Sampan went to Rubato, a Hong Kong style café, in Quincy to speak with Chef and co-owner Laurence Louie about his busy year as a Chopped champion, being a James Beard semifinalist, winning both Bon Appétit and Eater Boston’s Best New Restaurants awards in 2023, as well as being an expectant father.
Of the items that we tried, the real stand out was Rubato’s signature dish—the fried chicken bolo bao. It was the perfect blend of succulent, perfectly cooked, fried chicken with a slightly tangy slaw on a delightfully chewy bao. A close second was the decadent french toast with the lava egg yolk. It is sweet and crispy, and beautiful to observe. The ji cheung fun with sesame and hoisin was so tasty that we ordered a second round. We also tried a plain bolo bao and very much enjoyed its flaky goodness. We sampled a beef brisket bao and a cha siu bao and decided they were perfect examples of the dishes. The food is very reasonably priced. There was a wave of lunchtime customers who came in while we enjoyed our food. Seating is limited, so be prepared to pick up your meal and enjoy it elsewhere or to wait, it’s definitely worth the wait!
Sampan: Congratulations on being a James Beard semifinalist! What was your reaction when you heard the news?
Laurence Louie: It was a surprise. I didn’t know when they released the list for this year. It was a Wednesday, and it was my friend Irene Lee, who owns Mei Mei’s in South Boston. She’s the one that texted me the photo of the list, and I was like, ‘what is this?’
Sampan: Also, congratulations on your appearance on Chopped! Will you be holding a watch party when it airs?
Laurence Louie: Yeah, we’re going to do one with just like, family, friends, something a bit small. Nothing crazy–just for me. I haven’t seen any of it yet, so it’s like, obviously I was there, but it will be nice just to just enjoy the moment and watch the final result.
Sampan: This makes the 57th season of Chopped with revered chefs from around the world competing to be Chopped champion. What did it mean to you to be on the show?
Laurence Louie: I think it’s a really exciting opportunity just to showcase myself as a chef and my talents and my skills, but also just to be able to represent the community, the friends that I have, the family and all that. A lot of folks, they ask me, ‘are you trying out for a tv show or something?’ I was like, ‘I don’t know.’ Maybe Chopped was always the one that I was like, ‘I think if I did one, it’d probably be Chopped.’ They reached out to us last year, and you still have to go through a pretty intense interview process. There’s several rounds and you have to submit an application. You have to go through several interviews before you’re actually cast. It takes quite a while for that to happen. But I was super honored and super excited to be able to take part in it and just to kind of get the word out on the restaurant too, and just put it on a big stage like Chopped and Food Network and all that.
Sampan: Can you give me a description of the format of the show for people who haven’t seen it?
Laurence Louie: So essentially, it’s four contestants, four chefs, and there’s potentially three rounds. In each round, there’s a mystery basket. The first round is appetizers. You open it up, and there’s four ingredients that we don’t know what’s inside. The first round, you get 20 minutes to cook one dish. We have to make four dishes, one for each judge or one for display. There are three judges. And the second round, you have entrees, and you have 30 minutes to do the same thing as the new four ingredients that you don’t know about. And then the last round is desserts, which is another 30 minutes. Again, four more ingredients that you don’t know about. You have to make one dish out of it.
Sampan: Before you opened Rubato here in Quincy, your mother operated a bakery in this space. How did you come up with the idea to turn it into a restaurant?
Laurence Louie: My mom had been here for 22 years. I was a chef in London at the time, and it was during the pandemic when she called me and was essentially like, she doesn’t really want to do this anymore. She’s 72 this year, so she’s like, ‘my neck hurts, my back hurts, my legs hurt.’ She’s totally ready to retire. She called me to ask if I wanted to take over. And I think given the kind of historical moment that we were in in this pandemic, and the world was very different than when I first started cooking. And this seemed like a really good opportunity. My wife and I moved back to Quincy from London, and we tried to figure out what to do with this space. And we had ideas from everywhere, from super fine dining with a tasting menu and 23-seats-type of restaurant, to what we’re doing now. I think Rubato was always kind of my dream for what kind of restaurant I want down the street from me and the food that really spoke to me and my experience as a Chinese American. And I think being a chef for a while, it gave me the skills to be able to cook a lot of foods that were meaningful and kind of touched on different nostalgic points and kind of comfort moments in food, growing up Chinese American. We did some renovations, and we opened up.
Sampan: Will you describe some of the dishes you serve here at Rubato and talk about the inspiration behind them?
Laurence Louie: Yeah, sure. They’re all inspired by, as a Chinese American chef, I want to cook things that are honest to my experience and authentic to my experience. I would say the signature dish, the star dish that is most popular by far, is the fried chicken bolo bao, which is. The bolo bao is, like, a classic kind of Hong Kong Cantonese bun bao, if you will–pastry, which is essentially like a buttery roll. And then on top of it, there’s a thin cookie crust that’s sweet, but it’s not filled with anything. We essentially started making sandwiches out of it, and we did a fried chicken bao with this really nice, light, vinegar-based slaw and some house made sauce.
Sampan: Rubato was named best restaurant of 2023 by both Bon Appetit magazine and Eater Boston. You’re accumulating some pretty huge accolades. What does all of this positive attention mean to you?
Laurence Louie: It means a lot! I think as a new chef on the scene, and young, we don’t do it for the accolades and all that. We’re going to be doing what we do anyways. But it’s just really nice to be appreciated and be seen. I think especially when its Chinese food. It’s not like anything else in the city right now. And it’s also in Quincy, which is not the most exciting. I mean, I think it’s really exciting as a food scene, but it just doesn’t get as much attention as Cambridge and Somerville and Boston, those areas are a bit more buzzing. So it makes me proud. It makes me proud to just be a part of those conversations and I think to be able to kind of create a platform for us to be able to share our food with people.
Sampan: This is a huge year for you personally and professionally with a child on the way. So how do you balance it all?
Laurence Louie: I don’t know. Part of it is how we design the hours at Rubato so we can have that work life balance, not just for me, but everyone on staff. And we want to make sure everyone’s taken care of and has opportunities to do these kinds of things, like have children, have a family, and we have a lot of people that have young children on staff. A lot of three-year-olds, five-year-olds, seven-year-olds, and so it’s all kind of built into how we operate. I think when we have our kid, that there’s kind of this really supportive community inside, but also, it’s kind of designed to be able to have a life around. I think that’s a big part of it. And we’ll see. I don’t know. Maybe you can ask me again after I’m in my 32nd hour of no sleep.
