Hollywood A-listers frequented Madame Sylvia Wu’s famous eatery Madame Wu’s Garden for many years before she passed away. Her age was 106.
The renowned restaurateur passed away on September 29, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Wu was horrified to see fake Cantonese food in the city when she, her husband, and their three children moved from New York to Los Angeles, and she intended to alter that. So, she opened up her first restaurant in Santa Monica in 1959, once her children went off to boarding school, and she had some free time on her hands.
Madame Wu’s Garden started off in a modest space, but as it gained popularity, it expanded to a much larger site. The Times reported that Wu used a letter to her church’s members and a request to one of her pals, a studio executive, to spread the word to attract customers to her new eatery. It worked out.
Celebrities including Cary Grant, Mae West, Frank Sinatra, Mia Farrow, Elizabeth Taylor, Johnny Carson, Carol Burnett, Walter Matthau, Robert Redford, Paul Newman, Tom Cruise, and Steven Spielberg were among the famous people that frequented Wu’s restaurant.
As hipper and more laid-back Chinese eateries popped up and preferences in the city changed, she shuttered the restaurant in 1998. She also mentioned at the time wanted to spend more time with her grandchildren, but she quickly left retirement.
Soon after, the restaurateur launched Madame Wu’s Asian Bistro & Sushi in the then-new Grove, but it didn’t endure as long as the first one, even though people still liked her.
