Sept. 8, 2023 – When two hydrogen atoms fuse to create helium, massive amounts of energy are released in the form of heat and light. It’s the chemical reaction at the core of the Sun. When Chef Susanna Foo, award-winning chef and cookbook author, and longtime member of the Philadelphia and Delaware Valley Bailliages, fused classic French cooking techniques with traditional Chinese cuisine at her eponymously named restaurant in Philadelphia, the reaction transformed the core of her life and Chinese cooking in the United States. In 1988, one year after opening her restaurant, The International Wine & Food Society named Chef Foo one of the 10 best chefs in the United States. “I was totally surprised. All of a sudden, the restaurant got very famous and people had to wait a couple of weeks for a reservation,” Chef Foo said to Chaîne during an Aug. 21, 2023 telephone interview.
Reflecting on her success, Susanna credits her happy childhood in China and Taiwan for her love of food and is thankful for her excellent sense of taste, which she says is essential for professional chefs to have in order to put an indelible stamp on the culinary world.
Childhood
Born in Inner Mongolia in northern China, her father served in the armed forces and met her mother when he was stationed with a battalion in Wu-lan. When she was three years old, they moved to Shaanxi province, also in northern China where the daily staple was wheat, not rice. In fact, her father never liked rice so the family ate noodles, bread, pasta, dumplings and pancakes. Her mother did not like to cook but had a keen sense of taste and smell. She would often take Susanna with her to the market.
Susanna spent hours in the kitchen with her grandmother who showed her how to make many different varieties of dough. Her grandmother would tell her unless she learned how to make dumplings faster, she would never get a husband!
Her family moved from China to Kao-hsiung, Taiwan, a seaport town about 200 miles south of Taipei., when Susanna was in the third grade. To her, it was paradise. She and her brother would forage in nearby fields after harvest picking up small potatoes and peanuts. And they just had to open their front door to pick pomegranates from the large tree in their front yard.
Nurtured by fresh vegetables, fresh fruit, and main dishes and dough made from scratch, Susanna traces her love of food to her childhood. Her fond food memories are burnished in all of her senses. Inspired by very specific childhood taste experiences, Susanna called on those memories for each dish she created at her restaurant. However, much as the success of her restaurant was a surprise, so too was even her career as a chef. She did not set out to be a chef. Her goal as a young woman was to get married and be a good housewife.
Marriage and move to the United States
One of the happiest days of her youth was the day in 1961 when she was accepted to National Taiwan University to study Library Science. In her third year, she met E-Hsin Foo whose mother loved to cook and arrange flowers. After graduation and marriage, Susanna and E-Hsin moved to Pittsburgh in 1967 where E-Hsin continued his engineering studies at Carnegie Mellon Institute (now Carnegie Mellon University) and Susanna enrolled in a Master of Science program in Library Science at the University of Pittsburgh.
With political upheaval in Asia in the 1970s, E-Hsin’s parents moved to Philadelphia in 1971 and opened a coffee shop. As larger chain restaurants responded to the exploding popularity of artisan coffee, the Foo family changed their focus from coffee to traditional Chinese cuisine. Other family members planted roots in Philadelphia as well and began helping out at Hu-Nan Chinese, their restaurant. At this time, Susanna and E-Hsin, now parents of two young boys, moved back to Taiwan in 1972 for E-Hsin’s job as a professor and consultant, returning to the United States in 1976.
Working in Indiana for a private company, E-Hsin faced a pivotal career decision when his parents asked him to move to Philadelphia to help them. Susanna said her husband thought it would be better working with family than for a private entity so they packed up and moved to Philadelphia for what became the start of Susanna’s career as a chef, although she certainly had no expectations of that when they moved.
New Culinary Career
Baptism by fire is an apt phrase to describe their first years helping to operate Hu-Nan. “It was very difficult for three to four years. I was working 14 to 16 hours per day and had two small children,” Susanna said.
Another day Susanna remembers as if it was yesterday was the day Jacob “Jack” Rosenthal, president of the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) from 1965 to 1975, came to eat at their restaurant. Retired from the CIA and living in Philadelphia for his job with a company researching taste and smell, he liked Chinese food and decided to check out Hu-Nan Cuisine. Recognizing Susanna’s talents immediately, he offered to be the restaurant’s culinary consultant at no charge. His early advice to ensure consistency become a mantra Susanna internalized.
Jack first recommended Susanna enroll in an eight-week CIA course to learn the fundamentals of French cooking. And then going above and beyond a normal consultant, Jack offered to drive her to the CIA in Hyde Park, New York and back to Philadelphia each week. The moment she arrived on campus she said she felt like Alice in Wonderland. “It blew my mind. I’ve never seen so many cookbooks in my life. It’s really a good school. It’s unbelievable. You learn so much,” Susanna said. With a short break after four weeks, Susanna completed the eight-week course, returning to Philadelphia bursting with ideas and new skills for the Hu-Nan kitchen.
Working to expand Susanna’s horizon beyond the CIA and Philadelphia, Jack believed to be a great chef, Susanna needed to taste great food. So he took Susanna and E-Hsin to New York City to eat at the finest French and Chinese restaurants the Big Apple had to offer. He took E-Hsin under his wing to help him learn about wine and the two collaborated on the restaurant’s wine list. At each restaurant, Susanna made mental notes, brought her childhood tasting experiences to the forefront, and then went back to Philadelphia to innovate her menu.
Jack also recommended Susanna join The International Food & Wine Society and the nascent Philadelphia Bailliage of the Chaîne des Rotisseurs that was founded in 1976 through the dedication of Russel Baum who became its first Bailli. He welcomed Susanna and E-Hsin, the beginning of Susanna’s lifelong commitment to the Chaîne and an endearing friendship with Russel. “If I didn’t meet Jack Rosenthal and Russel Baum and other people, I never would have become the good chef I am today,” Susanna said. “I was very lucky.” Russel was also the driving force behind the creation of the Delaware Valley Bailliage in 2001.
