Embrace new beginnings and transform your life. Discover how small changes can lead to significant personal growth and fulfillment.
Embracing New Beginnings
A recent life update from the Lau family reveals the reasons behind their three-month hiatus from sharing content. In a commitment to enriching the culinary experience, they have introduced the Canto Cooking Club, offering exclusive classes that aim to develop the intuition and foundational skills needed to cook authentic Cantonese food. This initiative is designed for both beginners and those looking to refine their cooking techniques under the guidance of Daddy Lau.
In addition to their cooking classes, the Lau family shares insights into the cookware and kitchen accessories they use and love. Their recommendations include essential items such as carbon steel woks, stainless steel spatulas, and various types of soy sauces, along with specialized tools like infrared laser temperature guns and wireless meat thermometers. These carefully curated items not only enhance the cooking process but also ensure that home chefs can achieve restaurant-quality results in their own kitchens.
Embrace the Shift: A New Dawn Awaits
So, it’s been a while since we last caught up. I haven’t posted a video in like 3 months. I do have a monitor to move from an old desk to my new desk. So, as we do that, I will just give you a quick life update. In our absence, I think every week, we’ll get like one or two messages about where we’ve been, if my parents are okay, like is LA still.
Running? And the short answer is yes. But then that begs the question, well, why haven’t I been posting? Long story short, we are working very hard on a cookbook and we have a really aggressive timeline to deliver the manuscript. It is May right now. And our manuscript is due in September. So, I have been working very very very very.
Hard on this cookbook cuz I I want it to be something really special. I think I was kind of talking about it in the video where we won our James Beard award. A few months after that video, I basically let go of our entire team for a bunch of reasons. Like, basically, it was just unsustainable to have a team. Like, we.
Put a lot of effort into our videos. Yeah. I don’t want this water to fall. This seems kind of shady. Please don’t fall. I feel like we were just posting the same thing over and over and over. Uh it was basically like a recipe with a single a video with a single recipe in it. At least analytically, like our our numbers.
Started falling, but we still had the same expenses and I was just like kind of getting burnt out. But then the James Beard Awards came along. Uh right after the award ceremony, we landed a pretty awesome book deal with a publisher that I’m really really happy with. Uh which is voracious. I never I never planned on stopping posting content, but I think by.
That point I was just this all happened in September when we let our team go. I was just really burnt out, so I just mentally just needed a break. Uh my parents are healthy. They are the hardest workers I know. So like they could keep going. God, I hope this is the fault. How do I get this out? Oh god. This is like not a cheap.
Model. I don’t want it to break. Let’s just do that for a little bit. This whole video is just unpolished, which is like what I was going for. Like if you can see the state of my office. It’s like a complete mess in here. It’s kind of how I feel in my mind. My I’m like really trying to stretch deep and far and wide. you know,.
We could just throw a bunch of recipes into a book and call it a day, but I just want to make it something special. So, that’s why I’ve been investing so much energy into this and that’s why we haven’t been posting. So, I want to I have the itch to start posting videos again and like I’ve we have so much to share. Like my my dad is not super.
Academic, so the whole process of us creating this cookbook has been me filming him. Um, and then I take the notes, I synthesize everything, and he’s like kind of so he’s so unconsciously competent that everything seems easy to him. He can’t and probably shouldn’t just like write out everything he knows. So, it’s kind of up to me to ask him and.
Prompt him. It kind of feels like I’m asking Chat GPT or Google how to cook Cany’s cuisine, but I have to have like very specific prompts and know what to ask, structure it in a very specific way so that it makes sense to not just to me but my kids in the future to all of you. So, uh that’s the work right now. But in the process, I am.
Filming a lot grocery shopping. Like I want to share like every little detail about how to purchase vegetables and how to keep them fresh and what to cook with them. I also let me just finish this real quick. The smart thing to do would be to ask someone else for help. Pull this monitor.
Okay. Yes, we did it. Who is a heavy boy? Okay, so this right here is an old IKEA desk that I’ve had for like 10 years. It still works great, but I recently got this desk that I’ve been like dreaming about for a very long time. This is not sponsored, although I wish it was. This is a desk by Groveade,.
Which is just gorgeous. This is made of like solid This one’s like solid walnut and it’s got like all these shelves and organization features. So, I’m just super excited to to use it. I think this is also kind of symbolic of going through these changes. Like so much has happened in the past year. Like I had a third kid. We have a cookbook deal. I.
