When Siu Chen got bored during the pandemic, the 77-year-old chef decided to start Medan Kitchen, a Los Angeles take-out restaurant serving up the Indonesian food she was cooking at home.
‘I would just watch TV and sleep, I was afraid of going senile,’ says Chen. ‘Now I’m happy and enthusiastic about cooking.’
At Medan Kitchen, Chen cooks everything herself and without a recipe, including favorites like fried chicken, lontong sayur, rendang, yellow rice, and more. Each day, she prepares around 300 boxes of takeout.
