Intro: 0:05

Welcome to the business of Houston Hospitality, where we visit with and learn from the people behind Houston's vibrant and diverse hospitality industry. Each week we speak with owners and operators of restaurants, hotels, venues, attractions, museums, theaters, and more. Please welcome your host, president of the Houston Hospitality Alliance and founder of Convive Hospitality Consultant, Jonathan Horowitz.

Jonathan: 0:33

Greetings from Houston. This is the Business of Houston Hospitality. I am your host, Jonathan Horowitz. And today I have the privilege of speaking with Chef Lina Lay from Lina's Asian Kitchen here in Houston. As always, we'll talk about Lina's history in the city, how her business is doing and what she thinks about Houston's hospitality industry and its future. So welcome to the show. Chef Lina Lay. Thank you for being here.

Lena: 1:00

Thank you, Jonathan, for having me. It's such a great pleasure just to talk about food, about hospitality, but to talk with you is, it's going to be really fun.

Jonathan: 1:10

Well, I'm certainly looking forward to it. And, you know, you and I have had the chance to visit a few times this year already, and I've got to say, it's been amazing to watch everything that has been going on with you and your business and just, you have just exploded. This year. So I want to get to that. I want to talk about that a little bit later, but as we always do, I want to get a little bit more background for those who don't know you tell us a little bit about your history growing up where and how, and when you got to Houston and just how you got into this business, just the whole biography background and we can go from there.

Lena: 1:55

absolutely. My background is actually pretty I wouldn't say exciting, but it's more like a chaotic. Yeah. Kind of like version because I am all over the place. I'm I would call myself as a lost person for a really long time in order for me to find myself to find what I'm good at or what I love. It took a while. So I was born and raised in Vietnam. But then I went to the UK to study for high school and college. So I did I have a bachelor degree in accounting and finance. I got back to Vietnam. I worked for banking. I did events. I was an accountant, but I didn't really like it. You know, you spend years working and then learning and then did college, but then you didn't like it. And then you kind of lost, you know, because that's all your parents had planned for you.

Jonathan: 2:46

So it wasn't necessarily all your plan. What you wanted.

Lena: 2:50

You know, you're growing up in Vietnam or you're growing up in Asia, it's really strict. It has to be what parents want, right? I growing up I would learn kung fu, I would learn drumming, I would learn, you know, like guitar or like, but then they never let me, you know, I got it far as like two lessons., So I never get to explore what it is that I really love or I really like. So we just have to focus in school and do banking, accounting, or business. That kind of thing.

Jonathan: 3:18

So was it always the plan that you would go away to school and then come back to Vietnam and work? Was it like family business or what?

Lena: 3:27

Yeah. The plan for I would say the men for girls back in my days, it will be different than the plan for guys. But for boys, they will have more opportunities because they always be the head of the household. They will get more opportunities. They get to go wherever they want. But parents mostly going to invest more in boys than girls. For me my parents actually didn't let me go to the UK to study. They didn't let me go abroad. They said like, only your brother can go. But then, I'm either like a stubborn person, or when people say no, I just want to do it.

Jonathan: 4:03

Stubborn in a good way.

Lena: 4:05

Yes well, I mean, I end up in a good way, so thank God for that, but but then, I insist on going and then I found scholarship and then I guess they had no choice but to let me go so I went, but then, came back and work in Vietnam and it just nothing is stable when you don't know exactly what you want or when you don't know exactly what you like.

Jonathan: 4:28

So how did you decide to and what was the decision to come to the U. S.?

Lena: 4:35

That is, that's, I think that's one of the, you know, like how when you're stuck and you're just trying to find a way out and at the time I was so lost in Vietnam. I tried every job possible and then I love teaching. So I went on and taught English for a long time. I opened my own English center. The business was really well but somehow I guess in my mind it was lost. That you didn't feel like you belong. It was a really weird feeling. I wouldn't say it's a mental illness, but at a time, I think you were just like a teenager is trying to find ways, trying to find where you belong, where you feel appreciated things like that. And so I would just want to get out of the country because I feel like when I was in UK, I feel more of a person than what I was. So I applied to study in Canada and in the U S like I, I did it all over again. And I ended up in the U S because I have friends here in Houston. And one of the friends is, we've been talking for a long time and we got along, so I revisited him and now he's my husband.

