After Randy and his wife lost the majority of their income due to the pandemic, Randy decided to do what he always dreamed of: document his father’s Cantonese recipes. In this episode, Brittany talks with Randy and his parents — Chung Sun Lau and Jenny Lau — about how they created a successful YouTube channel in only a few short months.
Randy Lau had always wanted to preserve his heritage and honor his parents and their legacy, so during the pandemic, he decided to start a YouTube channel, with his parents as its stars. In this episode, our host, Brittany Luse, talks with Randy and his parents — Chung Sun Lau and Jenny Lau — about how their channel came to be, how YouTube has allowed them to connect with a larger community, and how they built a successful business from their YouTube channel in only a few short months. Some participants have been compensated for their involvement in this series.
KEY TOPICS & TIME STAMPS
RESOURCES
SOCIAL MEDIA HANDLES
CREDITS
The Upload is a podcast by YouTube produced in partnership with National Public Media. Our Executive Producers are Brianna LaFleur and Erica Osher. Supervising Producer Shannon Boerner. Our Lead Producer is Theresa Avila; Editing and Engineering by Alie Kilts; Production Assistance by Gurjit Kaur with support from Maddy Weinberg. Our logo was created by Jen Grottle and our music is by TimaLikesMusic. Voice over by Lawrence Lew. Hosted by Brittany Luse.
(31 mins)
[0:00]
Brittany: I feel like if you were to ask anyone, when the pandemic started…like, when this WHOLE thing became this very, REAL, thing, most people would probably be able to point to a day on the calendar.
[music in]
For me, it was Wednesday, March 11th, 2020. I was out shooting a streaming show, and my friend, Eric gets this news notification on his phone that Tom Hanks tested positive for COVID-19. And then we got an almost simultaneous news notification that the NBA was shutting down, like the NBA, like the league, one of the biggest sports organizations in the world, they were shutting down because of COVID.
[Pandemic archival]
“The game tonight has been postponed.” (source)
“For the first time, the world health organization declaring the outbreak of Covid-19, a global pandemic.” (source)
“The corona virus forces millions more Americans into virtual lockdown. Over 75 million people…” (source)
Brittany: And that's when it hit us. Like, this is real. We thought maybe we'd be down for a month, but we were wrong. We ended up shooting the rest of the entirety of the series from our living rooms. And when the world seemingly stopped, many of us, including myself, began reevaluating our lives. That meant asking a lot of big picture questions.
[1:00]
"You know, what would you be doing if you weren’t worried about money, you weren't worried about judgement. And then, my mind jumped to video...and then it jumped to YouTube!”
Brittany: How did one family go from wanting to document family recipes to starting a YouTube channel during the HEIGHT of the pandemic? It’s that PIVOT during uncertainty, that we’re going to focus on in today’s episode.
[Theme music]
Hi there, I’m your host, Brittany Luse. And this is The Upload: The Rise of the Creator Economy, a special podcast from YouTube in partnership with National Public Media. Where we go behind the video screen and talk to creators about how they launched, scaled and found a home on YouTube.
In today’s episode, we’re going to hear from the Lau family, who made the ultimate PIVOT during uncertainty. When the state of California went into lockdown, Randy Lau decided it was time to finally make good on a personal mission of his — to document and preserve his father Chung’s classic Cantonese recipes.
[MADE WITH LAU ARCHIVAL]
“What’s up everyone, today was are making (soy sauce chow mein). Ok, ok, one, two, three, Siu Mai wrapping contest! Oh my god, ow, my hand is cramping!”
Brittany: This idea quickly gave birth to the YouTube channel, Made with Lau, where Randy, along with his mother Jenny and father Chung share recipes and a little bit of Chinese culture with fans around the globe. Before we get to my chat with the Laus, one quick note: Chung speaks most comfortably in Cantonese. So you'll hear a translator in certain parts of our interview.
Okay. Without further adieu, here's our conversation with the Laus.
[2:10]
Brittany: Hi!
[Hellos in unison]
Brittany: It's so nice to meet you, Jenny Chung, Randy.
Jenny: Nice to meet you too.
