Photographer captures Chinese on the train
- Hou Hsiao-Hsien's The Assassin premieres in Cannes
- Top 10 highest-paid white-collar jobs in China
- The dying craft of balance scales
Most Viewed
Editor's Picks
Premier Li embarks on Latin America visit |
What do we know about AIIB |
Full coverage of Boao Forum for Asia |
Annual legislative and political advisory sessions |
Spring Festival trends reflect a changing China |
Patent applications lead the world |
Today's Top News
Chinese premier arrives in Chile for official visit
Expansion of free trade possible on Chile visit
Chilean president sees promising prospects for relations with China
Chinese premier encourages firms to upgrade cooperation with Peru
China, Peru agree on feasibility study on transoceanic railway
China manufactures first
car for US market
Wisconsin hopes to make cheeseheads in China
China, Peru to diversify trade focus
US Weekly
Geared to go |
The place to be |