Jonathan: 5:41

Of course.

Lena: 5:43

Yeah. I'm glad that it worked out for the best, but I would say. If you don't find it, if you don't try to crawl your way out, if you don't look for it, you will not find it. So I'm glad that I did that.

Jonathan: 5:56

Of course. So when you came to this country to study what were you coming here to study?

Lena: 6:03

I actually came here I planned to come here to study to further my teaching career. But then when I got here and then kind of like living with my boyfriend at the time. I realized that, you know, teaching is good, but I feel like I need something more. So I was like, again, on the pathway of looking for more stuff. I'm either not easily satisfied or I just never know what I really wanted.

Jonathan: 6:29

Well, you there's nothing wrong with always learning, always searching always wanting to know more, do more. And thank goodness for us, you got into the food world.

Lena: 6:41

guys for having me. I would say that the Houston city, the Houston people is the reason that I got the success today because I literally started from scratch. When I start cooking for my boyfriend at a time I never cooked before. I, you know, my grandma, my, my parents never taught me to cook. I love eating out. I, that's the only experience I have with food is that I love eating. But I didn't cook. You know, you still have to go through the experience of messing up ruining a recipe and the food tastes horrible, everything. And I think that's what my boyfriend experienced. So he suggested me to go take culinary school.

Jonathan: 7:23

So he was doing it for also for his benefit not only your benefit, but for his benefit too.

Lena: 7:29

It won't be like, babe, your food is horrible. Go learn something. You know,

Jonathan: 7:35

So what year did you get here into in, in Houston

Lena: 7:38

I'm, I got here in 2015 and I didn't go to culinary school until 2017,

Jonathan: 7:45

and which school here in town did you go to?

Lena: 7:47

Art Institute of Houston, which is now very sadly, but yeah.

Jonathan: 7:52

Yeah. A couple of years ago, I think it it closed. In fact, I think all the art institutes around the country. Yeah.

Lena: 7:59

It's pretty

Jonathan: 7:59

that was certain.

Lena: 8:01

I'm glad that I got in time for before we closed,

Jonathan: 8:04

Yeah, no, absolutely. So it really, it hasn't been that long. So if you were doing that in 2017, you know, That's only seven years ago. So take us and we are talking with chef Lena lay from Lena's Asian kitchen here in Houston, and we're catching up on some of the background and history and how chef Lena came to be in Houston and through culinary school. And so that's 2017, 2018, just a little bit pre pandemic. What was your first, what was your first entry into the industry in terms of working and cooking and actual jobs

Lena: 8:43

so for me, I'm a visual learner, so I have to see it to do it in order for me to understand how everything works. So my first automatic thought was I need a job to know what it is to work in the kitchen. My, my boyfriend at the time, actually he's in real estate, so he doesn't really have any connections with restaurants. He doesn't know anybody. And Obviously, I'm new. The only person I know is my boyfriend. I didn't know anybody. So we just put application in literally everywhere. And one of his favorite spots in downtown called Tree Beers Restaurant is the one that he eats, like, three times a week. So he ended up knowing the owners or the managers. So he connected me with them and I got the job. So I was the prep cook and dishwasher, literally whatever they give me, I'll do it. And that was my first job in the industry. After that, then I got a little bit.

Jonathan: 9:37

Which location were you at for tree beards?

Lena: 9:39

Previous, I worked in the one in Louisiana, the tunnel,

Jonathan: 9:43

Oh yeah. Downtown.

Lena: 9:45

do some of the events and everything in the marketplace, which they move now, they're not in the marketplace anymore. But but yeah, I work different locations.

Jonathan: 9:55

I actually worked with Charles and Jolie a little bit and helped

Lena: 9:58

Oh, yeah.

Jonathan: 9:59

open their Bunker Hill location, the most recent location out of Bunker Hill.

Lena: 10:04

nice. Yeah, that location is brand new and super nice.

Jonathan: 10:06

Yeah. Yeah. It's really cool. And a great, great story, great history in Houston. One of the OG restaurants, that's been around for so long and you know, well loved and respected and a great family business in Houston.

Lena: 10:23

It is. And the fact that the original owners passed it down to their employees to be the new owners, that's just amazing. Like, I love the stories of how they really help the communities and help the employees.

Jonathan: 10:35

Yeah. Yeah. No, absolutely. So after that and obviously we're getting into just about pandemic time.

