“Food plays an important role in the destiny of man. A successful meal engages all the senses – music and conversation are as important as visual appeal and flavor.” — Lee Ping Quan (pronounced Chew-ahn)

With the arrival of the lunar new year this February 10th, we are reminded here of Lee Ping Quan’s twenty years of service in the U. S. Navy, preparing the cuisine of President and Mrs. Coolidge through the decade a century ago. With the retirement of the USS Mayflower following their departure from public life, Lee Ping Quan launched a restaurant at 28 W 51st Street in New York City, nestled beside Rockefeller Center and just up the street from St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Designed to evoke the dining room of the Mayflower, Quan’s restaurant offered an exquisite range of dishes from the menus that appeared before the guests of Presidents and First Ladies more than one hundred years ago.

Appetizers included the small sandwiches of which John, the President’s oldest son, once ate an impressive 44 in a single sitting, as Quan delighted in sharing. The Coolidges wrote their beloved chef their highest praises and wishes of success on his venture. Quan eventually found his way to Maine, serving his patrons the increasingly forgotten fare New York guests once enjoyed, from the chop suey Mrs. Coolidge wanted to learn to make to the veal and curry that Mr. Coolidge savored. While running a tight ship with a “crew” of four, Quan regaled his many guests with stories of distant ports, Presidential remembrances, and the food that unites all palates. Naval regulations applied at the threshold of his establishments and no alcohol was allowed past Quan’s door. This hardly meant he was a joyless taskmaster. This masterful entrepreneur worked daily marvels in the “galley” while furnishing diners with countless memories from the diminutive gentleman but towering force that was Lee Ping Quan.

Ever ready to show his love for the kind and generous Coolidges, he baked the wedding cake for John Coolidge and Florence Trumbull, who married in September 1929. Quan later published some of these cherished recipes and memories in book form. With the beginning of World War II in 1941, Quan sought once more to offer his services to the Navy. Though he never reentered active duty, citizen Quan remained the ebullient optimist he always was and continued to love the nation he had adopted as his own to the end. As the Chinese New Year begins, we are reminded that Lee Ping would be commemorating the occasion with the style and grace with which he labored and lived.