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Bernice Chan

American chef Anita Lo is back in Hong Kong for an event at Ho Lee Fook at the end of January.
She will present some of her favourite dishes on January 29, including her signature foie gras dumpling soup, hairy crab with Hokkaido uni, black winter truffle chawanmushi, and for dessert, strawberry tofu custard with shiso and yuzu.
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A few things have changed since the Post last spoke to her in 2016. After 17 years, she closed her restaurant Annisa in New York City’s Greenwich Village.
“I was only going to run it for another few years to make it an even 20 years, but it’s difficult for restaurants in New York now,” she says, citing the rising operational costs.

She says staff salaries at Annisa doubled in four years, “which is difficult, because you can only charge the customer so much and then people stop coming.”
Compounding the problem were labour shortages and property tax – which jumped in a year, and Lo had a knee replacement operation that wasn’t successful and needed two follow-up operations.
Eventually, it all came to a head. “One day I got mad at one cook because he didn’t have enough experience for the job,” Lo explains. “I was getting angry, and I didn’t want to be that person any more. I thought, ‘This isn’t working … there’s no reason for me to keep going’. I could have kept going but my margins would have been squeezed.
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“I wanted to be known as a good boss,” she says. “I was never perfect, but … French kitchens resemble a military society, it can be a cruel place to work and I tried to change that. It’s a hard industry.”
When asked if she thought diners were sympathetic to chefs and restaurateurs being under financial pressure and dealing with labour shortages, Lo says customers didn’t care about it, despite there being extensive media coverage about these issues.
Nevertheless, she is happy with her decision to close Annisa. She’s been keeping busy taking tourists on culinary trips organised by Tour de Forks to places like Mexico and Sicily where they visit the sites, local markets and take cooking classes, one of which Lo teaches.





A post shared by Anita Lo (@anitalonyc) on Dec 18, 2018 at 12:28pm PST



In late October last year, she released her second cookbook, Solo: A Modern Cookbook for a Party of One, which has won high praise from a number of media outlets. Lo says it went into second print before the first was released.
“Solo is doing really well … who knew – so many lonely people,” she says with a laugh. “It’s all written for one, but it’s so much easier to multiply [for more people].”
The illustrated cookbook came about when she was talking with a friend about ideas for cookbook titles that incorporated Lo’s name, such as Lo Country Cooking, Lo and Slow: The Braising Book, Lo-Calorie.
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“Two of them were “solo” and “alone” and I thought this could be funny. The recipes had to be easy, because that’s the nature of cooking for yourself,” she says.
“There’s also the self-care things [that] are so screwed up in the US now – and I think that hit a nerve with people. So many people say I would never just cook for myself, and then they see my book and they say, ‘It made me think why wouldn’t I cook for myself?’”
She believes people who cook at home using whole ingredients are healthier than those who order take-out or eat out.





A post shared by Anita Lo (@anitalonyc) on Sep 4, 2018 at 11:38am PDT



Lo says the dishes in her book can be cooked in 30 minutes or less, and having a tiny kitchen in Hong Kong is no excuse not to cook.
“One person doesn’t need a lot of space. You’re not cutting a lot of stuff. I eat a lot as evidenced by this Buddha belly,” she says, as she pats her stomach. “In New York, I have a tiny kitchen, too. And I’ve tested almost all the recipes in that kitchen.”
Some tips Lo has for what to keep stocked in the kitchen include: onions, garlic, lemons, soy sauce, dried spices, fish sauce, olive oil, rice vinegar and red wine vinegar, canned chickpeas and beans, and salad greens. In the freezer she keeps soups, tomato-based pasta sauce, mentaiko, and slices of nice bread that can be toasted individually.
Chef Anita Lo at Ho Lee Fook, 1 Elgin Street, SoHo, tel: 2810 0860. January 29, 6pm-11pm.


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Food and Drinks

American chef Anita Lo on life after Annisa and her cookbook for ‘lonely’ people ahead of Hong Kong event

Chef Anita Lo is hosting a special evening at Ho Lee Fook in Hong Kong on January 29. Photo: Nora Tam

Chef Anita Lo, chef owner of Annisa in NYC, and who cooked for Xi Jinping when he was in Washington, poses for a picture at the Asia Siociety, Admiralty, on May 27, 2016 in Hong Kong. 27MAY16 [FEATURES] SCMP / Nora TAM

Anita Lo on cooking for Barack Obama and Xi Jinping

Photo: Nora Tam

US President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama pose for a formal photo with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Madame Peng Liyuan prior to a state dinner in their honor in front of the Grand Staircase of the White House in Washington. Photo: EPA

Lifestyle

Food & Drink


The renowned chef closed her restaurant Annisa in New York after 17 years in 2017, and has since released two successful cookbooks
She is hosting a special dinner at Ho Lee Fook on January 29




The renowned American chef closed her restaurant Annisa in New York after 17 years in 2017, and has since released two successful cookbooks.



Expresses the views, ideas and conclusions of the author. (Eg. Enough of Crazy Rich Asians, think of crazy poor Hongkongers.)


Column

Diner’s Diary

Diner’s Diary | American chef Anita Lo on life after Annisa and her cookbook for ‘lonely’ people ahead of Hong Kong event

The renowned chef closed her restaurant Annisa in New York after 17 years in 2017, and has since released two successful cookbooks She is hosting a special dinner at Ho Lee Fook on January 29

The renowned chef closed her restaurant Annisa in New York after 17 years in 2017, and has since released two successful cookbooks

She is hosting a special dinner at Ho Lee Fook on January 29