Lena: 10:42

Yeah. After that, then I was the prep cook at a modern steakhouse and then line cook at Ibiza. Ibiza is now closed. So I moved around a lot. I'm, I have a little bit of chaotic life. Bear with me. It will get stable. Yeah.

Jonathan: 11:02

So I mean, obviously now things have changed. You have your own catering company. You have been on a number of different cooking shows. You're getting national exposure. Let's get into more of the present. How did all of this happen to you?

Lena: 11:20

I will say there was a time where I'm. like switching from a banking career to working like, you know, in the back of the house of a kitchen is like a two completely different environment. And even though I love cooking it's just the environment and the the way that, you know, people interact in the back of the house, I just couldn't fit in yet. So it was hard for me to get along to be able to know how to communicate with people in the kitchen. And that's when I took a step back to focus more on honing my craft, honing my cooking and become a private chef. And that's when I did a lot of private dinners, a lot of meal prepping for influential people luxuries dinners at the comfort of their homes, multiple course truffle and caviar kind of thing. And I really love it, but I just, there's always something in me that I feel like I can do more. And in Vietnam, I always do charity work. I always help the communities and I do fundraising every weekend. And I feel like that's something that I was missing in the U S because, when you came here from scratch, you don't know anybody is, it's hard to get your life all together right away. So it took some time for me to settle down with a career path. And then I start looking out for volunteers, opportunities. And as I worked with a lot of different shelters for domestic violence, I feel like I relate to the survivors a lot. And I have no idea why. I just feel that I understand their pain. I understand their struggles. And I want to do something to help them. So I took a course to be an advocate with the, for the domestic abuse survivors at Fort Bend Women's Shelter. And during that course is that when I realized that I am also a survivor it's something that you're not being, like terribly physically abused, but you are being emotionally abused, verbal abuse, financial abuse, or any sort of abuse growing up. Little or a lot. It still counts. And that leaves you some kind of trauma, some kind of PSD, and it forms you into a different kind of behavior through life. And throughout that course it makes me feel like, oh my God, there's just so many people I know that are also survivors, but they never know that. I didn't know that. My mom and my aunt are also survivors and they didn't know that. It's striking me that that's just so much that we could do.

Jonathan: 13:43

Well, I know that has always been well, at least since, we've known you in Houston, that has always been a an extremely important part of your business and your existence and your daily life. And that it, It's always something that is at the forefront of what you're talking about. Whenever you're talking to anybody we hear about the work that you do, the support that you provide the experiences, that you've had. And I know that it makes a difference. It certainly makes a difference for people. And it's, it's a very important part of your public persona. And Maybe you can talk just a little bit about some of the specific things that you do or have done or even are planning to do, you know, around town, particularly in Houston that relate to that work and that support and those fundraising efforts that, that you're involved with.

Lena: 14:45

Yeah. Well, so my business we have a few different sectors. One of them is meal prep and catering, and that's the one that we provide jobs for the domestic abuse survivors and or human trafficking survivors. And even if they have no kitchen experience as long as they have the will to learn and, that they want to work, they need a job, then we will be there to train them. And another sectors I call that lean foundation is that I feed survivors of any kind, survivors of hurricane survival, of disasters, of veterans with PTSD any kind of survivors. We will feed them or when they're in need of meals or we will feed them if they are a victims of crimes. We'll feed them during holidays, during special holiday'cause I believe that those are the days that. Everybody, you know, get a chance to come back to family, but the domestic abuse survivors, they cannot come back to their family. So we will always bring like a gourmet Thanksgiving feast or like, Christmas feast. And then a 4th of July, we want to celebrate their independence away from their abusers. And we will send them a box of food for the whole week. I, it's just a little things here and there. There's a lot of organization in town that I collaborated with that I support them for their work because they actually would do a lot more work in rescuing the survivors, providing identities, doing the paperwork, legal services, shelters. A healing process therapist. So there's just a lot of things that involve and I feel after you get away from the abusers after you get away from the human trafficking ring, you get a shelters right you get your ID, but after that you will need to get back on your feet, you will need to get back and start a new life. And that's when you need a job. And it's rare for these people to maintain a job based on their PTSD, based on their trauma, based on their mental health at the time. That's the whole point that I created Leanization Kitchen is to create a safe environment, working environment for them. I mean, we've done a lot of work so far. Even though we only two years two years old. But I believe that we've done quite a bit of work and help the people.

