For more than 50 years, the kitchen at Chef Chu’s, in Los Altos, California, has produced one crowd-pleaser after another … including a certain Hollywood director. Before he’d bring “Crazy Rich Asians” and “In the Heights” to the big screen, Jon M. Chu was the kid folding napkins in the corner of his dad’s Silicon Valley restaurant.
His immigrant parents, from China and Taiwan, immersed him in American culture, such as the 1939 film “The Wizard of Oz.” Chu said they would sing “Over the Rainbow” all the time: “This idea of dreaming of some other place beyond the walls of my bedroom was instilled in us, ’cause that’s what my parents thought when they came to America,” he said. “It’s the promise of something more. My mom would call us the Asian Kennedys, and she would dress us the same. So, we have these, like, epic family photos!”
His mom, Ruth, said her son didn’t want to be a director: “He wanted to be an actor. But realized he’s not tall and not handsome enough!”
“That’s mommy talk,” said dad Lawrence. “That’s how we talk in the family. Very straightforward.”