(upbeat music) - [Danielle] On a fishing boat off of the coast of Half Moon Bay, at of fourth generation produce farm north of San Diego, at the Oregon home of America's oldest tofu shop, and at a James Beard-nominated restaurant founded by a former CIA operative, we found incredible examples of immigrant hope and perseverance that paved the way for a new generation of Asian-American chefs, restaurateurs, and culinary entrepreneurs.

Join us as we hear their stories on this episode of Lucky Chow.

(upbeat introductory music) (soft music) - [Danielle] Each new generation has to find its own path but sometimes they get to build on a trail that's already begun.

In this episode, William and I will visit Asian-Americans who are building on rich family legacies.

First, we head to Pillar Point Harbor in Half Moon Bay, California, to meet a chef who inherited his mother's passion for food.

Erling Wu-Bower has been nominated for best chef awards three times by the James Beard Foundation.

His Chicago-based restaurant, Pacific Standard Time, brings the bounty of the California coast to the Midwest.

It's here that his culinary journey began and it was his mother Liv Wu, who taught him how to cook the Pacific Standard way.

- Uh so this is the beginning of cooking for me.

I, uh, I was a fisherman first and a cook second.

When you pull this animal out of the ocean, and then you get to cut it and cook it and you get to taste the whole process, that's when I really fell in love with cooking.

- Really?

- But, yeah my grand, my grandfather and my mom actually took me fishing a ton.

Mom didn't like to come on boats because she gets sick but we had a lot of line fishing together.

- So then, did you start out really cooking fish and seafood?

- Yeah, for sure.

- Ooh, I don't think I'm going to kiss you.

- [Erling] (laughing) - So when was the last time you went fishing out here?

- Out here was here probably seven years ago.

- Seven years ago?

My God.

- Had a family and a couple restaurants in the meantime, it's been a little bit long - [Danielle] Right.

- ...but these are amazing - [Erling] yellow rockfish.

- [William] Gorgeous right here.

- [Erling] Yeah.

- [Erling] Hopefully we'll do some more damage.

- How many fish you think we're gonna to catch today?

- I don't know.

- Don't jinx it, that's like a - [William] jinx question.

- [Erling] These are pieces of sole and these are pieces of herring, and we're gonna throw these back down over here and see what happens.

- [William] Cool.

- [Danielle] Okay.

- [Erling] All right.

- [William] Absolutely an incredible morning.

Caught a couple already, more than a couple actually, like six.

- [William] The air smells great, it's a beautiful day.

- It's like heaven.

- [William] It's pulling a little bit.

I mean, it's definitely, here we go!

There we go.

Looking good.

Look what I caught.

- [Danielle] Ahhh - [William] There you go.

- [Danielle] Yay!

- [William] Look what we did.

- [Danielle] After a successful fishing expedition we joined Erling for a homecoming.

Liv Wu is a well known author and educator who has written cookbooks and founded three cooking schools, including it's current incarnation, as Liv Cook Eat, where she offers classes on cooking locally, seasonally, and improvisationally.

A former executive chef for Google, she still lives here in Northern California with a sun-kissed garden and spectacular kitchen where Erling fell in love with cooking.

- [Erling] Here's some of the rockfish that we got.

- [William] Wow.

- [Liv] That's gorgeous Erling.

Oh!

- I caught that one.

- You caught that?

- I caught that one.

- I am impressed.

- Number one.

- He pulled it over the side, you know?

- Yeah.

(laughing) - The Chinese word for umami has the character fish in it, - [Danielle] Oooh... - and it has the character land.

So it's, it's the combination of... - [William] Oh wow - ...contrasting land and marine... - [Danielle] Oh, really?

- ...that makes umami, xian, it's, that's pronounced xian - [Together] Xian - And so any time you're cooking seafood you're just bringing up umami.

- [Danielle] Okay - Anything from the ocean.

- [Erling] My mom taught me how to do this, we just run it backwards.

- Anyone try the other side?

- Yeah - Alright.

(scraping) - And then, so because you're mom was a food writer did you grow up with a bunch of chefs and restaurateurs?

- [Erling] We did, we did.

- I was really, really lucky enough to have Rick Bayless in my life early on.

- [Danielle] Ah - He was a good friend of Mom's.

- [Danielle] Uh huh - Um, and he really taught me to, you know, not be afraid of flavor, that people don't want to eat what they eat at home when they go out.

- Yeah - Love vinegar, love salt - [Danielle] And how do you describe Mom's cooking?