Jack, his wife, Susanna, and E-Hsin traveled to France together in the late 1970s to experience a number of Michelin 3-star restaurants. They started in Paris and then traveled to the Champagne region in northern France. In total, they visited eight restaurants throughout France. Susanna describes the trip as another Alice in Wonderland experience. “It shaped me. I’ve never seen anything as elegant, so beautiful. And the food. The chef was doing his own so that gave me ideas. The food was unbelievable. That changed what I wanted to do in my lifetime,” she said.
Susanna Foo Chinese Cuisine restaurant in Philadelphia
Eventually, Susanna and E-Hsin acquired full operational control of the restaurant and in 1987, moved to a new location in downtown Philadelphia. They renamed their restaurant, Susanna Foo Chinese Cuisine. With her name on the sign outside, she crafted a menu she wanted to cook with an array of dishes fusing Chinese and French cooking. She said she started by creating two basic sauces – Kung Pao and a caramelized sweet sauce – that she used in many dishes.
Each day she would first make three to five gallons of each and then build her menu from this foundation. Once mastered, she developed other sauces and purées. Her Library Science background helped her organize her mind and her kitchen as she continued expanding her menu. Always curious, she often visited the local library to further her knowledge to inform the next steps at the restaurant. She also credits her father with training her to always think and plan ahead.
Philadelphia residents flocked to Susanna Foo from the moment it opened. Word spread the old fashioned way that a new Chinese restaurant in Philadelphia offered an experience like no other, a fusion of classic French cooking with traditional Chinese cuisine. Accolades and awards quickly followed. After just one year in business, she closed the restaurant for a short time so she and E-Hsin could travel to Thailand and Hong Kong where she visited her parents. The next year they went to Italy. “Every time I travel, I get ideas,” she said.
In 1989, Food and Wine magazine named Susanna the Best New Chef of the year.
She began hosting Chaîne dinners for 80 people. Nervous at first, she came to cherish the events that are a creative, collaborative process with Bailliage officers, culminating in an elegant, delicious meal for a large group. Baillis work very hard to provide members with memorable dining experiences, she said.
Cookbook author
With national recognition, in 1995 she published her first cookbook, a gift to cooks and chefs around the world. Susanna Foo Chinese Cuisine: The Fabulous Flavors and Innovative Recipes of North America’s Finest Chinese Cook is not only a cookbook but also an autobiography with an introduction and fascinating anecdotes before each recipe.
For example, Susanna states on page 111: “Sichuan peppercorns are as important in Chinese cookery as black peppercorns are in the Western world. Even though they originated in the Sichuan province, they are widely used all over China.” She then tells readers how to roast Sichuan peppercorns, a necessary step to bring out their pungent aroma, one of the many nuances that is integral to a superior tasting experience. Among the many recipes in the book, Susanna included the first two sauces that propelled her career as a professional chef.
In 2005, she published her second cookbook, Susanna Foo Fresh Inspiration: New Approaches to Chinese Cuisine. She dedicated it to her father with the following inscription: “To My Father, Lieutenant General Yang Z. Su, Who Taught Me Honesty, Drive, and Passion for Food and Life.”
Susanna Foo Chinese Cuisine closed in 2007 when E-Hsin became ill. E-Hsin passed away in 2010 and in 2015, her son, Jim, was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral slerosis (ALS). He passed away in 2019 at the age of 47.
Today Susanna remains active in Chaîne attending dinners at both the Philadelphia and Delaware Valley Bailliages. She rarely goes out to eat except for Chaîne events because of the amazing opportunity to partake in one-of-a-kind meals not available to the public, she explained. “Through the Chaîne, I created a lot of dishes.” After Chaîne events she hosted, she would include some on her menu but not all because of the tremendous amount of time required to prepare many of the unique dishes.
In addition to feasts Chaîne members share, Susanna is thankful for friendships formed over the years. Paul Koulogeorge, Bailli of Philadelphia, and Susanna have been friends for a long time. “I’m not only happy for the good food and wine but also for the good friends,” she said.
She encourages all with a passion for food and wine to join the Chaîne. “It’s wonderful to join the Chaîne. From the first time I joined, I’ve met so many people with the same interest in food and wine. If you love food, you should join the Chaîne. If you love wine, you should join the Chaîne,” she added.
Asked for advice she would give young culinarians aspiring to emulate her career, she said first and foremost, attend a professional culinary school. “Many chefs just learn from other chefs. But I believe you must go to a professional school to learn the basics. That’s just my own opinion. If you have a passion and want to be in the restaurant business and want to be in the kitchen to cook, I think you should go to a professional school,” she said. “Then you can go work for another chef.” In addition to professional training, a keen sense of taste and smell is necessary and the willingness to work long hours is essential for success, she added.
Throughout her many years as a chef, Susanna has been a ray of sunshine for so many people who love food and wine. It’s perfectly logical as she harnessed the energy of fusing her childhood tasting experiences with traditional French techniques to innovate thousands of years of Chinese cooking. What a stellar career!
Cookbooks by Chef Susanna Foo
Susanna Foo Chinese Cuisine: The Fabulous Flavors and Innovative Recipes of North America’s Finest Chinese Cook (1995, 2002)
Susanna Foo Fresh Inspiration: New Approaches to Chinese Cuisine (2005)
Links
On her website, Chef Foo has posted eight short videos showing viewers how to make a few of her recipes such as Citrus Vinaigrette and Favorite Fried Rice.