Food writer Eddie Lin pays tribute to a chef who embraced the multiethnic mixture of L.A. after immigrating to Baja.
I first met chef Lupe Liang in June 2010, when I was invited to emcee the very first Chinatown Summer Nights event. It would be a big community party with food, music and art. He and I helped plan the culinary stage programming, and I had some pre-performance jitters.For much of the evening, the audience was sparse, most opting to hang out across the street at Central Plaza where there was a DJ, bar and dancing. However, once Lupe set up for his cooking demo, a decent crowd started to gather.
After he finished cooking, volunteers passed samples of food to the crowd. The audience couldn’t get enough of it. The delight on Lupe’s face was priceless. Cooking was in his blood. He had cooked since he was 7 years old. Chef-life was the only life he knew.
By the ’80s, the Liangs arrived in Los Angeles, and by 1993, they’d own Hop Woo, a tiny eight-seat hole in the wall serving Cantonese cuisine. The couple would later transform it into a larger, more appealing restaurant that still sits at 845 N. Broadway. Whenever I’d come into Hop Woo alone for a quick bite, Lupe never needed to ask for my order. Magically, a bowl of wonton noodle soup with beef stew and tendon appeared before me — the hearty soup that was my Chinatown childhood in a bowl. I shared with him the story of my comfort food early on in our friendship, and he never forgot how important that humble dish was to me.
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