This is an ongoing series featuring Asian businesswomen in Sacramento or in the broader California region.
The number of Asian business women is on the rise nationwide.
A report by the Asian Pacific Islander American Chamber of Commerce and Entrepreneurship shows AAPI women-owned business grew by between 76 percent to 108 percent in 2017. As of 2016, about one-quarter of women-owned employer firms were minority-owned, and among them, more than half were Asian-owned, according to a 2018 statement published by the Census Bureau.
This week, we interview Fiona Duong, owner of Happy Garden Seafood Restaurant. A popular restaurant on Stockton Boulevard, Happy Garden serves Cantonese food and dim sum. I visited Duong on a Wednesday after lunchtime and found her relaying customer orders in the steaming kitchen in an apron. She brought jasmine tea to my table and we began to talk.
Q: Tell us a little bit about your background.
A: Both my parents are Chinese but my dad’s family (went) to Vietnam a long time ago. My mom immigrated to Vietnam. We were fishermen on the island, grew vegetables on the hillside and went by the bay to fish. After the war, the Vietnam government told us to leave. So we left as refugees in 1979, went to Macau, but they were not taking refugees. We then went to Hong Kong to do refugees paperwork (and stayed at the refugee camps there).
I came to the U.S. in 1981 and grew up in south Sacramento. My parents used to run Ocean King Seafood Restaurant on Stockton Boulevard before it closed. Back then, it was always myself, my sister and my older uncle guiding the front house with knowledge about the cuisines, with my parents at the back kitchen. It has always been: “Here’s the cows, go milk it.” My dad used to cook in mixed flavors – he made Cantonese food, but bolded the flavors with little tweaks of fish sauce, soy sauce and lemongrass.
Q: How did you come up with your business idea?
A: I bought this restaurant 11 years ago. It was an opportunity, as Happy Garden is a superior location for us to get the upper hand (on businesses) and it went well. Working in the restaurant is a commitment to my parents. I graduated with a business degree at Sacramento State. I work hard, long hours but at least I know what I am doing. There are no vacations for me and I’ve been here so long that I don’t really know what’s going on outside. Right now we have around 30 employees on payroll, including part time. My parents never gave me pressure as far as running the business because maybe there have been no negatives (in the books).
I slowly learn to love what I do. This is the legacy I want to keep for my dad, who passed away due to a heart attack six years ago. It was a shock for me and I wanted to make him proud.
Q: What are the challenges and opportunities you faced as an entrepreneur?
A: One challenge is to be tough enough to organize it (the operations and my staff). I don’t think I am tough enough, but I don’t want to have more wrinkles to be angry. I am not the kind of person who fires people because it makes us all miserable.
(Women) are a minority in the kitchen and there is this traditional men mindset. It is difficult to supersede them and make them know that I pay their wages, and without them I won’t close my restaurant.
After my dad passed away, I told myself I need to learn to flip the wok, which took me three months. I observed the chefs to see the kind of seasonings or techniques they used. I needed to learn to cook like my dad, because if I have the technique, I can tell the guy chefs I am still going to run my business if you took off your apron. I may cook slower, but the party is still on.
I have to hand them the paychecks so they know I am the boss. If they are cleaning the floor, I will help them scrub the edges. If they are shorthanded, I can be of help, or at least learn to do something. Whenever I have time I’ll be a team player and chop the lobsters and green onions. Sometimes I will also cook for them and I’ll cook with my heart, so that they’ll know “my boss cooks for me and cooks well, brews soup for me.” I have to appreciate people coming in to work 15 hours a day.
(Another challenge) is to deal with stress. I try not to be upset. There was a colleague who was not prepping har gow and shu mai (two types of traditional Cantonese dumplings) for the front house, but was working on something else. (Instead of making a fuss about it), I took the ingredients from the refrigerator, put it at his table and said “steam it.” The front house can only say so much as it is the back house is doing intense work, but (reality is) it’s the front house staff who deals with the customers and know what is important, so I am there to align (priorities) in the kitchen.
I’m definitely hands-on to cut off extra costs and pay for suppliers, staffers and chefs. I focus on generating business to pay the bills, and it comes down to building relationships and wealth will eventually come.
My personal life revolves around my work. I met my husband after Happy Garden started and he knows that this is my life and we have mutual commitment towards my parents. He is the one behind the drapes, who picks our two children up from school, participates in school events. I don’t have to worry about their schedule.
I am usually the last to leave (Happy Garden) at around 9 p.m. – which is considered early – go home, cook dinner and wash dishes. I like cooking at home because I “feel like a mom.”
Q: Do you have any advice for upcoming entrepreneurs who want to start a restaurant business?
A: The customer who complains to you wants you to be better. Those who don’t just don’t come back. You know you can get feedback that is genuine and compassionate. You take that as an opportunity not to make the same mistake to the next customers.
Every day is a new day for me. There are energetic days when you are busy but also down days. I want to be energetic and productive. For the wedding banquets I host, (I tell myself) every bride and groom is special in their own way and that day was reserved just for them. Everyone has their own needs and if they put their hearts out there I need to receive and cherish it. You only get to marry once in your lifetime, so when I put that kind of compassion in it, I try to make the banquet as perfect as I can on my part.
I serve my customers. I love my customers and want to see them. The happiest moment for me is when customers gets their food. I want to be in their happy moments.
We are going to feature Sarah Anwar, owner of Golden Valley Academy in Elk Grove, for our next interview for this series.
If you have a Asian businesswoman in mind you hope to read about, please email tyu@sacbee.com.
Theodora Yu covers Asian American issues for The Sacramento Bee. She is a Hong Kong native and a Columbia Journalism School alumna with an interest in immigration and climate change issues.
"Happy" - Google News
November 26, 2019 at 11:00PM
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Meet Fiona Duong, a Sacramento restaurant owner who loves to see ‘Happy’ customers - Sacramento Bee
"Happy" - Google News
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