Photos by MIKEY HIRANO CULROSS / Rafu Shimpo
Brian Kito, owner of Fugetsu-Do confectionery, speaks during a community forum on legacy food businesses on Aug. 29 in Little Tokyo. Also on the panel are Wing Lam, founder of Wahoo’s Fish Taco (center) and Phoenix Bakery owner Kathy Chan Ceppi.A conversation with owners of three legacy food business owners is held in Little Tokyo.

By MIKEY HIRANO CULROSS
RAFU STAFF WRITER

The Los Angeles chapter of the Asian American Journalists Association hosted an intimate conversation on Aug. 29, featuring three proprietors of pioneering legacy food businesses in Southern California.

Following the discussion, guess were more than happy to be served Phoenix Bakery’s famous strawberry cake by Ken Chan.

“Taste and Tell: AAPI Food Pioneers, Journalism and Community” was held at the Miyako Hotel in Little Tokyo, and the dozens of community friends and guests were treated to the stories and insights of Brian Kito of Fugetsu-Do, Kathy Chan Ceppi of Phoenix Bakery, and Wing Lam, founder of Wahoo’s Fish Taco.

Moderated by Fox 11 news anchor Susan Hirasuna, the trio also shared thoughts on the constantly evolving economic landscape for the food service industry, particularly recent sharp rises in operating costs and what a fast-approaching automated future might hold in store.

“In Los Angeles, if you have a good business, people will drive to come and see you,” said Ceppi, the second-generation owner of Phoenix Bakery, the Chinatown institution that is celebrating 88 years in business. She explained that her shop’s famous strawberry cake was the invention of her uncle, who felt American pastries were too richly sweet.

“Who doesn’t like strawberries and cream?” she postulated. “People drive from all over to get our cakes. I’ve had people come by car all the way from Las Vegas.”

Brian Kito brought along a variety of mochi bites from Fugetsu-Do.

Kito is the owner and operator of Fugetsu-Do, the legacy Little Tokyo confectionery that first opened in 1903. He described how the outlet for sweet mochi and manju survived some devastating challenges over the decades, as well as some completely unexpected boosts to their sales.

“I haven’t had to go through some of the same crises as my dad or grandfather,” Kito said, telling of how the shop endured two world wars, forced incarceration of Japanese Americans, a pair of global pandemics, and periods of economic withering.

On the flip side, the jolt Fugetsu-Do saw during the COVID years caught him by surprise, as bloggers sang the virtues of his sweets on social media.

“My grandfather’s generation never saw that kind of volume all at once,” he said. “It’s like having the New Year’s rush all year round.”

Lam grew up in Brazil and developed a fondness for Mexican food while studying at San Diego State University and during his many surfing excursions with his brothers to Baja in Mexico.

“I feel like the more ethnic the food is, the more fun,” Wing insisted, citing some of the common foods he loved as a kid that might seem strange to American palates – like avocado milkshakes. “It’s a fruit, after all,” he reasoned.

Achieving success in the restaurant business is always a daunting challenge, but in recent years, soaring labor and operating costs have forced fundamental changes across the industry. Lam cited a doubling of food service minimum wages from the pre-COVID years to present day.

Ceppi said given the sacrifices that come with dedication to running a food-based shop, it’s hardly a surprise that many young people look elsewhere for careers.

“New generations are more educated, and not interested in opening this kind of business. It’s hard work – weekends, holidays, 24 hours,” she said.

Lam added that he often heard the laments that many parents who run restaurants tell their kids: “We worked hard with our hands so you could work with your minds.”

Ceppi, Kito and Lam agreed that a fair amount of automation in their industry can be beneficial, and indeed may be necessary simply to survive.

“I have the utmost respect for this generation, those who can handle these innovations,” Ceppi said.

Kito said it was activism as much as culinary art that kick-started his dedication to the family business. Having grown up in the back rooms of Fugetsu-Do while his parents tended the shop, he became keenly involved in the activist movement to preserve the economics and boundaries of Little Tokyo in the early 1980s.

“That’s what motivated me, that’s how I got started down here, not just for my dad, but for all the other mom-and-pop stores around here,” he explained.

Kito also delved into a much-discussed bit of published history, one that cites his grandfather as the originator of the fortune cookie.

Of course, no discussion of these three legacy eateries would end properly without a chance to sample their wares. Phoenix Bakery brought several cakes, a large sampling of Fugetsu-Do mochi was given out, and there were plenty of Wahoo’s fish tacos to go around.

Founded in 1988, Lam’s restaurants are the relatively new kid on the block, and he made plain his gratitude for his success and being included in the AAJA conversation with Ceppi and Kito.

“Being here with these people, it really is an honor, because they still carry on the traditions of how things should be made.”