Anita Lo

She has never worked in any field other than in the kitchen. Her extraordinary lifelong love of eating brought her into this industry at an early age while studying towards her degree in French at Columbia University. To satisfy both her hunger for fine food and her responsibility to learn French, Anita went to Paris to study the art of cooking during the summer of her junior year. Immediately upon her graduation, she went to work in the garde-manger station of the year-old Bouley restaurant. But a year in garde-manger at Bouley only whetted Anita's appetite, so she returned to France to earn her degree in cooking at the prestigious Ritz-Escoffier school. Her work at Bouley paid off, and she graduated first in her class with honors. This earned her much sought after internships at several two-star Michelin rated restaurants in Paris, among them under such noted chefs as Michel Rostang and Guy Savoy. From there she went on to work through all the stations in the highly acclaimed kitchen of Chanterelle. Her next position as the chef of Can, a French-Vietnamese restaurant in Soho was noteworthy because it was there that she met Jennifer Scism who then was her sous-chef. The two instantly hit it off and the rest is history. Two chef positions followed: she spent 2 _ years at Maxim's, the New York installation of one of France's oldest and most honored establishments owned by the fashion designer, Pierre Cardin. But it was at Mirezi restaurant on lower Fifth Avenue that Anita made her mark. As chef of this pan-Asian hotspot, Anita won rave reviews from all the major publications including a glowing review from the New York Times' Ruth Reichl. Among her many media triumphs are a 1998 advertisement for the Milk Council (milk mustache intact), several television appearances on CNN, the TV Food Network, NBC, CBS, the Martha Stewart show, and a mention in Avenue Asia's debut issue as one of the 500 most influential Asian Americans. Her recipes have been published in various publications, including the New York Times, Time Out, and Out. Even still, Anita's appetite was not sated. After two years, she left her position at Mirezi to travel the world with her partner, Jennifer. The two spent the greater part of the year searching for the ultimate meal all over South East Asia and Mediterranean Europe, and planning for Annisa, a place of their own where Anita could have complete creative freedom under the far-reaching, Contemporary American concept. Her satisfaction, at least for now, is guaranteed.