Will Leung-Richardson of Kudzu RVA and Choy Sun BBQ (Photo by Jay Paul)
Born into a restaurant family and raised by his grandparents, Will Leung-Richardson, the founder of Kudzu RVA and the recently launched Choy Sun BBQ, explores techniques from Japanese and Chinese cuisines while embracing his Southern roots. We caught up with the Richmond native and father of two to talk about heritage, the importance of traditions and barbecue.
Richmond magazine: What was it like growing up in a restaurant?
Will Leung-Richardson: The school bus dropped me off at the restaurant. We were one of those families that lived right around the corner, and I spent most of my time there. I’m told that I was exceptional in the way that I was actually all about it. Definitely a different experience, and being in the American South, there are no enclaves of Chinese-American families, so it was a bit isolating. I think that’s another reason I absorbed what was there and took all the good parts from it I could.
RM: Tell us about your family.
Leung-Richardson: My father is from Appomattox and Louisa and other parts of rural Virginia. My mom was born in Hong Kong, and I was the first one born in the States. I was raised by my grandparents, so in a way, I was kind of raised by an older generation. Honestly, I’m grateful for that. There were a lot of values emphasized in terms of politeness and manners — respect and integrity is a huge thing. I kind of turned out more old-school Chinese. I came up speaking Cantonese and English.
RM: How did you first get into cooking?
Leung-Richardson: I had these built-in tips and things, nuggets of knowledge. I had already taken interest as a kid at the family place, and it got rekindled. I avoided Asian food for a really long time and focused on classical French and what was cool at the time. I got a job at Dd33 [now closed] in Richmond, the first attempt at cutting-edge Asian fusion going on in the 2000s. In that process of development, so many things came back to me, and I ended up on the phone with my grandma all the time. That was my “Ratatouille” moment, [with] flavors or smells bringing me back. That was the catalyst for my return to wanting to do something with my initial influences and preserving things the family was doing.
RM: When did Kudzu start? And what is Choy Sun?
Leung-Richardson: 2017. Kudzu is my Southern Asian thing, trying to bring that together. There’s been a lot of phases. It started as a pop-up in restaurants, then pop-ups in breweries and ended up with a food trailer. We did fine dining with Underground Kitchen. [We] bridged a lot of gaps and touched on a lot of parts on culinary spectrums. We do deliveries as well. As far as Choy Sun, I’ve been on this Asian kick for some time now, and [there’s also] the influence of Southern barbecue and Asian barbecue. I think the parallels are apparent. I started by doing family packs, and we’re going to do more pop-ups and have plans to make it more of a permanent thing. Fifty miles up the road, all the best Chinese barbecue begins, but down here, there’s almost none, so it's kind of time, I think, to have exposure.