Brittany: Nice to meet you too. I love your guy’s channel. It is so, it’s it’s so nice I wish, my dad can't cook. I wish, I wish I could do something like this with him, but he can't cook. Um, but this is, this is really amazing. Um, and I'm so excited to talk to you guys today.
Randy: Us too.
Jenny: Excited to see you too.
Brittany: So to get started, please introduce yourself and your family, who all is here today?
Randy: Uh, My name is Randy Lau and I am the son of two amazing Chinese parents. And I'll let them introduce themselves.
[3:00]
Jenny: OK, my name is Jenny. Jenny Lau. Uh, I am the, people could call me Mama Lau. Yeah. And, uh, I am the one also in the video, um, helping, translation in the, on the video. So...
Chung: Yeah, My name is Chung, Chung Sun Lau.
Brittany: It’s great to meet all of you. Um, so talk to me, Randy, about your channel and what people can expect from it?
Randy: So our channel is called Made With Lau, and it's a Chinese family recipe channel. So my dad has been cooking Chinese food for 50 years. He's retired now. He's amazing. Like everything he touches is like gold, basically.
Brittany: I have to agree.
Randy: On our channel, we share a recipe of his every week. It's usually like a classic Cantonese dish or something he cooked in the restaurant. And after each meal, we sit down as a family together to eat it together, and talk about the dish and nuances of making it.
[4:00]
Randy: It gives me a chance to like ask them about their lives growing up and just learn more about Chinese culture. People I think come for the recipes, but they stay for the family, and the wholesomeness, and kind of just getting a chance to enter our home and our kitchen and just hang out with us for 20 minutes or however long the video is.
Brittany: Randy, I'd love to know, like, tell me why it's important for you to document your family's history, especially your dad's recipes?
Randy: So much of my upbringing is filled with really rich memories of my dad's cooking and that's just how I experienced love. Some of my favorite memories are just having epic nine to 12 course feasts. My dad would like go to town. Like steamed fish, tossu, lobster, there'd be like literally like six meats on the table and he’d cook it all in like a day.
[5:00]
Randy: So I just want to be able to capture that, and translate that, and be able to pass those things down. Hopefully, the onus is kind of on me to learn them so I can cook them for my kids. But, um, but this is like a, this is a good step.
And, uh, I think on a macro level, I think Cantonese and these, these traditions, these recipes, they're, I think, they're at risk of dying. There's a lot of tradition and knowledge that the older generations have that I think a lot of people want to document.
Brittany: You know, you talking about sharing that, that makes me wonder, like, why did you, it's one thing, I think a lot of people, I mean, every couple of years I go through this thing where I'm like, I'm going to save my family's oral history, you know? And I, and I have, I mean, I want to say maybe six or seven years ago, I conducted interviews of my parents
Randy: Oh, that's cool.
Brittany: Separately like for like an hour, just asking them questions that, that probably I was too young to get the answers for before. But I never thought to share them with other people. What made you, any of you Chung Jenny, Randy, what made you decide to want to share, um, these recipes and this family history on YouTube?
[6:00]
Jenny: Randy. He graduated engineer. But he, his mind, he always wanted to create something. And then he also, many times he mentioned about, um, want to learn how daddy cook, and then want to make like a channel. And then I say, “Oh people will see us. It's uncomfortable to show us on the YouTube channel.” Let so many people to adjust myself, like, like see how we act.
Then we always have to be like a kind of perfect on the camera. So I say, oh no, but Randy, is never give, give up his thinking, his dream. And then one day, Kat was talking to me, my daughter-in-law, Randy’s wife, she say, the reason, uh, we want to do this because first, we all getting old, right?
[7:00]
One day the old generation is gone. So we have to do something to let something pass with them. That's how I feel. I say, okay. I think that's a good thing. We teach you how to, like start a video.
Brittany: And it’s such a good thing you said ‘Yes’ because obviously your videos have connected/resonated with people around the world.
Jenny: Two things, I want to share with you. One it is we made one one video for... We was not planning to make that video, because that main video is a very long video, but what if the audience say
Jenny: I have a dying grandpa. He's loving food is Zongzi, but I don't know how to make it. And then I wish I can learn this. Daddy Lau see this comment, and then he immediately, I need to, I need to make one video for this. So that means so much, so much benefit from this video, right? Not only for the young generation, not only for the people interest about the food, and also helping a lot of people bring something they love to the people they love.
