Is food the language of love or horror? Director Lulu Wang has thoughts
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Lulu Wang’s food language. ... California’s unseen child farm workers. ... Tesla Diner loses its chef. ... Maximalist Thanksgiving ramen. ... And a talent agency’s big cheese client. ... I’m Laurie Ochoa, general manager of L.A. Times Food, with Tasting Notes.
Love, grief and fried chicken
Lulu Wang didn’t really have to explain that unlike the other speakers seated beside the chicken coop and herb garden at the downtown L.A. gallery Hauser & Wirth, she doesn’t “work in food specifically.”
Many in the audience were admirers of Wang’s work as the director of “The Farewell,” which won the 2020 Independent Spirit Award for best feature, and as the creator of last year’s Amazon Prime series “Expats.” She was onstage with Sana Javeri Kadri, founder of Diaspora Spice Co.; cookbook author and L.A. Taco editor in chief Javier Cabral, and her brother, the chef Anthony Wang of the Chinatown restaurant Firstborn, which presents his personal vision of modern Chinese American cuisine.
The group had been assembled for an L.A. edition of MAD Mondays, the public talk series hosted by the Melina Shannon-DiPietro-led nonprofit started by Copenhagen chef Rene Redzepi, who is preparing for a 2026 Los Angeles residency of his restaurant Noma (exact dates and ticket info are yet to be announced). The conversation, moderated by Cabral, centered on the idea of borders and how the exchange of ingredients and cooking traditions shape the food we eat.
“Borderlands,” after all, said Cabal, “are regions of extreme fluidity.”
“People have been moving around and sharing food and culture for a very long time,” said Javeri Kadri, who pointed out that the Romans and South India’s Tamils first began trading black pepper and silver 3500 years ago. (Restaurant critic Bill Addison, by the way, called Javeri Kadri’s Aranya black pepper “an epiphany,” with surprising notes of red wine and nutmeg.)
Yet as Wang said when asked to describe her first border experience, sometimes the exchange of food between cultures is not just about the beautiful spices that Javeri Kadri sells or the chef-inventive dishes her brother creates at Firstborn, but a bucket of KFC fried chicken.
“I was six years old, and my parents said, we are immigrating to America. We are taking you away from everybody that you love, everything that you know,” she said. “Except this is the land of KFC.
“Now, I loved KFC as a kid. It was something that was totally different from what I was used to eating. ... [It] was always [a] treat [when] they would take me to KFC in Beijing.”
When she arrived in Miami, feeling lost in an unfamiliar land, her family sought solace in the fast food chain: “My parents said we’re going to take you to KFC.”
They didn’t have a car, however, so they arrived at the KFC drenched in sweat after walking in the humid Florida heat. “I ate the KFC,” said Wang, “and I was like, ‘This isn’t as good.’ And then I proceeded to throw up on the walk home.”
In her own movie and TV projects, Wang almost nonchalantly weaves food’s ability to attract and repel into her stories.
During one “Expats” episode, Filipino domestic workers are seen exchanging gossip, songs and food, including buckets of fried chicken from the Filipino fast food chain Jollibee. These boisterous, happier moments contrast with the sterility of the hors d’oeuvres passed on trays by the Filipina housekeeper and nanny Essie (played by Ruby Ruiz) at a party of wealthy expats.
Essie is also at the center of an argument between Gus (Connor James) and his mother (Nicole Kidman), who has made lasagna that the three-year old refuses to eat — he prefers Essie’s chao fan.
In another scene, the young Korean American college graduate Mercy (Ji-young Yoo) is teased when she ponders a restaurant’s menu choices (“No one comes here for the food,” her girlfriend scoffs) and when she gushes over the neon and “old-school” decor of the dining room.
“Tell that to the government,” the waiter scolds. “Hong Kong is dying.”
“I think a lot of times when we watch non-American films, particularly Asian films, there is this obsession over food,” Wang said. “And for me, that doesn’t make sense. ... I’m not making a food documentary. I’m not putting food in to romanticize it [or] exoticize it in some way for a Western audience. ... Food just is. It’s the same as people getting into cars in a movie because that’s the mode of transportation.”