- Uh, Mom's cooking is really based in Chinese tradition, trying, trying to celebrate roots, um, and mine is far more experimental, far more embracing of other cultures.

- [Erling] Pull that towards us Pull hard, pull.

(laughing) (inaudible) (laughing) - [Danielle] I definitely got that in my hair (laughing) - Professionally cleaned - By Danielle and Erling - [William] By Danielle, yeah - All right, lets go to it - [Liv] What I do is I cut, um with a knife on a forty-five degree angle, I cut a couple of slits, just as, just to let flavor penetrate.

- [Liv] You wanna try that with that the second fish.

- [William] Sure.

- All right - [William] Look he's slippery (laughing together) - [Liv] It's still alive.

- [William] (exclaims) - [Liv] (laughing) - [Danielle] Is this how you teach your students?

- [Liv] It, it is.

I say why, so, so there's a p... piece of food science.

And then, when, later on, we're gonna talk about the seasoning aspect which is building flavor.

And so, if you can build flavor you don't need a recipe.

And if you know the principles of food science, you, you're, you're really free to cook.

- I teach all my students to hack recipes.

Figure out what's behind a recipe, break it down, make the substitutions but make intelligent ones and build flavor.

- [Danielle] Having fished and cooked all morning, we were hungry for lunch and wanted to hear more from Liv about the element of a perfect meal.

- And, and what we wanna taste is a, a paint set that's global to start with.

Do I really have umami?

Do I really have a dish that says sweet?

Do I have a dish that says sour?

You're memory bank of what you've tasted and the stories you hear about food are part of you too.

- [William] You're idea... - ...is that American food is fundamentally a hybrid of all these different cultures.

- [Erling] There's no definition to the actual cuisine and I actually think that here in central and southern California there's actual, the needle is actually moving as far as, you know, what American food is.

Right, all of a sudden we had this vessel called the tortilla, and we realized that anything under the sun could go into it, right?

And that's American food.

That's truly American food.

- I really think we're living in the immigrant century - [William] Uh hmm - This is where all the diasporas are, uh, meeting each other, were, were coming face to face.

And, and so, and it, it's adaptive cuisine and I'm so happy we're past the point of a chef going to some exotic place for two weeks and coming back and putting that on a plate and calling that fusion.

It, it's just reality.

(glasses clanging) - [Danielle] After a delightful day with Liv and Erling we head south to San Diego to visit another family who's passion also spans generations.

(guitar playing) - [Danielle] In the early 1920's, Junzo Chino migrated to the US from Japan to pursue his dreams of farming.

After he and his family were interned in Arizona during World War II, they purchased 56 acres in fertile Rancho Santa Fe, California and Chino Farms was born.

Famed chefs like Alice Waters are drawing to Chino Farms for the high quality, striking beauty, and flavor of their produce.

We soon discover what their magic is all about.

- So technically, at one point in time, this farm, like, up until, like, maybe like six years ago.

We were in Rancho Santa Fe, like after World War II my family moved here.

They came here, this is the property they had, but like they didn't want me to go to high school with them.

So they changed, like, the area code so this wasn't Del Mar, so I had to go like, they had us go to school in like Encinitas, instead of, like, the high school right there because this technically is part of Rancho.

So like, all Rancho post offices, we still get our, like, our mail delivered, because, like, for a long time they didn't want, like, my family to go to school.. - [William] Because you were Japanese.

- Correct.

- [William] And this was after your grand... your grandmother and grandfather, uhm, came back from from the internment camps where they spent... - My dad actually, like, nine, nine brothers and sisters, eight brothers and sisters and I think he's the only one who wasn't alive or born in the internment camp - [Danielle] Oh wow.

- So I think there's eight of them who experienced - [William] Yes.

- Some as, some level, obviously like, depending on what age you were - [William] Right.

It's a completely different experience but yeah... - And there was two years in the camps before your... your grandparents came here.

- Correct.

- [Danielle] We were touched by Makoto's dedication to Chino Farms which was not in doubt.

Yeah, we were also curious about the root of his commitment.

With a law degree and opportunities that his grandfather didn't have, why did he choose to spend his life on the farm?

We wanted to find out what drew Makoto to the farming life and to Chino Farms in particular.

- [Makoto] I think the farm defines so much of who I am.

In terms of, like, who I am, I wouldn't want my kids to not have that.

But in terms of, like, the responsibility and stuff like that, like, I have breakfast at home, like, my parent's home, one day a year my whole life, like, Christmas Day.

- That's it.

- And it's still by 7:30 he's at the farm right - Right.

- Like just having breakfast at home.