Jonathan: 17:02

Absolutely. Yeah. No it's fantastic. And thank you for that description because not only is the work that you're doing and the support that you're providing incredibly important. It's so needed. And from my opinion, my aspect of it, thinking about this it's just one more piece that fits into the larger Houston has hospitality community that we see doing incredible Outreach and support and fundraising and donations. And every time there's some sort of, whether it's a natural disaster or the pandemic, we saw it or whatever it might be, the first community, that really responds is always the hospitality community, whether it's providing shelter or providing food or feeding the first responders or whatever it might be. I think, that's the true spirit of the Houston hospitality industry, particularly the restaurant industry. Where we're so quick to come together and support each other. And I know you've been involved in many of these different events, but there's such a wonderful supportive community within the restaurant community. It's very rare for us here to see people, you know, fighting, backstabbing, you know, whatever it is. And, we hear about it. In other quote more competitive type cities, but every time we all get together or there's a fundraiser or there's a chef's competition or whatever it is, it's always so much fun. And everybody is so supportive of everybody else. maybe you can talk cause you're. You're relatively new to this space, you know, in Houston, maybe you can talk a little bit about your experiences just being in that community and dealing with the other chefs and working with other operators and things like that. And just what you've experienced over the past few years.

Lena: 19:07

Well, I have to say this is that Houston community is one of the main reasons that, that I succeed, or I get to where I am today. I definitely want to be more successful. So please keep on supporting.

Jonathan: 19:24

Of course.

Lena: 19:25

Yeah, but you know, like, I started out it's a very small business where I only sell food within my neighborhood. I would, people would call me like, hey, I would want one quarter gumbo for dinner. And I would go to the store, I get the stuff and I cook it from scratch. I never have anything frozen. And that was when I do it really small. But It's from that kind of supportive system that my neighborhood had, and then they transfer it to the neighborhood next to my neighborhood, and then it just spread out to all the neighborhoods around me. And people would order just for dinner, because they need like a quick meal but they need something like cook from home, kind of like things, and they want to support that person. And that's the main thing, because they can order gumbo anyway, but they order it from me. Nobody. I wasn't even a chef. I was still in school, like I was nobody. But so that's the kind of thing that makes Houston so special. It makes Houston that I would consider his home because it feels like family taking care of family. And then Because of that, so when there's a disaster, when when Harvey came, then I made the bread and all the food for my whole neighborhood. Whoever that got stuck at home, then we have another neighbor that come to my home, pick up the food, and deliver to those who in like flooded area. Yeah that makes the community whole, right? They support me and then I give back. And I think there's just so many restaurants out there that they also do that. They appreciate the support of the community. And they give back in a way of like, thank you for supporting us all this time. And that's the amazing of the Houston hospitality.

Jonathan: 21:08

Yeah, I think we're extremely fortunate in that regard to be here in, in this city. And we're still getting bigger. It's still growing. There's still more things happening along those lines, what are your plans for the future? We'll wait before, before you answer that. Let's talk a little bit about. What's happened to you this year? Just, it's been an amazing year. Let's talk about what 2024 has been for Chef Lina

Lena: 21:36

my God, 2024. 2024 is probably gonna be the year that I will never forget. You know when you move to a country right? You don't expect anything. Because first, you don't know what to expect. Second, is that you just don't think how far you're going to go, right? But then I was on national TV competing with chefs, like experienced chefs, the chefs that work in the industry, being executive chef for like 10, 15 years. And from San Francisco, from New York, and those are the big cities for food, right? For the food industry. I mean, it's, it was a crazy ride to be there and compete with them. To consider on the same level, to compete with them, that was already an honor. But to win oh

Jonathan: 22:23

and we're talking, and we're talking about Chopped, right? This is recently, this was Chopped.

Lena: 22:28

yes, this is job and and be able to win. I was super emotional when they announced the winner. I was crying my eyes out on set and they have to stop filming because there's no good footage. But then. But it was sometimes like you just don't know how big it was until it's out there, and then everybody's watching it, everybody's talking about it, and then everybody like see you, like really sees you. And it's just feel incredible. It feels that the last six years of me working my asses off of me, you know, like washing dishes and deliver like just six egg rolls at a time. It makes everything worth it.