[8:00]
Brittany: That's so beautiful. It's so amazing that you guys have been able to share in all of this together as a family. And to know that you're making other people happy. I want to talk about me, you know, we've, we've been talking a lot about how popular the channel is, but I want to back up and talk about how you got started. Uh, this is something that you, that you've started during the pandemic. Um, when most people, I would say, including myself, we're trying to do less. And you guys started this incredible family project. Um, talk to me, Randy, about how you got the idea for the YouTube channel and what made you want to start it?
Randy: Yeah, so this has always been like a bucket list thing. Like I've wanted to document my dad's recipes for a long time, and I've always had this itch.
[9:00]
But like during the pandemic, on paper, it really knocked us out pretty hard. Like we, we lost almost all of our income,
Brittany: Oh my gosh.
Randy: We were living on savings and unemployment. and then, I’ll kind of like fast forward to the day that we decided, or the weekend that we decided to start the channel. But essentially my wife and I, we do a quarterly retreat where we just go somewhere. We reflect on our lives and, um, we set goals. And
We had read this book called “Designing Your Life”, which has a bunch of exercises to kind of get you through, to help you think through different scenarios for your life. What would you be doing if you weren't worried about money, you weren't worried about judgment, and my mind jumped to video and then it jumped to YouTube and it jumped to documenting my dad's recipes.
Randy: And I think for all the reasons we were talking about before, like I think it was just a great intersection of something that I found personally fulfilling. It started like literally the day the pandemic was announced. Like I think that day the NBA was like, we're shutting down. Everyone's like, oh my God.
[10:00]
Brittany: Wow
Randy: Uh, so it was like that day, um, that we went through these exercises and decided to start that, but at the, at that, at that point in time, it was still kind of an idea.
And I hadn't like approached my parents about it. I, I still had no idea if they would want to. Um, but that's the story.
Brittany: That's the story. Um, so, so Jenny, you explained how you felt when Randy approached you, you were worried about having to be perfect. And what were people going to think? Um, but, but Chung w how did you feel when Randy approached you and asked if you would start working on a YouTube channel.
Chung: Actually, he first asked me to teach him two years ago, but at that time, I felt that there wasn’t much to do. But after, he asked me to pass on my cooking experiences and my methods to him and my grandson so that it can be passed down in the family. So I thought “Alright, since you would like me to leave my cooking experiences with you” I’ll do it.”
[11:00]
At first, I really wanted to leave it just for my family only. But after he posted it on YouTube, I saw many people liked to watch our channel So then, I thought “since so many people like to watch our videos, then I’ll try my best, based on my own ability, to pass on my knowledge, all that I know, to everyone and not just for my sons and grandchildren.
[12:00]
I want to teach many, many people how to cook, and share how we are as a family, how we eat so happily, and most importantly, share with others my family’s happiness with others.
Randy: I have a quick anecdote. So my dad was like, oh, I don't know what, I have to share it. And you kind of smirked and I did too, because I was like, what are you...So he, when we started, my dad handed me his old Chinese restaurant menu.
And if you've been to one, which you probably have, they have like hundreds of items. And he's like, yeah, I can make all these. And that's not even all the recipes he knows. I think he knows like over a thousand recipes. So at this rate, I think it would take us like 10 years. 10 to 15 years to cover everything.
[13:00]
Brittany: That is funny though. Cause I was thinking the same thing. I was like, you have nothing to share, like all of these videos they stand in, they kind of, they kind of stand to reason of, I don't really see that. Chung, I have another question for you. You know, Randy has said that, you know, he thinks of the channel as like a creative outlet. And even Jenny said that, you know, Randy had wanted to do something creative for sometime. Is cooking like a creative activity for you?
Chung: The creative thing for me is cooking. And it doesn’t take me very long to cook. For example, for me to cook one dish, I can finish it in half an hour, an hour. But for Randy, it takes a lot of time to produce, cut, and translate. It’s harder for him, he’s working hard.