Our seasons are so short, like uh, during summer it's like micro-seasons too, every two weeks is a new, new season of, like, fruit, of greens, or whatever.

So it goes, goes in and out so quick, it's like, lima beans, pluot's, plums, early plums, like, it goes so quickly, like, you can't set a... you know, four, four time a year menu here.

It doesn't really work.

- [Danielle] Chino farms is legendary for producing the highest quality of produce and are known for their heirloom varieties especially their melons, berries and corn.

William and I head to the fields to harvest the day's bounty.

We also get to meet Tom Chino, the patriarch of the farm, and taste his special Taiwanese sorbet swirl watermelon.

I didn't know this is the Taiwanese variety.

- Yes.

Ah Taiwan, the company is very pretty famous for seeds - [Danielle] Oh really.

Oh.

Watermelon season... - [William] Mmmmm... - [Danielle] I was born in Taiwan.

So... - [Tony] Oh really?

- [Danielle] Yeah.

- [William] That is incredible.

- [Danielle] So, look at the sorbet swirl - Yeah I love that.

For me it's, it's not just the flavor, I love the texture of this one.

- [Tom] Oh I see.

(inaudible) That's the thing about melons, um, like, the seedless watermelons in the United States they're mostly very crisp, hard flesh - [William] (mumbles) Whereas the Asian melons, watermelons, have a softer flesh - [William] Yeah.

So the Japanese have the softer flesh melons.

So, it make, they make, uh, (inaudible) what we're trying to find is, is an Asian variety of seedless melon that has that characteristic soft flesh but seedless.

- [William] Yeah.

- [Danielle] William and I lend a hand at the Farm Stand where the line start forming well before the Chino's open for business.

- Ooooh (tapping sound) I don't know, what do you think?

(tapping sound) Sounds ready to me - Yes.

(laughs) (upbeat music) - [Makoto] This is the 50th anniversary of the Farm Stand.

And so, I think they used to take, they used to do a wholesale peppers and like they would take it up to L.A. and sell them in the markets there but I think right around that time like mid-60s is when, like, grocery stores started having, like, a direct relationship with the farms instead of the wholesalers.

I, I guess my family, like, taking stuff up there but just won't get sold and because, like, you know, they did have the...

I guess we're not effusive enough.

They were thinking about quitting farming at that time because, like, they couldn't sell out the wholesale place, they didn't have, like, direct relationship.

And I don't think Marketing and Sales is our strength.

I think our strength is we're working hard in making good vegetables.

- [Danielle] And people find you.

Yeah.

Exactly.

- [Danielle] As we left Tom, Makoto and the others we really did feel like honorary members of the Chino family.

We were even included in their annual Obon Festival.

But we lit lanterns on the farm to honor the Chino family ancestors.

The heartfelt experience was a glimpse of how family bonds can survive and adapt across generations.

(fun music) - [Danielle] Not far from the farmlands of Rancho Santa Fe, in the heart of Hollywood, sits a landmark institution from the 1930s where its original owner Lem Quon taught generations about the joys of Chinese American cooking.

When we heard that the legendary Formosa Cafe just completed a two year 2.4 million dollar restoration, we decided to take a road trip up to sunny Los Angeles to learn more about the special place this restaurant occupies, in the hearts of both Angelinos and in Asian American entertainment history.

- This was a cafe in the 1920's called the Red Post and then in 1939 it became Formosa.

Lem Qoun, the chef became a partner with Jimmy Bernstein and uh, they decided to let Lem choose the theme.

He created what we see now.

My goal was to preserve all the history that everyone remembers, you know.

The place change several times through out the decade, little bits.

My time was in the 90's and so the way you see it now is very much the way it was in the 90's.

The way you saw it in the movie LA Confidential - [William] Right.

- [Bobby] Just like that.

- That iconic scene with Lana Turner.

- Exactly yes, who has a booth there and then, that was a real thing.

- [Bobby] It wasn't made up.

- [William] Which one was Lana's booth?

- [Bobby] Lana's was next to Elvis.

- [William] Aaah.

- Yeah, yeah and this was Marilyn Monroe's right here.

- [William] Okay.

- [Bobby] LA had an amazing train system called The Red Car Line.

This was from the original series of trains.

It was old, by the 1930s it was old and was decommissioned and replaced.

So you could buy a train car the way you'd buy a container today.

Add it to your business, make you know, a cheap like add-a-room.

- Okay - And uh that's what they did, they bought this in 1940, added it to the Formosa for more seating.