Stopped publishing as frequently. Like tried to focus on myself a lot more. Like getting a lot healthier, spending time with my family. And it’s felt good to kind of step back from the grind of making videos. As fulfilling as it is, it’s very taxing. Just switching gears and being able to write a book has been really refreshing. And then in that.
Absence, I’ I’ve like missed posting. Feel like I’m ready to do that again. But I guess the question is like I don’t know with what cadence or format. So one thing that’s tricky with this arm is like like two things. It’s really freaking heavy and it’s also not it’s not like a centered object. So, I need to figure out like where do I mount this.
So that this black thing is center of the desk. Yeah. Also, I don’t know if you can see this. This says 1 million subs, but if you check now, we’re at like 1.7 million subs. Uh, pretty wild. I’ve reached a lot of the goals that I had set for myself, and I haven’t really set new new big ones. Like I have it’s not like it’s not like I don’t have.
Goals like I want to write a really great cookbook, but like I haven’t had an overarching theme that’s like I’ve been really motivated in the past by these big huge goals, numbers, targets. We reached a million subs in like December 2022, 2023, one of those years. And I haven’t The point is it’s been like at.
Least a year or two since I’ve really set a new big goal. And um I don’t know what that is yet. Yeah. So I think the first step is just to erase this and then then we’ll take it from there cuz I think it’s just symbolic of starting again. Next order of business is cleaning this.
Mount monitor arm. It’s a heavy boy. It’s like 15 lbs maybe. It’s also tricky cuz it moves a lot. So, okay, let’s figure out how to do this. This desk is a little too thick for where I have it screwed on. God. Jesus. Oh god. What happened? I guess I have to like move these screws up a little bit cuz this dust doesn’t fit. Gosh, I’m.
Like sweating. It’s like a lot of work. Oh god. All right, let me do this. I don’t scratch my desk in the process. Oh no, I just scratched my desk. No freak. Okay. Okay. Well, whatever. Anyway, um what I’m mulling over is basically a set of formats to commit to. So like I don’t.
Want to like keep everyone in the dark and like not post and have people wondering if we’re my parents are healthy. And I do want to post. I just don’t know what in the vein of like me trying to set up this desk and like showing you my messy office is like me kind of inviting you into the process cuz it is a messy process. I do want to.
Share the process because as a book that I hope represents Cantonese culture, I want to involve our community in that process cuz we are my dad is my parents are very special. But I also feel like there’s hundreds of thousands of parents of Cantonese descent who are just like my parents. I know for a fact cuz people reach out to us that like there’s other.
Dads out there that have worked in restaurants for like 50 years. And I would like to share what’s going on and just have more of a discussion about what should go into this book. And like the screw is real tight. Okay. Dude, this thing is like stuck on here. Oh my god. God. There we go. Woo. We’re.
In business. Okay. Where was I? So, highly likely that most of what I’m filming will not make into the book cuz I my editor and I we have this analogy where it’s like I am discovering the whole entire iceberg of what my dad knows or at least coming close to it. There’s only like a little bit of that iceberg.
We can put into the book cuz it is pretty extensive. In all reality, we’ll probably end up writing like multiple books, but we got to make the first one first. I also want to use this as an opportunity to like workshop content because our our videos in the past have been basically fully formed versus this. I want it to be messy and raw, even like.
Vulnerable at times. I also like have been doing a deep dive into like Substack branching outside of just video like are there other places that you guys like to consume content? One issue, one worry I have is that if I am spending this much time making videos, will I have time to actually write? Especially given how compressed our time.
Frame is. Crap. That is not centered. H I guess I have to move it here. Another issue is like there’s this shelf here. This is a standing desk. So I don’t know if my monitor will clear this shelf. That is like the most awkward camera angle. But yeah. So basically just tell me what you guys want to see. Like I also like do want a place for a true.
Online community to form. YouTube and Instagram and Tik Tok and email. Like they’re great for broadcasting, but it’s a lot harder to interact with you guys. Like how do I engage in more dialogue with you guys? Two big questions I have. All right, big boy. Come back. I should I have mounted the monitor first to.
This? Nah, it’s fine. We already did it. All right. You know what? I’m going to take this off and then mount it that way. That seems safer. But this is something I’ve been telling like my friends when they ask me how life is going. I’m getting kind of emotional seeing this, but I feel like life is as close to perfect as ever been.
