Made With Lau

Made With Lauis an American YouTube channel that makes videos about how to cookCantonese dishes. It features the Cantonese cooking of theTaishan-born Chung Sun Lau (known as Daddy Lau), who had more than 50 years of experience as a chef.
His son, Randy Lau, conceived of the channel after both he and his parents lost their main sources of income during theCOVID-19 pandemic. Randy, who grew up in California, had alanguage barrierwith his father, who spokeCantonese. He viewed the channel as a way to become closer to his father and preserve the Cantonese culture for his children. Released September 1, 2020, Made With Lau's first video was about how to makemapo tofu. Each video generally discusses how to make a dish and its history and ends with three generations of the family eating the dish together. In the videos, Randy's mother, Jenny Lau (known as Mommy Lau), shares about what it was like living in China and answers viewers' questions. Daddy Lau speaks in Cantonese while he cooks, and the videos include Chinese and English subtitles as Randy did not want todubover his father's voice. In their video aboutegg foo young, the channel discussed howChinese people in the United States have been discriminated against.
Beginning after the 2021Chinese New Year, the channel started receiving millions of views on average every month compared to 100,000 previously. By October 2021, it was making about $50,000 monthly through YouTube ad revenue. In December of that year, it reached half a million subscribers, and in December the following year, it reached one million subscribers. In 2024, Randy Lau received theJames Beard Foundation Awardfor "Emerging Voice in Broadcast", while the Made With Lau channel received the James Beard Foundation Award for "Instructional Visual Media". Made With Lau teaches viewers how to make Cantonese dishes such asegg drop soup,hot and sour soup,tangyuansoup,congee,Chinese steamed eggs, rainbow chicken vegetablestir fry,chow mein,chow fun, gingeregg fried rice,zongzi,Kung Pao chicken, andchar siu.
Chung Sun, who is known as Daddy Lau, was born in 1945 in theGuangdongcity ofTaishan.When he was 12 years old, his parents left him behind, immigrating to Hong Kong with his younger siblings to flee from theChinese Communist Party.As a descendant ofrestaurateurs, he took cooking school classes inGuangzhou.In China, he became acquainted with Jenny Lau (known as Mommy Lau), who was born in Guangzhou and would become his wife.Chung Sun immigrated to New York in 1981,and Jenny immigrated in 1982 soon after their marriage.The couple have two children, Jennifer (Jenny) and Randy, who grew up in California.
Chung Sun and Jenny owned Wah Yuen, a Chinese restaurant inConcord, California, that could serve between 60 and 80 customers at a time.Their son, Randy, and his older sister would often eat the restaurant'shot and sour soupand talk to customers. When Randy was around six years old, a fire destroyed the restaurant. To free up time to be with their children, the couple decided to stop operating the restaurant. Jenny returned to being a nurse, her former occupation in Guangzhou, while Chung Sun was employed at several Chinese restaurants as a chef over the years.Chung Sun has been a Chinese food chef for over 50 years.Randy said about his experience as a youth in theSan Francisco Bay Area, "I was one of the only Asian kids in school. I didn't feel Asian enough or American enough, I was not fluent in Chinese and I did not feel American as a kid."
During theCOVID-19 pandemic, Chung Sun and Jenny Lau's restaurant closed.Owing to the COVID-19 shutdowns, Randy Lau lost his business, which had been his primary income stream.The family had to rely onunemployment benefitsandsavings. At the time, Randy's wife was six months into her pregnancy, and he wanted to assist his parents to make a comeback.During a March 2020 weekend retreat with his wife, Randy conceived the idea of filming his father makingCantonese dishes.He had gone through an activity from theself-help bookDesigning Your Lifethat asked, "What would you do if money was not an issue and you would not get judged?"Having previously done work indigital marketing, he decided he wanted to pursue a path of making videos with his parents.In a two-hour conversation, Randy shared his proposal to create YouTube videos with his parents.After he described how YouTube videos could generate revenue for them, his mother was supportive, but he did not know what his father, who remained silent, thought.One day later, his father said in a phone call, "Hey, I defrosted some pork. You want to come and film?"Remaining at home in theSan Francisco Bay Areaduring the pandemic, Randy created the YouTube cooking channel Made with Lau.
Daddy Lau wanted to teach succeeding generations about how to cook Chinese dishes, while Randy wanted to become closer to his father as well as learn more about and preserve his father's culture and recipes so his children could experience them. Randy, whose proficiency in speaking Cantonese is limited to simple chats, found food to be a way to connect to his father. He said, "I've always had a language barrier with my dad. I never really doubted that he loved me because he'd always make this delicious food for me. So that kind of transcended language—food was our love language." The channel's mission statement is to "warm the hearts, homes, and bellies".
