Awkwafina revisits family restaurant’s legacy in new food series
Awkwafina’s new Apple TV series follows her as she travels across the US to learn from Asian American chefs and explore whether she can revive her family’s long-closed Cantonese restaurant. The project connects her public career with a family history that began when her great-grandfather opened Lum’s in Queens, and gives her a way to honour the restaurant’s importance to her relatives.
The restaurant opened in the 1950s and closed in 1982, before Awkwafina was born; her family remembers it almost as a lost family member. The series also features her paternal grandmother, who raised her after her mother died when she was four, and who joined earlier projects too. Awkwafina describes cooking as a skill she developed through a lifelong love of eating, while her grandmother brought fresh ideas and enthusiasm to the show’s menu.
In short
- Awkwafina explores her family’s restaurant legacy in a new series.
- She learns from Asian American chefs across the US.
- Her grandmother plays a central role in the personal project.
Explained simply
Awkwafina is the stage name of Nora Lum, an American actor and comedian whose family has roots in Queens, New York. Her great-grandfather opened Lum’s, a Cantonese restaurant there in the 1950s; it closed in 1982, before she was born.
The restaurant remains part of her family’s history, and relatives have spoken of its loss as though they had lost a family member. The series also brings in Awkwafina’s paternal grandmother, who helped raise her after her mother died when she was four.
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Originally published by The Guardian as “‘I felt bad for my exes’: Awkwafina on making deeply personal TV – with her grandma”.