Everything is going really well in this chapter of life. Like, I have three kids who are all really cuddly and cute, and they won’t be the same forever. My parents are healthy and I it’s just they get to like spend so much time with us. We live five minutes away, you know. I get to eat my dad’s food every week. We get to work on this book together. You.
Know, I’m really healthy. My wife and I have a great relationship. On all cylinders, I just feel like I’m just very fulfilled. Yeah. Life is as close to perfect as it’s ever been. And I think like more than ever, like I’m just aware that that it is really good right now. I do feel paranoid that it will end because it will. Like, you know, my.
Parents won’t be healthy forever. My kids won’t be this young forever. So, I’m just really trying to cherish the moment that we’re in, however long it lasts. So, I just spent time screwing this guy in. Now, I need to mount this. So nervous. Okay, let’s see. I think I need.
Help. Want to say hi? Hi, wow. How you cleaned it? Good. Goals. Some goals. Should we scoop this out? Do you want me to just go down and catch it? You want me to raise the desk? Uh, sure. Scratch your phone. You’re strong. I’m very strong. So, let’s look together. Where should we hold it? Is it opened up? Okay. Can you got it? Yeah. Oh,.
Yeah. That’s why I work out. Is it in the middle that you want it or do you want it? No, just just screw it. It’s It’s not loose enough. It’s not loose enough. Okay, come down. I’m just going to hold it here. It’s not in. We have to scoot it backwards. Oh god, I’m It’s falling. I’m holding it by just I’m going to drop it.
Okay. Okay. Okay. Before like you know how the arm goes. So, do you want this thing? Scoot over to the sign or the J thing. This side. No, this side. Yeah. Okay. Ready? One, two. Oh my god. Okay, dude. Yeah, we need to scoot it. Scoot it. Yeah. Okay. Ready? Can you pull it? Yeah. One,.
Two, three. Okay. 1 2 3. Okay. Okay. Got it. My lower back. It’s like All right. Is that good enough? Yeah. Hopefully it’s centered. I don’t think it’s actually safe. Well, that’s Yeah. You want to go over more to the left like that? Yeah, that’s good. But the only thing you might want to make sure is like cuz you know how it swings out.
It’s like, are you ever going to want to film? Oh, no. And go like that or go maybe, but I think it’s fine. I think when it working, I just want it to be centered. Okay. Is that good? Okay. You did it. Good. Thank you. Welcome. Okay. Thanks, Cat. Welcome. Last thing to do is to wire up my desk. What’s cool about this desk is.
Again, not sponsored. I wish it was. They have like built-in cord management, which is like hidden right here. You can see it. Let’s do that. And then yeah, I think what’s interesting is like you’re I’m sharing this in a very transitional period of my life and career. Like made with Lao for the past 4 years is probably not going to be what.
Made with LA will be for the next four or five 6 years. I mean, at its core, we’re, you know, we’re a family and I’m sharing my dad’s recipes and stories and celebrating Canteen’s culture, but I just want to explore new things. So, whether that’s like OG Casey Neistat style daily vlogs, peering into like what my personal life is like, what my.
Parents personal life is like. There’s a lot of stories that I know like the general beats of like my our family’s restaurant burned down when I was seven. Like I know that happened, but I don’t know like as as an adult, like how did they feel? Like why did my dad’s parents decide to move to Hong Kong and leave all of his brothers back in China? And I.
Feel like this cookbook is just such a great opportunity for me to dive into those topics. I will be filming this in some shape or form. I just don’t know like what it will look like to share it. U also like what I can share cuz there’s like we do need to save stuff for the book. But as much as I can, I want to like workshop it with you guys. Just.
Involve you guys in that process. It’ll serve our community better the more I can involve you guys. I know a lot of authors I think they’re like forced to not talk about it. Like they have to keep it a secret. I’m just happy that my publisher wants us to do that. This USBC cord that I plug into the monitor and it’s like kind of like a.
Hub. I think all I need to do is just do this and then My monitor broken. Shoot. Oh, I didn’t plug it in. Duh. Okay, let’s go. Thank you for being here with me as I struggled trying to set up this desk and monitor and just thanks for being here on the journey. I just excited to share. I feel like there’s I.
Have a lot of pent up energy and it’s been too long. Something’s coming very soon. In the meantime, as I’m gearing up to just be consistent again, let me know what you want to see. Uh, I want to hear from you guys. So, yeah. Thank you. Love you guys.