[14:00]
Randy knows his production process, he’s very smart, he’s very flexible, he’s clever, so I support him, and will continue doing that.
Randy: No
Brittany: I think you guys, I think you guys are thinking as are both, I think you guys are both creating a lot when it comes to the channel.
Jenny: mm.
Randy: I will say every time I come over now, My dad is, I think he's experimenting a lot more in the kitchen. For me. It's like, yes, I am spending a lot of time now editing, but my dad spent like 50 years kind of practicing and owning his craft.
So I think it's all coming into light now. It's like how much elegance there is when he makes food. It's like, the half hour, hour I'm filming, it's just like years, decades of experience like playing out and he makes it look so easy.
[15:00]
But when I try to recreate some of them, I'm like th th th th this feel like, like a dummy, sometimes I should just, I don't have the intuition that he has. I think a spark has been reignited.
Brittany: Jenny, I’m wondering how you feel about that?
Jenny: So, um, every, everybody has their different tasks and Randy have a big, like a big job for finally finish the video. But I think the main commander creator is Daddy Lau, because he's the one, without his cooking, then you cannot have a video right?
Jenny: You cannot do anything else. So he is the major thing. That the major, uh, commander chief for this video. So right now Daddy Lau is very, become a lot of people know him. All the fan. We never get in touch with for many year and family now all know he's on the YouTube channel now. Even we in the store, they say, “Hi, are you Made with Lau?”
[16:00]
Randy: Yeah, they got stopped at a grocery store, which is, it was pretty cool. I think more than once.
Brittany: That’s amazing.
Jenny: Yeah.
Randy: When we started, like my mom says she was nervous, but like, like for the very first videos, I was like, “Hey mom, you want to do the outro?” And she was like — I didn't give her any guidance.
Randy: Um, and she was like, “Hey, make sure you subscribe. And like our video” I was like, “how'd, you know how to say that?” Like, she's just a natural. And I think, um, uh, same for my dad. When I asked him like, “Oh, what did you want to do if you weren't cooking?
And I think that concept is a very like Western question. It's like, what would you, what are your, what's your dream job? And he's like, what are you talking about? Like I had to do this, I had no other choice
Randy: But like digging deeper, I was like, “Oh, but what what if you could choose?” And he's like, oh, I'd play the flute. I'd be a performer. And I think he used to play in front of like thousands in China. And I think just being, presenting himself to a lot of people is just very natural to him.
[17:00]
So I think this is actually a really good fit for both of my parents. Like they're really natural on camera. And, um, yeah. so I just, I like struck the lottery with being able to film my parents because it was just so natural and charismatic.
Brittany: Um, the amazing thing about it is that it seems like you also have been able to like really build a lifestyle around your channel. It just, it comes across as really charismatic. Chung you're so exciting to watch. And, um, and I think that, that the format that you guys landed on, it makes it so much fun for the viewer.
Brittany: Um, but I would love to like go back to sort of like the beginning and talk about, um, the role that food played played in your family growing up. So I would love to hear from you, Randy, but, but first I would like to hear, um, from you Chung, like growing up in China, like what role did food play in your life when you?
[18:00]
Chung: When we were young, we mainly ate rice. My family did farming, so food to us was very precious. Because when we worked, it was very hard. The farmer’s life is very difficult, harvesting and all. The things that were bought, we would truly cherish them. For example, if we dropped a grain of rice on the tabletop, we had to pick it up and eat it. This was how my mom taught us to treasure and cherish food. Food, for us, wasn’t so abundant at that time. That’s why we cherished the food we ate very much.
Brittany: Hmm. It sounds like a really important thing. Like food was extremely important and like you had a really close relationship to food.
Chung: Even now, it’s like that. I have a habit that when I eat, I have to eat until the plate is very clean.
[19:00]
Chung: Till now, I still cherish food a lot and I teach my children to do the same. I teach Randy, my family members, I tell them to cherish their food, don’t waste it.
Randy: I will say a bit. He always, they always make like a ton of food, so I can't like
Brittany: You can't finish it all.
Randy: I can’t finish it
Jenny: Yeah.
