Recipes Passed Down, Businesses Built to Last

I had the opportunity to cover “Taste and Tell: AAPI Food Pioneers, Journalism and Community,” where three family food businesses shared how they survived, adapted, and continued serving their communities across generations.

One story stayed with me. A Phoenix Bakery customer first visited as a child with his grandparents. Years later, he returned with his parents, and today, he brings his own children. It is more than a bakery, it is a family’s history and memories carried through generations in a strawberry cream cake.

This is why I created Galaxy Marketing & PR: to help businesses share the meaningful stories behind their work and bring those stories closer to the community. If your restaurant or family business has a story worth telling, Galaxy would be honored to help you tell it.

Read the original article (in Vietnamese) here

Article Summary

‘Taste and Tell’ Brings Together Three AAPI Food Families to Share Their Legacy

A large crowd attended “Taste and Tell: AAPI Food Pioneers, Journalism and Community,” hosted by AAJA-LA at the Miyako Hotel on August 29. Moderated by FOX 11 anchor Susan Hirasuna, the program featured Brian Kito of Fugetsu-Do, Kathy Chan Ceppi of Phoenix Bakery, and Wing Lam of Wahoo’s Fish Taco. Guests later sampled food from all three businesses.

Organizer Teresa Watanabe said the event was inspired by Phoenix Bakery’s 88th anniversary. AAJA-LA invited pioneering AAPI food families to discuss building their brands and sustaining their businesses across generations. “The goal is to bring people closer together through food,” she said.

Kito shared the story of Fugetsu-Do, Los Angeles’ 123-year-old Japanese confectionery known for mochi and manju. After training for about ten years, he helped the business adapt by expanding wholesale distribution and producing small mochi toppings for frozen yogurt shops. He also supported Little Tokyo through neighborhood patrols, cleanups, and outdoor dining during the pandemic. He believes a community can continue only when young people feel they belong.

Chan Ceppi leads Phoenix Bakery, a Chinatown institution founded in 1938 and known for its strawberry whipped cream cake. After nearly 50 years in pediatric healthcare, she returned to manage the family business about a decade ago. She said the bakery’s cakes carry family memories across generations, but its future remains uncertain because no younger relative has committed to taking over.

Lam co-founded Wahoo’s Fish Taco, which blends Brazilian, Asian, and Mexican flavors. Born in São Paulo to a Chinese family in the food business, he and his brothers opened their first restaurant in Costa Mesa in 1988 after surfing trips to Baja California. Wahoo’s continued adapting to customers’ tastes and shifted toward delivery and community outreach during the pandemic.

Although the businesses have different histories, they share the challenge of preserving what earlier generations built while inspiring the next generation to continue it. The speakers agreed that lasting success requires a quality product, a distinctive identity, adaptability, determination, financial preparation, and strong community relationships.