FOCUS ON FRESHNESS
CALI DUMPLING Orange County food
entrepreneur crafts certified organic delights BY MICHELLE JACOBY
I N THE FOOD WORLD, dumplings are having a moment. And why not? Doughy pockets, steamed or pan fried, stuffed with a delicate and delicious filling of meat, seafood or vegetables are comfort food at its best. Recognizing the popularity and appeal of this time-honored delicacy (the origins of dumplings go back at least 2,000 years in Asia), Allan Tea started a dumpling business out of a small commissary kitchen in El Monte during—of all times—the pandemic. He named it Cali Dumpling. “The business was never planned to become as big as it is now,” he admits. “Two weeks into COVID, when all of our restaurants closed, we had giant freezers full of raw ingredients. So we took them and our staff, and started making dumplings. Because that’s one food you can make fresh and freeze so people can make them at home.” Word got out and orders started coming in. “We were delivering them to residences throughout the early months of the pandemic, and it really took off,” Tea says. “We started with maybe 15 to 20 deliveries a day. That expanded to about 150 deliveries a day. We did that for about a year.” As COVID restrictions began to ease and businesses opened back up, many area restaurants couldn’t find or recover their staff, Tea says. “So they came to me and said, ‘Hey, can you make our dumplings?’ And things took off from there.”
From wholesale to plate “Took off” may be an understatement. Since launching Cali Dumpling with his wife Candace in 2020, Tea has established three avenues of business. First, they are a wholesale dumpling manufacturer for restaurants; second, they make a retail product available in grocery stores; and third, they are a full- scale restaurant serving a variety of potstickers with scratch-made sauces and an array of sides ranging from rice dishes to salads and vegetables.
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IN YOUR CORNER ISSUE 18 | 2024
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