Jonathan: 23:12

And I, I recall soon after that there was a Bobby Flay appearance as well. So there was that. Yes.

Lena: 23:20

it's it's another historical moment for me, because, Chef Bobby Flay is like one of the biggest chef in America And I was right there next to him and I was just not next to him. I was cooking against him. You know, it was really cool moment. It's really cool experience that I know that not many people have. I cherish that for the rest of my life.

Jonathan: 23:42

Well, that's awesome. And I imagine there are more things to come, in the future. I know that there are things, that are happening behind the scenes and you've got probably more announcements coming in the future, but without being too specific, can you tell us what you think your future looks like? What are the, what do you want to be accomplishing in the next couple of years?

Lena: 24:05

Definitely want to focus on expanding Lina's Asian Kitchen. As a healthy Asian meal prep, I feel like we can provide a lot more to our community with our Asian cuisines. And we can spread that culture. We can spread that flavor. We can share that with a lot more people. But at the same time, is that we would maintain training and providing jobs for the survivors. And as we expand, we'll be able to hire more survivors.

Jonathan: 24:32

About how many employees do you currently have with that business?

Lena: 24:36

I have seven at the moment. Yes, and I will say 100 percent of them are domestic abuse survivors and or human trafficking survivors. Some of them were part time, but some of them been with us from the beginning. And we are growing to the way my goal for Lina's Asian Kitchen is not just to provide jobs for the survivors, but I would like to give the ownership to the survivors. to the survivors. And that way they they have room to grow. They have a business of their own. They have so they don't have to worry about jobs anytime, and if their kids grow up, they can have a job if they need to. So that's the goal of the business, but definitely everything, it takes time to build and to grow. We grow together as a family and, We have a few expansion ideas for this year and next year, and hopefully everything will go as planned. We definitely will announce when that happens, but but yes, we have a few expansion plans. Definitely want to open more locations in Texas to provide more meals, more catering needs of Asian cuisine to other people and soon hopefully we can expand to another state.

Jonathan: 25:45

Awesome. Awesome. Well, we certainly look forward to that. and we're speaking here with chef Lena Lay of Lena's Asian kitchen in Houston and chef, I wanted to talk briefly about your experiences now as a business person, forget the chefing part of it and the business side. You know, you have grown this from the beginning from nothing to what it is now. And we just heard more about your expansion plans for the future and things you want to be doing in terms of growth. But I'd like to know a little bit about some of the challenges that you have faced in, from the business perspective and, what you've been through and I, you know, we certainly. experienced a lot during the COVID years and it was a very difficult time and it was very different. But since then, as things have started to sort of get back to normal and growing again, what have your biggest challenges have been over, over the past couple of years and what have you done to, to deal with those challenges?

Lena: 26:52

Oh my god, you hit the really important spot here for entrepreneur like restaurateur because this is something that I feel like all the restaurateurs, they always say restaurant work is hard, restaurant business is hard, but they never say in specific why it's hard, right? And that's why, like, I know it's hard, one thing, but then I know only one aspect of it, as in the cooking is hard. Now, instead of cooking for one person, you have to cook for a hundred people, right? Then the whole logistics change. But to sum up, I would say a few things. Number one is that you need to know the finance. Finance was kicking me hard because even though I was in finance, But then

Jonathan: 27:36

That was your background. Yeah that's your background.

Lena: 27:39

but then I focus on food. I focus on pleasing people, serving people, serving the community, and it changed my priority and then, so the running the first year of the business, the finance hitting me hard because I didn't know how to balance the cost the labor costs, the food costs like negotiating for better terms, better rents and everything. The second year, that's when I focused on learning more towards about reading the numbers. How can I improve the business from there? Because at the end of the day, without money, you cannot maintain the business. So that was my number one struggles. My second struggle was that training staff you will think that, everything like the back of your hand, you'll be able to train your staff, but no, training is clearly different things. And again, even though I have teaching a background, it was hard when, when you're teaching somebody in class, it's different, right? They pay you to teach them. They can take time to improve. They don't improve this week, they can improve next week. There's no problem. But for the business, I pay them to work for me, right? They cannot take time to improve. You have to get it done right now. So that's something that I have to adapt to. that I have to change my training methods to more efficient way where the staff can get used to it right away, can get on it right away. So always have the recipe to the team where the staff can just follow and get done with it. And there's no other adjustments. There's no other thing. So I would say if you don't train your staff well, they will struggle with the job and that's when they feel the burnout and they don't feel good about themselves. And that's when they quit. And they will look for another job. But if you train them well, they know exactly what they're doing. They do a good job. You feel good about them. They feel good about themselves. Then they're going to stay. So that's also a struggle that I get from the first year. And a third one is that my staff is not experienced kitchen staff. They are survivors and every single one of them are different of the first year. I have five staff. Ranging from different ethnicity. We have white, we have Hispanic, we have black, we have Asian. All different ones. We have age varied from 20 to 65. It was a really small group, but like, different background, different age. And that's something that I had to learn in a hard way as a leader. That you need to know how to deal with people. different groups of people and be able to bring them together and work together. But again, that's something you have to learn as you go. You're nobody going to teach you how to deal with a specific situation. So those are all the struggles that I had as a business owner.

