Leeann Chin (restaurateur)

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Leeann Chin (February 13, 1933 – March 10, 2010) was a Chinese-born American entrepreneur who started the Leeann Chin restaurant chain in the Twin Cities, Minnesota, in 1980.

Chin was born in Guangzhou, China, the daughter of a grocery store owner. She worked at her father’s store in various roles. She married Tony as a teenager and lived in Hong Kong for a few years before moving to the United States in 1956, settling in Minnesota. She worked as a seamstress while learning clothing repair and wedding dress making. While running a home clothing business to raise five children, she began cooking for her customers, hosting free meals and dinner parties to thank them. This inspired her to teach cooking and offer catering and cooking classes.

Chin opened her first restaurant, Leeann Chin, in Minnetonka, Minnesota, in 1980. It was one of the first in the area to feature Cantonese and Sichuan cuisine, with more than 100 menu items created by Chin. The restaurant quickly became popular, with some dishes selling out in days. To meet demand, she converted it into an 80-seat buffet.

Her second location opened in Saint Paul in 1984, and a third in Minneapolis that same year. A downtown Minneapolis location also opened in 1984, serving many customers each business day.

In 1985, Chin sold the rights to her name and restaurants to General Mills, but she regained ownership in 1988. By the late 1990s, the chain had shifted toward a faster, take-out style and included smaller take-out spots inside Lunds & Byerlys groceries. Chin retired in 1999. By 2010, the Leeann Chin chain had more than 40 locations, mainly in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul area.

Beyond running restaurants, Chin taught cooking on PBS and wrote three cookbooks on Chinese cuisine. She later moved to Bainbridge Island, Washington, and died of liver cancer in Seattle on March 10, 2010, at age 77. She is buried at Lakewood Cemetery. Her husband Tony died in 1994.