Betty Hsu-a tough-love mom with a sparkplug personality and a soft heart-knew how to curry favor with her kids’ friends. Having a mother who ran a Chinese restaurant probably didn’t hurt his popularity, either. He attributes his victory to his aunt’s homemade fortune cookies she inserted a fortune that said: “Vote for Ronald.” Yet those restaurants, and the family hustle that made them successful, are Lazy Betty’s foundation.Īs one of the few Asian kids at Stockbridge Middle School, Ron remembers being bullied: “One very vivid memory is, when I went to a public swimming pool, another kid that was like my age came up to me and spat on me and made racial slurs.” He had a better experience at Woodward Academy, where he was voted class president in 2000. His vision for Lazy Betty couldn’t be more unlike the seven Chinese restaurants his parents ran from 1980 until 2008. Before coming home to launch Lazy Betty, he studied French cuisine in Australia, held a top creative position at New York’s super-high-end Le Bernardin, and gained global exposure when he recently competed on Netflix’s The Final Table. A restaurant centered on a seven- to nine-course tasting menu at $115 to $125 a head can be a challenge, but no one can quibble with Hsu’s credentials, his competitive nature, or his will to succeed. Now, he’s putting his diverse experiences to work at his first restaurant, Lazy Betty-an ambitious concept in the old Radial Cafe space on DeKalb Avenue that’s been carefully conceived and test-piloted for the Atlanta market with an exhaustive, year-long pop-up series of the same name. Like innumerable children of immigrants, the 37-year-old chef has spent most of his life straddling cultures. “It never occurred to me that it was strange until I got older.”
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |