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Chef Interviews
The ladies of the An family are the hardest-working women on the West coast! Hannah, Elizabeth, Monique, Catherine, Jacqueline, and their mother, Helene, are the feminine super forces behind hotspots Crustacean and Thanh Long, serving up savory dishes inspired by Helene’s childhood in Vietnam. Each of the restaurants has its share of family secrets, including a ‘secret kitchen’ that only the An ladies may enter, to ensure that recipes remain carefully guarded. New Asian Cuisine sat down with Elizabeth, CEO of the booming An Family industry, Catherine, the director of catering and special events, and Chef Helene herself.
From top left: Elizabeth, Helene, Catherine, Diana (Helene’s Mother-in-Law), and Bosilika (Elizabeth’s daughter)
ASTV: What is the best part about getting to work with your family?
HELEN: I always like all of my children to be together with me. I meet my goal! The best part of my life is that I always have my children around me .
ELIZABETH: I really enjoy it. In a family environment, there are ups and downs, and it’s not as political. If you’re working for someone else, you choose your words more wisely. Here, the first thing that comes to mind comes out of your mouth.
Working with our mother is great. It gives me a chance to spend a lot of time with her. She’s always been the strength of our family, and I’m inspired by how hard she works. My sisters and I are all so different. We don’t really step on each others’ toes. We all take our roles, what we love and do.
CATHERINE: We are all very different. I have to agree with her. Out of all the sisters, Elizabeth and I are most similar. I get a lot of guidance from her. It helps out to have someone more experienced give you the guidance.
ASTV: Is there a downside to running a family business?
ELIZABETH: You’re always talking about the business!
CATHERINE: I think it’s also a learning experience. We get better the more we work together. We learn how to control ourselves, respect each other as family members and as colleagues.
ELIZABETH: We take our work with us. You live and breathe it. You worry about it and care about it. Each and every one of us is just as intense and serious. Our mission is to succeed as one. That is the best part of our family business; that if you’re lucky to have a dynamic where you all get along, you can be sure that there is one common goal.
CATHERINE: And at the end of the day, regardless of whether or not we agree or disagree, we all want what’s best for the company. There’s that trust, too. We trust each other.
ASTV: Do you feel like the business dynamic between you is particularly different than other family businesses because you’re all women?
ELIZABETH: I know other families have businesses that are all men. What I’ve seen is that there’s more of a father and son ego. I don’t know if that’s a macho thing or not. I don’t know of any other family businesses that are run by women. With my mother, we’ve had a wonderful relationship. She’s one of those mothers that’s amazingly giving. Having the limelight is not important to my mother. She’ll be the first one to boast about her girls. In the Vietnamese culture, you’re taught from a very early age to respect elders; you have a duty to the family. Our mother is supportive of us and our ideas, bad or good. If we make a mistake, the worst is that we learn from it and do it again. It’s always a very positive approach. She never says I told you so. That makes the family dynamic really wonderful. I could never see myself doing something different than a family business.
HELENE: My goal is just to support my children in whatever they like to do. In my mind, I just want to make sure that they are happy, that they can be successful for the future.
ASTV: Do you have any special plans for Mother’s Day?
ELIZABETH: It’s my mother’s day off! Chef Helene gets off for the day. Usually we give her an Asian foot massage, and when she’s ready to get out of bed we have a nice brunch waiting for her. This is the first year that we’ll be serving brunch at Crustacean, so we’ll be at the restaurant, sharing it with our customers and friends. Normally we would do a brunch at home, we would cook for my mother. Our little ones get involved. My daughter loves to cook.
ASTV: Do you have any advice for our readers who are interested in starting a family business?
HELENE: They have to love each other. The mother has to look after them, and then the children always look up to mother. The duty of the mother is to take care of the children, to make sure they are taken care of. I always make sure that my children can choose the right things to be happy. I always give them the chance to do what they can do, even if they make a mistake. That’s good, they can learn from their mistakes. That’s what they need to be successful.
ELIZABETH: You have to love it. You will breathe it. You wake up with it, go to sleep with it. You have to be ready to learn to make compromise. You have to learn to work as a unit.
CATHERINE: Our mother shared this proverb with us: she would give us a single pair of wooden chopsticks and tell us to break it apart. Then, she would give us a bundle of chopsticks, and we couldn’t break them. It taught us that alone, as one, you will be easily broken.
ELIZABETH: Together, as a family, you have a better chance to succeed.
CATHERINE: We work as one; as a family, not as individuals.
From top left: Elizabeth, Helene, Catherine, Diana (Helene’s Mother-in-Law), and Bosilika (Elizabeth’s daughter)
ASTV: What is the best part about getting to work with your family?
HELEN: I always like all of my children to be together with me. I meet my goal! The best part of my life is that I always have my children around me .
ELIZABETH: I really enjoy it. In a family environment, there are ups and downs, and it’s not as political. If you’re working for someone else, you choose your words more wisely. Here, the first thing that comes to mind comes out of your mouth.
Working with our mother is great. It gives me a chance to spend a lot of time with her. She’s always been the strength of our family, and I’m inspired by how hard she works. My sisters and I are all so different. We don’t really step on each others’ toes. We all take our roles, what we love and do.
CATHERINE: We are all very different. I have to agree with her. Out of all the sisters, Elizabeth and I are most similar. I get a lot of guidance from her. It helps out to have someone more experienced give you the guidance.
ASTV: Is there a downside to running a family business?
ELIZABETH: You’re always talking about the business!
CATHERINE: I think it’s also a learning experience. We get better the more we work together. We learn how to control ourselves, respect each other as family members and as colleagues.
ELIZABETH: We take our work with us. You live and breathe it. You worry about it and care about it. Each and every one of us is just as intense and serious. Our mission is to succeed as one. That is the best part of our family business; that if you’re lucky to have a dynamic where you all get along, you can be sure that there is one common goal.
CATHERINE: And at the end of the day, regardless of whether or not we agree or disagree, we all want what’s best for the company. There’s that trust, too. We trust each other.
ASTV: Do you feel like the business dynamic between you is particularly different than other family businesses because you’re all women?
ELIZABETH: I know other families have businesses that are all men. What I’ve seen is that there’s more of a father and son ego. I don’t know if that’s a macho thing or not. I don’t know of any other family businesses that are run by women. With my mother, we’ve had a wonderful relationship. She’s one of those mothers that’s amazingly giving. Having the limelight is not important to my mother. She’ll be the first one to boast about her girls. In the Vietnamese culture, you’re taught from a very early age to respect elders; you have a duty to the family. Our mother is supportive of us and our ideas, bad or good. If we make a mistake, the worst is that we learn from it and do it again. It’s always a very positive approach. She never says I told you so. That makes the family dynamic really wonderful. I could never see myself doing something different than a family business.
HELENE: My goal is just to support my children in whatever they like to do. In my mind, I just want to make sure that they are happy, that they can be successful for the future.
ASTV: Do you have any special plans for Mother’s Day?
ELIZABETH: It’s my mother’s day off! Chef Helene gets off for the day. Usually we give her an Asian foot massage, and when she’s ready to get out of bed we have a nice brunch waiting for her. This is the first year that we’ll be serving brunch at Crustacean, so we’ll be at the restaurant, sharing it with our customers and friends. Normally we would do a brunch at home, we would cook for my mother. Our little ones get involved. My daughter loves to cook.
ASTV: Do you have any advice for our readers who are interested in starting a family business?
HELENE: They have to love each other. The mother has to look after them, and then the children always look up to mother. The duty of the mother is to take care of the children, to make sure they are taken care of. I always make sure that my children can choose the right things to be happy. I always give them the chance to do what they can do, even if they make a mistake. That’s good, they can learn from their mistakes. That’s what they need to be successful.
ELIZABETH: You have to love it. You will breathe it. You wake up with it, go to sleep with it. You have to be ready to learn to make compromise. You have to learn to work as a unit.
CATHERINE: Our mother shared this proverb with us: she would give us a single pair of wooden chopsticks and tell us to break it apart. Then, she would give us a bundle of chopsticks, and we couldn’t break them. It taught us that alone, as one, you will be easily broken.
ELIZABETH: Together, as a family, you have a better chance to succeed.
CATHERINE: We work as one; as a family, not as individuals.