Mr. Woo Goes to Washington

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When Charlie Woo received a dinner party invitation in the mail about a month ago, he did a double take. “I wasn’t sure it was real,” he said.

But it was. The chief executive of downtown L.A. toy importer Megatoys Inc. was one of a lucky 200 invited to the White House for the state visit of Chinese President Hu Jintao.

One of the most prominent local Chinese-American businessmen, Woo has been to his share of ritzy events, but never anything like this. He shook hands with Hu and President Obama, chatted with Presidents Clinton and Carter, and sat at a table with Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer. It seemed Woo couldn’t turn around without running into a world leader or business titan.

“I bumped into Henry Kissinger three times that night,” he said.

He’ll never forget the party, but he might forget the dinner.

“I didn’t think the food was that great,” he said. “It was OK, but not that great.”

Culinary Jam

Speaking of dinner parties, one was held in Los Angeles on Jan. 11 that may have disproved the old cliché about too many chefs in the kitchen.

Before the start of DineLA Restaurant Week, when local restaurants offer up their fare at discounted prices, DineLA Director Carrie Kommers arranged to have three local chefs – in the same kitchen at the same time – prepare a meal for a small group of food writers and media people.

“I’ve always wanted to do a dinner like this, what I call a culinary jam session,” Kommers said.

For the dinner, held at the home of hospitality recruiter Brad Metzger, Kommers invited Mohan Ismail, Suzanne Goin and Giselle Wellman, the head chefs of local restaurants RockSugar, AOC and Petrossian, respectively, to cook a three-course meal.

Although top chefs often have the reputation of being headstrong and not always helpful, Kommers said she was surprised to see how well the trio worked together.

“When Giselle was plating her first course, Suzanne was there helping her,” she said. “I don’t think they’d met before so I was really pleased to see that they were willing to take the time to help each other.”

Vacation Means Business

Westwood residents Sean Kono and his wife, Ann, went to a wedding in Thailand in 2009 and ended up taking the plunge themselves, into a business that is.

They met a dried-fruit vendor in Bangkok, and the engineer and businesswoman decided to form a dried-fruit importing business, Megafruit Ventures.

“We wanted to see how difficult it would be,” said Sean Kono.

The produce – dried lychee, mangosteen and baby pineapple (the size of an orange, he said) – is available in some locally owned grocery stores, hotels and drugstores.

The company made its first sale in May, and he expects Megafruit to become profitable this year. But he’s not ready to quit his day job, working on satellites for a defense company.

“We’ve always had that small-business mentality,” Kono said.

Staff reporters Richard Clough and Natalie Jarvey, and former staff reporter Max Zimbert contributed to this column. Page 3 is compiled by Editor Charles Crumpley. He can be reached at [email protected].

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