Jonathan: 30:27

That's a lot. And it's very interesting because it's surprisingly common, right? When we talk to other folks in the industry, those are the most common challenges that, that we hear about. And I get asked a lot. From folks outside of the industry, they say, you know, why do so many places fail? Why do these restaurants close? Why don't they make it, and a lot of people have opinions about, Oh, there's, the food wasn't great or the location wasn't good, or they didn't do enough advertising. And those things may have a small factor in all of it. To me the biggest reason why folks in our industry don't make it is that they don't understand the running of the business and the money part of it and how expensive it is and how difficult it is. And just, you can be the best chef in the world, you can cook the best food, or you could be the best doctor or the best lawyer or whatever. But if you don't know how to balance your books and understand your labor and your costs and run the business of the business, doesn't matter how good you are at your craft. It's not going to work as a business. And I think, from your experiences and your advice it's not just about the cooking. It's about understanding how to deal with people and to run a business and the numbers of a business.

Lena: 31:51

Yeah. When I do a collaboration, like a pop up with any other restaurants or any other chefs menu is always the easiest thing to do. It's the arranging the logistics for parking, the logistics for serving, the marketing, the wording for press. And it's all the other thing is, somehow it's a lot more work and a lot more difficult than menu. Menu is the easiest thing to do. So yes, you have a good food. That's great. But that's like one small part of the whole business. You have to look for, learn about the other aspects of the business too, definitely.

Jonathan: 32:28

So I want to come back to something you mentioned earlier with regard to your work in the community and the support that you are providing for survivors of domestic abuse and other types of situations and abuse. I want to give you the opportunity to plug some of the other organizations, that you partner with, that you work with, or that you support. So that. we can be aware of these things and maybe find other ways to help and provide support for what you're doing in the Houston community beyond just the food side of things.

Lena: 33:03

Yeah, absolutely. Give me a second. Okay. Let me just pull up the hotline number as well. So I can say it on here. Thanks. So I know and I get to work with a lot of different organizations that support domestic abuse survivors is one of them is Fort Bend Women's Shelter. They have a few different locations in Fort Bend area. And they also provide shelters. They provide a lot of different healing programs and just, like, guide you through every step you need to do. And to be with them, you also get to access to a lot of other services that other organization offer, because we all work together. So that one is Fort Bend Women's Shelters. They also have, like, emergency hotline number as well. When you get on the website, you'll be able to see it. And you can call them 24 7. And I also know and used to work with AFDA, A V D A, they aid for victims of domestic abuse. They provide legal support. legal consultant for the domestic abuse survivors. So if you are in a messy divorce, or you need to fight for custody for your kids, or you need restraining orders, those will be the ones that you go to and ask for advice. And then we also work with DIA, which we have a few employees right now are from DIA. Daya is D A Y A. They are protect South Asian domestic abuse survivors. But not just for that. You know, they will have resources if you are not Asian South Asian survivors. They have resources and they help you with therapies. They help you with all different kind of program for healing and providing you resources. Those are the main ones that we work with in Houston, and they are all really big and supportive, but you can always call the 800 number for the hotline. National Hotline for domestic violence is 8 0 0 7 9 9 7 2 3 3.