Brittany: That's that's a really good point. Actually, I have to, I can't, I have to say Chung you sound a lot, like my parents —
Jenny: Oh
Brittany: talking about not wasting food.
Randy: Yeah, so I think, I mean, food was always like our love language. Just, just kind of transcending, whatever words we couldn't say to each other. Food food was always that reminder that: I am loved, I am supported, everything's going to be okay. And it was always so good. And I think also like food for me growing up as a Chinese American, because I don't speak Chinese fluently.
[20:00]
Randy: Like, I, I don't necessarily feel like Chinese enough, but food for me was always like, a gateway into our heritage, into our culture, because there's so much history with the food that my dad makes and my parents make. So it was always kind of like a tether to Chinese culture. Just being able to eat all these like delicious traditional Chinese foods, like all the time growing up.
Jenny: Food in our family. It is very, very rich, First Daddy Lau, he loved to cook. He was, since 12 years old, his mother went to Hong Kong and then raised himself in, in China.
[21:00]
Jenny: So from that time he have to learn how to cook. And then, um, after, uh, he immigrant, to like the United States. And then the easy job for him, is it the cook, And, uh, he always say, “I don't want my children like me 12 years old without my mother next to me, without my father next to me.” And then he always put a lot of food on the table for the children. So I also feel we all lucky. We all lucky. And we are not rich family, but we have a rich father who always put the food on the table for us.
Brittany: That is so lovely. I wonder Jenny and Chung. How does it feel to now be able to provide that for your grandchild? You know, to be able to have, you know, a grandchild and, you know, you can feed them and love them and spend time with them. What is that like?
Chung: I’m so happy. I have the opportunity to cook more now. I cook more food for my son and grandson. We eat together, and when they eat happily, then I feel very happy. When they know how to cook, how to buy food, how to eat healthy I will then feel very happy. I love to pass on my cooking experiences to everyone.
[22:00]
Jenny: For me. I feel, um, at cooking, it is really important for not only for us, for everybody, right? Because, um, Chinese have a idiom “Mín yǐ shí wéi tiān” mean “food for people.” So, uh, when I see my, my grandkid, grand baby eat. And then I'm really happy. I say, um, one day when he grew up and he will look back at the video and then see grandparents how much they love him and that a valuable gift for this little baby.
Brittany: Mm, that's so beautiful. And it's amazing that, that you all can do that for each other and for your family, talk to me about how things have changed, um, for you guys sort of like prac in a practical sense and like even a financial sense. Like what has the channel sort of brought to your, to like as far as even opportunities.
Randy: So e’re super blessed because with, like a rapidly growing audience comes with a lot of opportunities. Um, and we're just really blessed that, you know, we have a lot of sponsors in the pipeline that want to work with us. you know, I think for a long time, I was trying to validate, not being an engineer for my parents. So I told them like last month, how much we made, and it was like a mind blowing amount to me.
Randy: Um, and I told them, and my dad was like, Hmm, which to me I'm like, yes, that means I'm super proud of you.
[24:00]
I think my parents don't have to worry that well, at least I don't. I think you're not worrying anymore about like whether or not we're going to be okay, financially. Uh, mom, are you still worrying?
Jenny: That's a good question. Uh,
Jenny: For me, I want my children have a stable life. I'm not really expecting they become very very rich, right? I want them to be happy, stable. But I always feel, um, uh, work for the company and work for your own business is totally different.
Because we have a small restaurant before I know how struggle with yourself business, very struggle. And when you have no business, we are worried about no income that day. When we have a lot of business, we cannot handle too many people come in. 24 hours in your mind is business, business, business, business.
[25:00]
So, so for me, I always want them just find a stable job without any worry, but I also respect their idea because it's their life. Right. So, um, so I don't, I don't want to like, uh, like, uh, put my thinking on their own life. So I let them do what they like to do. But as a parent, always worries. It’s there.
Randy: Wait. So are you still worried?
Jenny: Um, I believe I don't have worry anymore.
Randy: Okay. Yes.
Brittany: Wow. Is this, is this a big moment in your life, Randy?
Randy: Yeah. It is a big, on air.