For half a year, Randy Lau worked on setting up the channel.He initially planned to name the channel "Chung and Sons Kitchen" since his father's name is Chung Sun, and his father had a son and would soon have a grandson. Despite being very firm on the name, everyone he consulted was against it, so he relented and chose Made With Lau, which he said was a "more inclusive" name.He filmed eight videos with Daddy Lau, ultimately deciding to use five of them since Randy thought three were not good enough.The channel started releasing content on September 1, 2020.It accrued viewers and grew its subscriber base in its beginning months through their friends and family and social media, as well as a callout from the YouTube channel Chinese Cooking Demystified.Between September 2020 and February 2021, the channel released cooking videos on a weekly basis.Starting after the 2021Chinese New Year, it began receiving millions of views on average every month, compared to 100,000 previously.
The YouTube channel became monetized 2.5 months in on November 15, 2020, the same day Randy turned 33 years old, having received sufficient watch time (4,000 hours) and subscribers (1,000 people).YouTube's first payment to them the following day was for $3.57.In addition to spotlighting the channel as a Creator on the Rise, YouTube profiled it in the podcastThe Upload: The Rise of the Creator Economyand the documentary seriesThe United States of YouTube.The Laus also run a blog where they discuss Cantonese cooking.
Made With Lau makes money through over 500Patreonmembers and sponsorship agreements from brands.In December 2020, more than 10,000 people were subscribed to the channel.ThroughGoogle AdSense, the channel was pulling in a monthly five-figure income by March 2021, and according to YouTube Creators, it was making about $50,000 monthly on YouTube ad revenue by October 2021.Beginning in June 2021, Randy Lau employed people to help him maintain the website and social media, communicate with brands, and connect with the community, as well as research, produce, translate, and edit content.The employees are largely Cantonese speakers, and by June 2022, nine people were working on the business.In December 2021, the channel reached half a million subscribers, and in December 2022, it reached one million subscribers.According to Randy Lau, based on YouTube statistics, 40% of the channel's viewers were from Canada and the United States. Their other viewers were from Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, the United Kingdom, and Singapore.TheJames Beard Foundationin 2024 gave Randy Lau the "Emerging Voice in Broadcast"awardand the Made in Lau channel the "Instructional Visual Media" award.
Made with Lau features Cantonese dishes frequently served at Chinese restaurants as well as dishes that are routinely cooked at home.The channel's inaugural video, released on September 1, 2020, was about how to makemapo tofu.Titled "Dad's EASY Mapo Tofu Recipe, Cantonese style (麻婆豆腐鸡)!", it discussed the dish's history and every phase of making the dish, and included a segment for answering viewers' questions.Published each Tuesday, videos typically begin with a beaming Daddy Lau explaining in Cantonese what dish he is going to make and sometimes making athumbs upsign.Daddy Lau shares his cooking tips in the videos such as the best way to sharpen a knife and his technique to extract as much taste as possible fromdried scallops.Daddy Lau also plays the flute, and his music appears in the channel's videos as its theme music.
Daddy Lau speaksCantonesein the videos. To keep his father's voice and disposition, Randy Lau decided againstdubbinghis father's conversation. He instead added Chinese and Englishsubtitlesto the videos, largely so that Daddy Lau would be able to understand everything. Randy Lau estimated that it takes between 10 and 20 hours to add subtitles to a video.While Randy did the English subtitles, a cousin helped with adding the Chinese subtitles.
Videos show three generations of the family eating meals together: Daddy and Mommy Lau, Randy and Kat Lau, and their two children.Depending on the subject matter and conversants, they docode-switchingbetween Cantonese and English during mealtime conversations.CNN's Julia M. Chan said the family meal was "a big draw for many fans who see themselves in the Laus".TheSouth China Morning Post's Mabel Lui agreed, writing, "After all, while people may return to the channel because of the recipes, the endearing nature of the relationship between [Randy] Lau and his father (as well the rest of their family) is equally compelling."Jenny and Daddy Lau discuss their experiences living in China. Jenny Lau shared a story about thehot and sour soupdish. Shortly after she immigrated to the United States, it was freezing and snowing in New York, and she was with a friend. They visited a Chinese restaurant where she asked for hot and sour soup, making it the first restaurant dish she got in the United States.The family's videos showcase many major events in their history such as the birth of Randy Lau's son, Cameron; Randy's sister Jennifer's engagement; and Daddy Lau's 75th birthday.InMochi, Sabrina Wong said, "In some of these intimate moments, you forget the video is filmed — everything about the switching of languages, huge platters of food, and big family table feels so right."Randy postsYouTube Shorts, where he poses questions to his parents such as, "Mom, what brings you joy?" or "What was hard about immigrating to America?"
CNN's Julia M. Chan said, "Using food as a gateway, Made With Lau subtly challenges Western stereotypes of Asians as cold or reserved, showing instead warmth and generosity." In a video about how to makeegg foo young, the channel discussed howChinese people in the United States have been discriminated against.When discussing the cooking ofGeneral Tso's chicken, Randy opined that the contention that the dish was not "authentic" was not the most germane. He shared that at the beginning of the 1900s while facing anti-Chinese discrimination, Chinese immigrants were able to survive by making the dish.Other recipes featured on the channel includeegg drop soup,hot and sour soup,tangyuansoup,congee,Chinese steamed eggs, rainbow chicken vegetablestir fry,chow mein,chow fun, gingeregg fried rice,zongzi,Kung Pao chicken, andchar siu.