Of course, in her break-out film “The Farewell,” food is practically a plot point. It’s based on the lie of omission her real-life family pressured her to go along with after her grandmother was diagnosed with cancer but not told about the test results. Billi (played by Awkwafina) journeys to China to see her grandmother, who, true to her nature, wants to cook for her granddaughter.
“Food is a plays a big part in the film because it is the language of love,” Wang said at Hauser & Wirth. “But actually, it’s a sort of horror for the main character, because when you’re in grief, you cannot eat. When you are sad and stressed out, you don’t have an appetite. But your grandmother, who doesn’t know she has cancer, just wants to feed you to show you that she loves you. And so the act of not eating is potentially a way of giving away that something is wrong. I was trying to use food as a source of tension and horror and grief as well as the expression of love.”
Wang’s chef brother, Anthony, who was born in the U.S. after their family’s move to Miami, channels many these complicated feelings into one of the most compelling expressions of Chinese American food ever seen in this country.
“Opening this restaurant, I felt this immense sense of obligation to tell [a] Chinese [story]. But I wanted to tell a story that was more nuanced,” said the chef. “Classical piano was a big part of my life so Europe was a large part of my worldview. When I decided I wanted to cook, the places I leaned on ... they were French, they were Italian. ... So what is Chinese American ... from my own perspective?”
At Firstborn, it’s a fermented tofu “Caesar” salad. It’s warm honeynut squash with a sesame sabayon, walnuts, pear and pecorino. It’s Italian gnudi made with tofu instead of ricotta (though he changed the name to “dumplings” recently when not enough customers knew what gnudi were).
It’s “telling the story,” he said, “that food moves and changes through generations and through migration, much like it did with my parents.”
Which is why sometimes Chinese American food for him is a Russian oxtail stew with sour cream on the side, just as he and his sister grew up eating it because their father worked in Moscow for a time.
“It was just my mom’s cooking,” Anthony said.
And one of the most popular dishes on the Firstborn menu? A bucket of fried chicken made Chinese American with a good coating of chili crisp.
Maximalist Thanksgiving ramen
Diego Argoti, chef of the “genre-bending” pasta pop-up Estrano and the now-closed Poltergeist, has a Thanksgiving Day tradition of “handing out free bowls of leftovers-inspired noodle soups piled with mashed potatoes, turkey and X.O.-laced cranberry sauce,” writes Food reporter Stephanie Breijo. “It’s his way of giving back to the city.” Argoti, wearing a snappy Hello Kitty shirt, came to The Times Test Kitchen recently to show us how he makes the loaded ramen, leaving us with a recipe plus tips we captured on video for the easiest way to break down a Thanksgiving turkey.
If you need more Thanksgiving inspiration, senior Food editor Danielle Dorsey talked with Pyet DeSpain, Season 1 winner of Gordon Ramsay’s “Next Level Chef,” about her new cookbook “Rooted in Fire: A Celebration of Native American and Mexican Cooking.” DeSpain also shared recipes for “Rooted in Fire” Fry Bread and Bison and Sweet Corn Soup.
And don’t forget our recently published Mexican-inspired Thanksgiving feast from contributor Carolynn Carreño with recipes for Roasted Turkey With Mole-Inspired Spice Rub and Holiday Picadillo With Dried Fruit and Nuts to serve as your dressing. Her Mexican Chocolate Pecan Tart is especially delicious.
One last recipe tip. For a terrific one-bowl cake for holiday guests, try the recipe for Olive Oil Cake With Candied Fennel from Shannon Swindle, the hugely admired executive pastry chef of Funke in Beverly Hills and Felix in Venice. He came to The Times Test Kitchen to show us how he makes the cake for our Chef That! video series. The candied fennel alone is worth checking out the recipe.
Tesla turnover
Just four months after its unveiling, the Tesla Diner is losing its opening chef and co-operator Eric Greenspan. The founder of New School American Cheese told Stephanie Breijo that his departure was in the works for more than a month.
