Today we’d like to introduce you to Leonard Lee.
Husband and wife duo, Leo and Lydia Lee, both share a rich culinary background spanning three generations. Even though they had different paths in life, Leo grew up in Mexico and Lydia grew up in Hong Kong, they both shared a common lineage in growing up and working in their family’s restaurant. While their grandparents opened restaurants in the 1980’s out of necessity, Leo and Lydia opened RiceBox 2018 to honor their family’s hard work and pay a warm and enthusiastic tribute to it.
Remembering where they came from and what their family did in order to give them the life they have today. Keeping their heritage and memories alive is the best way to honor it. Utilizing recipes passed down from their grandparents, they recreated many childhood favorites, such as soy sauce poached chicken, slow-braised curry beef stew, and homemade almond milk buns, but there is one item that stood out and it is their signature “Char Siu” BBQ Pork. When they first tested their grandfather’s “Char Siu” recipe in 2014, Leo and Lydia knew they had something special. They knew it was something they cannot let go and wanted to share it with everyone. “Char Siu” is quintessential to what Cantonese BBQ is and is also the recipe that created RiceBox. It was also voted “Best Char Siu” by Los Angeles Magazine in 2020, which would make their grandfather extremely proud. Committed to further honoring their grandparent’s recipes, RiceBox uses ethically sourced, organic, antibiotic and hormone-free meats. Produces are from local farms that use sustainable practices. Sauces and seasonings are made in-house and without and MSG.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
It’s been a struggle. From choosing a 500 sqft to open RiceBox, we had to reconstruct the retail store into a fully functional restaurant with water pipes, gas lines, hood and ventilation system. This whole process took almost two years. Everything was a learning process, even after everything was built, running your own restaurant is very different than just working in one. Because this was our first location, there was a lot to learn from it. Once opened, everyday was struggle. When we had a line out the door, we struggled to keep the production up and not run out of food. The first 6-8 months, I (Leo) use to come in at 3am and worked until 10pm everyday. On days off, I still came into the restaurant to do work. We were committed to making everything in-house and utilizing fresh ingredients. Once we got that under control, we started to expand our operation and did catering and popups at different locations in Los Angeles. Now we were running 3x operations out of this 500 sqft restaurant we created. While it was a struggle to juggle everything, we’ve managed to overcome all obstacles and continued to strive. Even though things were hard when we were running 3x operations out of RiceBox, things were 10x more difficult when everything came to a sudden stop on March 13, 2020, everything changed. The lines out the door disappeared, the catering became non-existence, and the pop-ups halted. and we were expecting our first child in May of 2020. We had to make a difficult decision on whether we should close RiceBox or continue operating it. Ultimately we chose to stay open through everything, and we adapted to the situation and did what we can to supplement the loss in sales. We started delivering our food ourselves to Santa Monica, Culver City, Torrance, Anaheim, Irvine. Cities that our delivery partners (Grubhub, Caviar, DoorDash, etc.) did not got to.
I (Leo) continued coming in at 4am each day as if everything was ok, nothing has changed because I knew if I gave up and stopped doing it, that was the end for RiceBox. It’s hard to explain, but when you have to wake up at 3am everyday because of the catereing, popups, food events, etc. it is tiring, but you know the benefits that come from it, so you do it. But when you have to still wake up at 3am everyday, not know if there will be people coming into restaurant is so discouraging and damaging. I would be at RiceBox at 4am, making our homemade almond milk baos and crying. (no tears fell into the dough, I made sure) I was scared that all my food would go to waste, was scared that everything we’ve built the past two years would be gone. I was scared that I couldn’t provide for my yet to be born son. But I kept telling myself, don’t give up. If I didn’t come in to make the food, then nothing would be left. No restaurant, no RiceBox, nothing for my soon to be born son. Ultimately, my fears were put to ease because we have so many people who continue to support us through all this. People are still ordering from us through online services. They’re contacting us directly for deliveries. Even though things have slowed down for us, it has made everything personal and gave us the opportunity to slow things down and truly connect with our customers. At the end, we cannot thank them enough for their continued support. We are extremely grateful and would not still be here without them.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
Lydia’s grandfather opened a Cantonese BBQ restaurant in Hong Kong that served the public for 20 years. As a toddler, Lydia used to clutch her half-eaten bao and run through the restaurant laughing and giggling, while her grandfather chased after her with a bowl of rice and char siu, trying to feed her. Leo, a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York, showed an avid interest in cooking while growing up in his grandparents’ Chinese restaurant in Mexicali, Mexico. Leo’s grandmother used to put him to work in the kitchen at a very young age. As a child, he thought he was only playing chef. Unbeknownst to him, his grandmother was actually teaching him skills and traditions that would become useful for the rest of his life. Upon graduating from The Culinary Institute of America, Leo worked in some of the best hotels and restaurants from New York to Miami, and finally Los Angeles.
What quality or characteristic do you feel is most important to your success?
Hard work, dedication, and resilience There are no shortcuts in life. You want to succeed in life, you have to put in the work; whether it’s in school, in your job, or in your family. You need to be committed to what you’re doing and not give up. Things may not always work in your favor, but you have to be resilience and adapt to it. That’s what the restaurant business is, there’s a reason why most restaurants fail in the first two years. As things change, you need to adapt and work with it. Don’t let it bring you down. If you want to make in the restaurant industry, you don’t take days off, you don’t give up, and you have to evolve with the changes around you. Stay true to who you are and what you represent, but adapt and change to the needs of the business
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Website: www.ricebox.net
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/riceboxla/?hl=en
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/ricebox-los-angeles
Image Credits
Ariel Ip Instagram @lastname.ip
