Susanna Foo
Former Chef/Owner, Susanna Foo Chinese Cuisine, Susanna Foo Gourmet Kitchen, SuiLan, SUGA
cookbook Author
Since 1979 Susanna Foo has been redefining Chinese cuisine. Armed with a deep understanding and knowledge of both regional Chinese cooking traditions and the techniques of other international cuisines, she has changed the paradigm of Chinese food through the melding of the best and fresh ingredients with modern and traditional cooking techniques.
Susanna was born in Inner Mongolia, China. At age 5 she and her family moved to Taiwan where she grew up. While attending the National Taiwan University and studying for a bachelor’s degree in European history, she met her future husband E-Hsin Foo. Together they moved to the United States where Susanna got her master’s degree in Library Science at the University of Pittsburgh.
During Susanna’s time in Taiwan, she learned Shanxi home cooking from her grandmother and her cousin. Her mother-in-law taught her Hunan cooking. She also took several cooking classes with Fu Pei May in Taiwan prior to traveling to the United States. These early culinary experiences would form the basis of her future culinary adventures.
E-Hsin and Susanna moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1979 to help his family run the Center City branch of HuNan, a neighborhood Chinese restaurant. Prior to this, Susanna had never worked in a professional kitchen. It was at Hunan that Susanna met one of the most influential people in her life, Jacob Rosenthal Founder of the Culinary Institute of America. He recommended that she study at the Culinary Institute of America where she learned the French techniques that would later adapt to Chinese cuisine.
In 1987, she opened the eponymous Susanna Foo Chinese Cuisine, serving a fusion of Chinese and French cuisine. It named the Best New Restaurant of the Year by Esquire Magazine, and Food & Wine magazine named her the Best New Chef in 1989.
In 1995, her first book was published, Susanna Foo Chinese Cuisine, which won her a James Bread Foundation Award for a Best International Cookbook. In 1997, she won a second James Bread Foundation Award for the Best Chef in the Mid-Atlantic Region.
She opened Suilan, in the Borgata hotel and casino complex in Atlantic City in 2003. A second book followed in 2005, Susanna Foo: Fresh Inspiration. She won the best Asian Cuisine book by Gourmand International Cookbook Award.
In 2009, she made the decision to sell Susanna Foo Chinese Cuisine after her husband had fallen ill. E-Hsin Foo died a year later. Susanna had another restaurant, Susanna Foo Gourmet Kitchen in Radnor, which she ran until it closed in 2015.
At the age of 72, Foo came out of retirement in 2016 to open a new restaurant, SUGA, with her son Gabriel. He had wanted to open a restaurant, and Foo felt that she was not yet finished with demonstrating modern Chinese cuisine. Some of the dishes were an evolution from those served in her previous restaurant, while others were inspired by her frequent trips to China. In August 2019, her other son, James Foo died from ALS. She decided to retire and donate her time to consulting, teaching cooking, and fundraising for the fight against ALS and for The Free Library of Philadelphia.