Jonathan: 34:56

Excellent. Well, thank you for that because we know how important that work is and how needed it is in our community. And, we're very fortunate and grateful that you are so active and so involved and so supportive cause I know it, it benefits so many different people. So We want to make sure that particularly for us, at the Houston Hospitality Alliance working with and representing so many different types of hospitality businesses around the city. We want to make sure that we are as supportive as we possibly can be of all of those efforts that, that benefit so many people in the Houston industry. And we know that you chef. Lena Leigh are one of our bright shining stars right now and in the hospitality community and in the restaurant scene in Houston which is now and particularly over the past, let's call it six, eight years is, has really come to the forefront and is getting the national recognition, that we really deserve. And certainly this year, you've been a big part of that and it's fantastic to see and. We look forward to seeing more of that in the future. So as we get ready to wrap this up, I will toss out the three questions to you that everybody gets. And so

Lena: 36:17

okay.

Jonathan: 36:18

They're straightforward and they're personal type fun things. So question number one for you.

Lena: 36:25

Yeah.

Jonathan: 36:26

Favorite travel destination. You can get on a plane tomorrow. You can go anywhere you want just for fun. Where are you going to go? Where do you want to be?

Lena: 36:35

Easy. Italy.

Jonathan: 36:37

Really?

Lena: 36:38

Yes. I love Italy. Oh my goodness. Like, we had our honeymoon there and we did truffle hunting. We did, wine tasting. We did everything possible about food and I just love everything about the country and the food.

Jonathan: 36:53

That's awesome. I was there. I was very fortunate to be able to go for the first time last year. And I absolutely agree. It's it's great. So that is a fantastic spot. Okay. Number two, you are somewhere around the country. You are talking to somebody who has never been to Houston. And you want to convince them that they should come to Houston. So what are your top reasons why you would tell somebody they have to come visit this city?

Lena: 37:22

That's going to be hard because everybody has their own thing, right? If if they are a food person, then we're definitely going to use that as an excuse because it's, to be honest, you know what I travel the world is food in Houston is the best food.

Jonathan: 37:36

I agree.

Lena: 37:37

yes. And there's food in Houston that you cannot get anyway, but food anywhere else, you can get it in Houston. So that will be definitely one of the top reasons that I will say come for crawfish. I will say the place for a lot.

Jonathan: 37:54

I agree with that for sure. Sure. You know, where else are you going to get the good vacation, right? I mean, that's, this is it. This is it.

Lena: 38:02

Texans, you know, like Tex Mex we have Cajun, we have Southern cuisines, we have Viet Cajun, we have barbecue, like everything that you cannot get everywhere else.

Jonathan: 38:11

I love it. Okay. So final question number three, and you touched on some of these things when we were talking about the challenges, but a different spin on that question. Question number three is. If you're talking to somebody as a mentor, somebody younger who wants to follow your footsteps or wants to be able to do what you're doing, what would be the best piece of advice that you could give somebody who wants to get into the business or do what you do? Who's coming up in the world and is looking to you for advice. What are you going to tell them?

Lena: 38:45

There's one thing that I learned while doing business is that it's very easy to get lost of your purpose to lose your purpose, to lose your insight of why you're starting this business. Because as you enter the business, there will be the customer markets, right? And then everybody's going to want different things from you. It might not be the one that you want to offer. But in order to survive, in order to maintain the business, you might still have to offer that. And if you lose sight of the purpose of why you want to do it, it's very easy for you to lose the business. Because sooner or later, you're going to lose the passion because that's not what you want. So I would say you need to know what you want, what you desire to do, and then from there you build it.

Jonathan: 39:33

No, that's great. And we know from hearing your story and your experiences, it may have taken you a while to get to where you are and to discover that. But you're there now and

Lena: 39:44

I did the you know how when you play a maze trying to find the door out? So that was my maze.

Jonathan: 39:50

Well, we are extremely fortunate that you have found your way to where you are and doing what you're doing. And we're very appreciative and very happy and thrilled to have you as part of the hospitality community in Houston. So we thank you for that. Our guest today has been chef Lena Lay from Lena's Asian Kitchen here in Houston. We thank her for joining us and sharing her story and insights. Of course, many thanks to the Houston Hospitality Alliance for continuing to connect, educate, promote, and advocate for the entire Houston hospitality community. You can get more information on the HHA at www.houstonhospitalityalliance.com. Please join us next time as we continue to explore the people and the businesses behind Houston's amazing and diverse hospitality industry.

Lena: 40:41

Thank you, Jonathan.