- [Danielle] In addition to the beautiful new interiors the restored Formosa Cafe also acts as a thoughtfully curated exhibition of Asian American, Hollywood history and Memorabilia.

- And then I also, I tracked down an Author that I was a fan of.

A guy named Arthur Dong.

- Okay - He had written a book about the night clubs of Chinatown, San Francisco called Forbidden City and it was right up my alley, exactly the kind of like 30's 40's you know, stuff I like to - [William] History, Romance.

- Yeah, exactly.

And so it turns out he lives in LA and I met with him and he was working on a new book called Hollywood Chinese.

which is really what The Formosa is, you know it's a, it's a, it's a mix of Hollywood and Chinese together.

And so I said, Hey would you like to curate this room?

You know, put some of your collection into it.

And he, and he said, yes.

He put together in chronological order every Asian American Actor/Actress from about 1910 all the way to 1970.

The menu is mostly Cantonese/Chinese.

- [William] Chinese/American.

- [Bobby] Yes, exactly.

- [William] Typical of that time.

- {Bobby] Yes, I think it was just a mix of whatever Lem knew how to make.

- [William] Right.

- {Bobby] You know, ended up on the menu.

- [Danielle] The restaurant celebration of Asians on both sides of the camera is a collaboration with the Writer and Filmmaker Arthur Dong.

The leading Historian of the Asian American role in Hollywood.

- They walk in have their drinks their Maitai's have their Wonton's, if all they feel is that impression, like, Whoa!

I didn't know Hollywood had all these Asian American's participating and they're beautiful and, and they're gruff as well.

I mean there are some of the actors are Character Actors, uh and that's all a Patron walks away from being in the backroom, I would've been happy.

I remember the first conversation I had with Bobby, was, but you know I have to think of what my people are going to think of me doing this work here.

Will they think I'm appropriating our culture?

Will they think that I'm uh, just using it to uh, in this environment and I can see where there might be some criticism.

Well how can you do this to our history?

But I think they care and also I think the fact that this is The Formosa Cafe is so beloved by so many people in town.

- I was actually completely blown away by the number of Asian Americans lining those walls, all those incredible gorgeous actors, dancers, directors producers.

Who knew that Hollywood had such a rich Asian American history.

- As a kid I've always loved film history and my goal is actually to be a film historian.

But then I became a Filmmaker, but everything I do is infused with a lot of research.

and if you look at my films they often have really generous doses of of carbon material.

And I think that's because, I mean, I'm not a psycho analyst but I think that's why my films have a lot of archival photos uh and footage and it's 'cause I just love the research.

Making film's is an excuse for me to research, history and especially film history.

- That's why I think that this restaurant, this whole concept, works so well because it is a historical anthology of what happened during a period of time in LA and it, so it feels alive and its breathing that's why it's a restaurant, its not a historical museum.

- [Bobby] Exactly.

- You know, you come here and you eat and you drink and you have fun.

- But I want you to personally know how personally proud I felt, sitting in that room, looking up at all those beautiful faces and seeing all that history on the walls made me really proud to be a Chinese American.

And kind of seeing this part of history that a lot of people don't get to see so thank you for sharing that with all of us.

- Thank You.

(upbeat music) - [Danielle] William and I have come to Portland, Oregon.

Not to find coffee but in search of America's oldest tofu house.

Ota Tofu has been making exquisite tofu in the Pacific Northwest for more than a century.

Surviving Anti-Japanese discrimination and the pressure to automate in a modern world.

Ota Tofu sticks to its roots.

And we're about to meet the next generation that's carrying on these ancient traditions.

- So can you tell us a little bit about the history of this place?

- Yeah so our Operations Manager Ko Ota, his Grandfather Seizo Ota started the company in 1911 and it's been passed on from generation to generation.

I've always wanted to buy a business, so I didn't want to buy a business that I was gonna work a couple years and then sell it.

- [William] Right.

- So I'm here for the long run, and um, I hopefully want to pass this down to my kids.

- What did you do for work before you bought the business?

- When I was growing up I always thought that I was going to play baseball, um and I was going to be a Major League Baseball Player.

- [William] Okay (all laugh) - I was fortunate enough to play college baseball where I actually won a National Championship - Wow.

with the Oregon State University, um in 2007.

- Go Beavers!

- Yeah Go Beavers!

- So your dream did come true.

- Yeah exactly, part- partly.

I mean, in 2008 I actually got drafted by the Texas Rangers Organization.

And uh, I got to play a couple years of Minor League Baseball - [Danielle] That's awesome.

- And yeah I was, it was awesome.