“I am leaving the Tesla Diner project to focus on the opening of Mish, my long-desired Jewish deli,” Greenspan said in a text to Breijo.
She wrote that the chef did not answer when asked “whether any negative response” due to polarizing feelings about Tesla CEO Elon Musk “contributed to his split from the company, nor regarding the future of the restaurant’s menu.” But members of the staff did tell reporter Suhauna Hussain on Tuesday that they’ve “been informed ... the diner will be converted into a full-service restaurant by January.”
California’s unseen teen and child farm workers
In collaboration with the nonprofit investigation news publication Capital & Main, the Times has published a two-part report by former L.A. Times journalist Robert J. Lopez on children and teenagers harvesting produce on California farms under conditions that expose them to pesticides for pay that is often below minimum wage. Working with former Times photographer and Pulitzer Prize winner Barbara Davidson, Lopez interviewed 61 young farm workers
“Jose was exhausted but working as fast as he could; he was being paid $2.40 for each box he filled,” Lopez wrote. “As he ran with a full box, he fell on the uneven ground and twisted his ankle. It hurt for days, he later recalled, but he didn’t say anything to his boss for fear of losing his job.”
“‘You just gotta suck it up, and you gotta work through it,’ he said on a recent Sunday, his only day off that week.”
Advent of edible luxury
With the holidays upon us, Stephanie Breijo reported on the growing demand for luxury advent calendars. “Due to a recent boom in popularity and a new allure for adults,” she wrote, “now there are advent calendars for candles, jewelry, fishing tackle, makeup, dog treats, perfumes, nail polish and Legos. But some of the world’s most enticing might be those dedicated to your favorite foods.”
Also ...
- Baroo‘s Kwang Uh, Bestia‘s Ori Menashe and Genevieve Gergis, Bridgetown Roti’s Rashida Holmes, Holbox‘s Gilberto Cetina, Morihiro‘s Mori Onodera, Chi Spacca‘s Nancy Silverton and Alisa Vannah, Seline‘s Dave Beran, Dunsmoor‘s Brian Dunsmoor, Fat + Flour‘s Nicole Rucker, Heritage Barbecue‘s Nick Echaore and Ki’s Ki Kim are just some of the chefs who will be serving food at the reveal party celebrating the L.A. Times 101 Best Restaurants in Los Angeles, chosen by critic Bill Addison and columnist Jenn Harris, and sponsored by Open Table and Square. Get your tickets and join us on Dec. 9 at the Hollywood Palladium.
- Henry “Hank” Jackson, the proprietor and patriarch of the Hyde Park community hub Hank’s Mini Market has died at the age of 85, reports Food’s senior editor Danielle Dorsey. “During a period of disinvestment when South L.A. communities were increasingly overlooked and underserved,” said L.A. County Supervisor Holly J. Mitchell, “Mr. Jackson made the courageous decision to open Hank’s Mini Market. ... He chose to stay and invest.”
- With this weekend’s 1980s and “Stranger Things”-themed edition of CicLAvia, in which bike riders, skaters and walkers take over Los Angeles streets normally flowing with cars, Dorsey put together a guide to 15 eating and drinking stops along the Melrose Ave. route that are useful any day of the year. Among her picks: Maison Matho, Kuya Lord, Milk Bar and, for true nostalgia, Pink’s Hot Dogs.
- Columnist Jenn Harris tries out seven new pizza spots, from Bub and Grandma’s Pizza in Highland Park to Zach Pollack’s Cosetta in Santa Monica.
- You might want to stock up on Italian pasta with the threat of a 107% tariff that could come in early January. “Pasta is a pretty small sector to pick on” said Sal Auriemma of Philadelphia’s Claudio Specialty Foods. “It’s basic food. Something’s got to be sacred.”
- Finally, United Talent Agency has reportedly signed a big cheese client — as in Parmesan cheese — “in order to pursue product placement opportunities,” writes Tracy Brown, “in film and TV projects.” Already, a wheel of Parmigiano Reggiano has made a guest appearance on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.”
