UNITED STATES. California: Sylvia Wu commonly know as Madame Wu whose renowned Southern California restaurant drew Hollywood’s biggest personalities for four decades, passed away at the age of 106.
Soon after it first opened in 1959, Madame Wu’s Garden on Wilshire Boulevard in Santa Monica became a popular dining spot known for its cuisine and pagoda-style design with jade statues, a stone waterfall, and a fountain filled with koi.
Madame Wu herself was well known for greeting Hollywood’s elite while also answering the phone to accept orders for takeout while donning a floor-length silk gown.
After returning from China and finding mainly hefty faux-Cantonese cuisine, she was motivated to create the restaurant. She whined, “All you see are chop suey houses.”
Princess Grace of Monaco preferred the Peking roast duck at Madame Wu’s Garden while Gregory Peck and Paul Newman preferred the shrimp toast and crab puffs. Mae West preferred the cold melon soup.
The late television presenter Merv Griffin said in a statement, “Everyone in this town knows Madame Wu. one of the most beautiful, elegant, and lovely women I’ve ever known.”
Later, the family relocated to Hong Kong from Shanghai. She travelled to New York City on an ocean liner during World War II.
She subsequently reflected, “I don’t know how I had the courage.” She continued, “I had no family in America.” “The trip took 40 days, and because of the war, there was a blackout all the way.”
She met King Yan Wu, a brilliant chemist, at Columbia University while obtaining a degree in education. They got married, had three kids, and then went to Los Angeles where she opened a restaurant and he started working as an engineer at Hughes Aircraft Co.
Additionally, Madame Wu published cookbooks, had many television appearances, and was involved in charitable work, especially at the City of Hope Cancer Center after her daughter, Loretta, who was 34 at the time, passed away from breast cancer.
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