But unfortunately I um I dove for a ball, I injured my shoulder and that was it, - [William] Okay - For my baseball carrer.

- [William] Yeah.

- [Jason] Yeah So um... - [Danielle] Lucky for the Tofu Industry.

(all laugh) - Yeah exactly.

- [Danielle] Jason takes us into the heart of the Ota Factory where we see for ourselves that tofu making is truly a hands on business.

- [Jason] My vision for this company is to really be a landmark here in Portland.

I want people in Port- people in Portland to feel proud that America's uh, oldest tofu company is here, right here in Portland and that they want to bring their friends or family that visit to come try our tofu.

- The first step of our process is uh grinding the beans.

So we measure out um, how many beans we need to do one batch and then we grind it with water.

Our manufacturing process is handmade a very hands-on approach.

A lot of our other competitors they have a machine or automated process for making tofu.

We actually, Ko and the previous owner Eileen tried to automate the process but it wasn't producing the quality of tofu that they wanted.

(upbeat music) - [Danielle] Next, I go from being a spectator to a participant.

I get a lesson in the art of cutting fresh made tofu.

- [William] The good thing about fresh hand-cut tofu is it looks like it was cut by hand.

Even if it's a jittery hand.

Well done Danielle!

- [Jason] Awesome!

- I'm gonna.... cut and fry some tofu.

This is where my Mother will be horrified when she see's these chopsticks skills.

Oh my goodness, I knew this was gonna come to haunt me one day.

(laughs) (upbeat music) - [William] Jason do you eat a lot of tofu?

Like how many days a week do you eat tofu?

- I eat tofu a lot, ummm... my favorite is just eating plain tofu with the soy sauce and ginger.

How is it?

- [Danielle] It's incredible!

the texture is not like - [William] Mmmm.

anything I've ever had before.

I've only had like, ready-made, soaken tofu but not firm like this.

- A customer last week traveled from Idaho to the Bay Area.

And it was a six hour detour to come to Portland just for the tofu.

- [Danielle] Oooohhh.

- [William] Wow!

- (laughs) Someone just came here just to eat tofu.

- I can see how this is completely craveable edible.

- It's ah detour worthy, absolutely.

It's been such an incredible pleasure, meeting you, seeing the operation and Danielle and I we're pretty fortunate I mean we wanna thank you for keeping this tradition alive, this is a company that has such an incredible legacy and you are preserving it.

(upbeat music) - [Danielle] In a small Portland Strip Mall, we find another family's story.

A family business with roots in the dark history of the Vietnam War.

I could never imagine that one of America's most beloved Vietnamese restaurant's had it's roots amidst stuff and hardship.

William Vuong worked with the CIA during the war.

First as a translator and eventually as an agent.

- You were an Intelligence Officer?

- Yeah, that's it, an Intelligence Officer, but I traded to become Combat Officer.

My unit's suppose to come first, for reconnaissance.

After the war I was left behind.

- [Danielle] At the end of the Vietnam War William was imprisoned by the Communist Regime for 10 years.

His wife Christina had to raise their five children without their Father.

It took an additional six years after he was released to reunite with his family and more long difficult years to immigrate to Portland.

(melancholy music) Pining for the flavors of his homeland.

William opened the family's first restaurant in 2004.

In 2015, William and Christina opened Rose VL.

It specializes in hard to find regional soups that Christina learned to make from William's mom.

They provided nourishment and a connection to William even during those long years apart.

Their known for creating two complex soup offerings each day.

Soups that have earned Christina a James Beard Best Chef Nomination.

How do you feel about having your son's continue your legacy through the restaurant business?

- I'm so lucky.

- [Danielle] You're so lucky, right?

- Continue what I'm doing.

- [Danielle] Did you ever think that you were going to come to Portland and open a restaurant?

- Never before.

- [Danielle] Never before, but life takes you places.

- Everything in your mind, create your something for the family.

- [Danielle] When you look at these pictures and you think about where your life is now, how do you feel?

- Oh I feel very lucky, I had to survive.

I don't know how I survived through until today with 10 years in prison.

- [Danielle] William and Christina are survivors who rose from the ashes of war and built not only a successful restaurant in America but a large flourishing family happily enjoying life, one spoonful at a time.

The future look's bright for William and Christina's family, after all they, like all our other new friend's are preserving history, honoring tradition and creating a legacy for future generations through the Universal Language of Food.

Each and every one of these stories is rooted in passion, perserverence and purpose.

The three key ingredients to any of life's most fulfilling recipe's.

(joyful symphony music) (upbeat music)