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South Pasadenans and other local dignitaries gathered to help Chef Box owners Albert Chu and Patricia Huang cut the ribbon on their sparkling, new establishment in South Pasadena. Located in the OSH shopping center, this first of its kind operation is the brainchild of both Chu and Huang who have been instrumental in running 626 Night Market for the past several years. 626 is an Asian inspired summer festival featuring over 250 food vendors and has become an epic, local event held at Santa Anita Park.
Chu and Huang say they wanted to give those local chefs a way to get their food to folks throughout the year which is how Chef Box was born. Offering 50 meals cooked by 17 different local chefs of all varieties in rotation, the shop offers chef prepared meals for busy folks on the go who want something fresh and interesting while remaining convenient. Says Huang, “we allow these creatives to cook what they love every day and put it on our shelves to sell to people who are very busy.” This is the very first location. Once they got in the space, Chu had an epiphany, “I said, “oh my gosh! I have 17 restaurants at arm’s length!” and that was such an awesome statement; to have all different kinds of palates, different specialties and everything is done well because these are all chefs who specialize only in their dish.”
On hand for the event were Mayor Dr. Richard Schneider, Councilman Bob Joe, Chamber President Laurie Wheeler, Chamber Ambassador Sam Hernandez, along with representatives from Supervisor Kathryn Barger, Senator Anthony Portantino, Assemblyman Chris Holden and Senator Judy Chu. Before the official ribbon was cut, each offered their words of welcome including Christian Daly from Barger’s office saying, “I hope to be frequenting you all quite often and on behalf of Supervisor Kathryn Barger we’d like to congratulate you on your new business,” going on to say cheekily, “if you ever need any help I will gladly point you to the fine people here in South Pasadena.”
To which Mayor Schneider said, “we want to thank you for coming to South Pasadena. It looks like a wonderful concept and I’m sure you’ll do very, very well and be around for many years to come.”
Faith Lee from Assemblyman Chris Holden’s office added “South Pasadena is an amazing city, very friendly, has very supportive people here and I’m so glad you’re here bridging the communities together. Best of luck in your future!”
After Chamber President Laurie Wheeler gave an official “welcome to our town”, the official ribbon was cut to whoops and hollars and the party continued with offerings from a few of their featured chefs.
Welcome to the neighborhood Albert, Patricia, and Chef Box!
