Anita Lo

Chef/owner of the New York restaurants Annisa, and Bar Q, and consulting chef for Rickshaw Dumpling Bar, Anita Lo is a second generation Chinese-American born in Michigan who has had a lifelong passion for eating and cooking. Inspired by a trip to Paris while a student at Columbia University, Lo returned to earn a degree in cooking at the prestigious Ėcole Ritz-Escoffier, where she graduated first in her class with honors.

Lo has worked for celebrated chefs, including Michel Rostang, Guy Savoy and David Waltuck, and for well-known establishments in Paris and New York including Chanterelle, Can and Maxim's. It was at the pan-Asian hotspot Mirezi where Lo truly made her mark, receiving rave reviews from the local press and a glowing 2-star write-up from The New York Times. Her next venture, Annisa, was inspired by a year long eating quest through Southeast Asia and the Mediterranean; Annisa was voted 1-star in Michelin's guide and consistently top rated in Zagat. In 2005, Lo branched out from fine dining, consulting as chef/partner on a
new quick-serve project, Rickshaw Dumpling Bar. Lo recently opened Bar Q in New York's West Village, which features Asian-style barbecue and a raw bar with sashimi elements.

Anita Lo's Tale

"Going Green," eating locally, and sustainable agriculture are very hot concepts in the food world today, and as a working chef in New York, I try to employ these ideas in my daily life. This past spring when I traveled to South Africa I witnessed all three of these concepts in action. It was a five day whirlwind tour with the founders of a culinary travel company called Tour de Forks. We were on a research and development mission to source great restaurants, vineyards, farms and hotels to feature on a future guided trip we will lead.

South Africa's history is rich and diverse, and their food and wine culture is a microcosm reflecting centuries of intermingling ethnicities and flavors. There is seamless and fantastical blending of spices, techniques, and cuisines, resulting in a distinct palate that truly exemplifies fusion cooking. The food is an end product of a complex history full of strife, but on the palate all you taste is harmony.

I have traveled the world in search of great food and drink: toured the wine regions of France, visited cheese makers in Italy, gone fishing off the coast of Thailand, picked figs fresh from trees in Greece…in South Africa I experienced all those things and left knowing I had only seen a small sliver of what the country had to offer.

South Africans are living the dream of a sustainable environment. With a composition of tropical, sub-tropical and desert climates across the country, their land produces the food that sustains them. Three of South Africa's borders are lined with ocean and the seafood we ate was incredible, not only for its preparation but for its freshness and the variety of offerings. We sampled wild game that in New York would have traveled thousands of miles to reach my plate, and here we could travel to the source in just a few hours time. And during our visit we only drank local wines that left me wanting for nothing: South Africa's viticulture is as vibrant as any other wine-making region in the world.

But it was the small details gracing our dining experiences that hinted at regions far beyond South Africa's borders. Rich curries reminded me of traveling in Southeast Asia; fresh koeksisters transported me to eating
bomboloni fresh from the fryer during my time in Italy; and the afternoon we spent at a fig farm smelled just as sweet as the ripest fig groves in Greece. And all of these "foreign" influences have immigrated to South Africa, assimilating, and giving way to a truly unique cuisine. To study the details of the South African palate is a history lesson in the French Huguenots fleeing religious persecution, arriving in South Africa and creating a thriving wine country. Bobotie, South Africa's national dish, tells the story of British explorers who came to the shore in search of gold and found the spices of the Malay slaves: it is a re-imagined and spiced up version of the Brits shepherd's pie.

All food tells a story, and South Africa's tells many people's histories. At the same time South Africa's cuisine
blends into something singular and all its own. As we traveled I could taste the entire globe, continents away, in various bites of the same dish even as I knew that the fish inside my curry was caught just off the nearby shores.