By Linda Zavoral / The Mercury News
Chef Lawrence Chu had big expansion plans in mind when he turned a former Los Altos laundromat into a Chinese takeout counter in 1970.
He envisioned opening a Chef Chu’s fast-food joint on every corner.
“Lucky I didn’t,” he says now.
If he’d achieved that goal, sure, he could have built a very nice business. But he probably wouldn’t have introduced thousands of children to Chinese cuisine via a school lunch program. Written three cookbooks. Fed luminaries from Mikhail Gorbachev to Serena Williams. Been invited to the White House, catered for Silicon Valley’s most famous names or become the toast of this Peninsula community for his volunteerism…cont.
LOS ALTOS, CA – JANUARY 15: Lawrence Chu talks about the fifty year history of his Chef Chu restaurant in Los Altos, Calif., Wednesday, January 15, 2020. (Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group)