Jenny: Hopefully we can stay, we can stay like a right now, like, uh, do the good job on YouTube channel and earn an income to raise the family and keep everybody healthy and happy. And that's what I want.
[26:00]
Brittany: I want those things for you guys too. Yeah. Chung, I'm wondering, um, and also, and also to you, Jenny. When so many people think about YouTube creators. A lot of times they think about somebody who is 15, 20, 25, you know, somebody, even a lot of the cooking channels that you see, don't feature people who are as experienced as you are Chung.
How does it feel to get, to have this audience on YouTube and to be getting all of these opportunities? Um, when you are offering something that's so different ,when you're such a different type of creator than what most people associate with YouTube.
Jenny: Just like the garden have so many flower, right? So one flower is really pretty and is really, really gorgeous. One flower is pretty in the light way and in a garden.
[27:00]
Jenny: there's a ton of the flower. Though we can be one of the flower there. It look good, but different looking. So that’s how our channel. So, so far I think, um, a lot of people start to like it, uh, like our YouTube channel.
Brittany: I have one more question. I can see a photo in the background between you, Jenny and Chung. Is that your wedding photo?
Jenny: yeah. When you get married,
Brittany: When was that?
Jenny: Uh, that was, uh, 19, 1982.
Brittany: 1982. Did I mean, could you have imagined back then that you guys would be world famous now on YouTube?
Chung: Haha, up until now, I don’t feel like I am that popular. It doesn’t matter. For me, to be able to teach so many people how to cook through this, it’s great. I feel that I can, after being in retirement for so long, I can still share with people how I cook. I also feel very proud of myself.
[28:00]
How to say, being popular or not popular, to me, it doesn’t matter much. It’s good enough as long as I know people love it. I know that people like me, they get to learn how to cook from me, that makes me happy, I do not care how popular I am.
[29:00]
Chung: Of course, I…if more people subscribe and are able to watch our cooking videos, then I will feel even happier
Jenny: No, no, We never thought about famous. We never thought about... but a lot of people say you're a movie star now
Brittany: Hey, it's, Hollywood's bound to come very soon. Very soon. They're coming. Uh well, it was so great to talk to you guys. I'm so I'm so glad that I got to meet you all, um, after watching your channel and, um, and thank you so much for sharing with me, Randy and Chung and Jenny. It was so great to talk to you guys.
Jenny: Mm. Yeah. He's so great to talk to you
Randy: Yeah.
Brittany: It's so funny. I know Chung says that he's not a celebrity, but I have to respectfully disagree. He's definitely a celebrity, at least in my eyes. And also in the eyes of the hundreds of thousands of viewers that Made with Lau gets on there.
Part of why I think made without has been so successful is because it's just so heartwarming to see this family take this leap of faith, not just a leap of faith in starting a YouTube channel or trying to spend more time together or preserving their family history and recipes.
But it's also exciting to see them work together on something creative without putting on a persona. You know, they're this beautiful multi-lingual multi-generational family. That's just trying to spend more time together. And audiences have connected with it. They didn't need any special bells and whistles.
They were simply being themselves. There's something so special about a family. That's not just dedicated to preserving their history, but a family that's also able to create together and grow together.
That’s something I think we can all applaud.
If you like my conversation with the Laus. I hope you’ll continue listening to the Upload. Be sure to listen to next week’s episode where...we talk to one creator whose dance fitness videos garnered him a loyal following and got the attention of major music labels. You don’t want to miss out.
Okay, that’s it for today’s episode. Thanks for joining me on this journey into the world of YouTube creators. Remember to tune in every Wednesday, and be sure to rate and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
[30:00]
The Upload:The Rise of the Creator Economy is a YouTube Podcast produced in partnership with National Public Media. Our Executive Producers are Brianna LaFleur and Erica Osher. Our Supervising Producer is Shannon Boerner. Our Lead Producer is Theresa Avila. Editing and Engineering by Alie Kilts. Production Assistance by Gurjit Kaur with support from Maddy Weinberg. Our logo was created by Jen Grottle and our music is by TIMALIKESMUSIC.
And special thanks to Lawrence Lew for voicing our translation in this episode.
I’m your host Brittany Luse, thanks for listening.
[31:00]