Behind Quincy chef Laurence Louie's rise on "Top Chef"
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Laurence Louie at Universal Commons in California earlier this spring. Photo: Todd Williamson/Bravo via Getty Images
The line to order at Rubato HK Café spilled out the door Sunday as the staff served up HK French toast, bolo bao buns and, most recently, some dishes that were featured on "Top Chef: Carolinas."
- Laurence Louie, the owner and a contestant, sold out of his "Top Chef" specials in under two hours.
The intrigue: Louie, a community organizer turned James Beard Award-nominated chef, repped Quincy and his Chinese American heritage all the way to the show's season finale.
The latest: Rhoda Magbitang, a Filipino chef working in Hawaii, was crowned the champion in Monday night's episode.
- Louie and New York-based Sherry Cardoso finished as runner-ups.
State of play: Louie, 39, advanced throughout the show with complex dishes, including Turkish meals he learned to cook in London and Chinese dishes he grew up eating.
Flashback: Louie pivoted from community organizing to cooking 12 years ago, starting as a line cook at Oleana in Cambridge before moving overseas.
- By then, Oleana was a James Beard Award winner. "I didn't know what that meant at the time," Louie tells Axios.
Yes, but: Louie's homecoming — and his rise to stardom in the years since — almost didn't happen.
- He planned to open a Chinese restaurant, anchoring a new restaurant group in London, when the COVID-19 pandemic was declared.
- Those plans fell through, and his mom called from Quincy asking him to take over her fledgling business, Contempo Bakery.
- It wasn't the first time she had asked — Louie had his sights set on becoming a restaurant chef — but this time, he had no excuse to decline.
Zoom in: Contempo, an Italian musical term that means playing "in time," was a hobby and sometimes a practice space for Louie's mom and her band (the baker was her lead singer).
- They agreed to close the bakery and reopen it in 2022 as Rubato, a musical term that effectively means the opposite.
- Louie and his mother argued in the cafe's early days about one choice he made, breaking with tradition; he served a char siu bao closed, rather than open.
Flash-forward four years: The customers don't seem to mind, and his mother comes in sometimes asking for bao.
- The menu earned Louie his own James Beard nomination in 2024.
- A year later, he got a chance to compete in "Top Chef: Carolinas," serving the judges dishes like Cantonese steamed fish.
What they're saying: At one point, Louie tells Axios he thought to himself, "I might get eliminated, and if I do, the only way to go out is to just use every opportunity to cook my shit and cook my food and represent myself."
- Louie watched the season finale with his wife, Rary Ratsifa, and his father at a packed watch party in Cambridge. (His mother stayed home to babysit his 2-year-old son, Ivo.)
What's next: Louie told the crowd he's kicking around a few ideas, including potential pop-ups.