We were lucky to catch up with Lena Ghadanian Artunian recently and have shared our conversation below.
Lena, looking forward to learning from your journey. You’ve got an amazing story and before we dive into that, let’s start with an important building block. Where do you get your work ethic from?
My work ethic comes from my lovely parents. My parents came to the USA in 1978 with barely any money, not knowing English language and having to work everyday of the week, not having days off in the restaurant business. They’ve worked so hard to provide the best life for me and my siblings. Watching them work in the restaurant business 24/7 has made me realize that I have to work hard to be successful. My parents made the best Middle Eastern cuisine in Tarzana, CA. Growing up in the restaurant business has made me realize I have the same talent, creativity and passion just like my parents. It’s literally in my blood to create delicious food. Food brings people together and when you cook with love your food comes out delicious.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
Family legacies survive when the younger generations embrace and celebrate the traditions. Staying connected to our roots substantiates our identity, providing a secure mooring in the ever-changing world. Lena Ghadanian Artunian understands this concept too well; being a third-generation chef and food content creator based in LA, she has proudly embraced her ancestral lineage by creating HyeFeastLA – a venture through which she shares her culinary skill with others while honoring her family’s recipes.
Growing up with rich culinary influences, Lena developed an affinity for cooking at a very young age. Her father Mihran Ghadanian was a very skillful chef who had learned the craft from his father George Ghadanian. He had mastered cooking Syrian Lebanese delicacies, always dedicated to getting the best ingredients and patiently going through the process of preparing a dish. These processes were preserved and passed down to three generations. Lena believes that this dedication to the process rather than the end-product has made her family’s recipes stand out from the crowd.
The family relocated to the USA in 1978, opening a restaurant in North Hollywood, CA. After eight years, they shifted again to Tarzana, CA. Lena’s father opened his restaurant here, named Mihran’s Restaurant, and worked for 21 years as a chef. Lena grew up watching her father and mother cook in the restaurant, keeping Ghadanian’s family recipes alive. She would help in the kitchen or deliver the food to the customers, watching their faces light up as a plate full of delicious kebabs was placed in front of them.
Thus, growing up with such a legacy, Lena learned to cook traditional Syrian, Lebanese and Armenian recipes. After her father’s death, Lena felt responsible for keeping this legacy alive. Being a mother to two beautiful girls, Lena could not dedicate the required amount of energy and time to running a full-time restaurant, but she still wanted to continue the family tradition.
Thankfully, blogging culture preserved her family recipes from fading away into oblivion. Lena started sharing her family recipes on her blog HyeFeastLA, by sharing step-by-step details and short video tutorials of recipes. This blog was created 12 years ago with two clear objectives – first, Lena wanted to preserve and share her family recipes. Second, she wanted to help other people, like the younger generation to connect with the traditional side of cooking and to preserve the culture.
From the very beginning, HyeFeastLA has been providing private cooking sessions – both in-person and currently at local Lazy Acres Market in Los Feliz, CA – to help people reconnect with their family recipes. Lena also posts short tutorials as well as step-by-step recipes on her blog and social media platforms so that everyone can master the art of cooking. Her work is not only inspiring but heartwarming too; she often receives messages from grateful followers thanking her for making traditional cuisine accessible to all! Through this initiative, Lena has created an organic community that keeps growing bigger each day!
For future endeavors, Lena has big dreams. Lena wants to open a cooking school sometime in the future or even a small restaurant in honor of her late father Mihran. A cookbook documenting her father’s recipes is also in the pipeline. All of Lena’s ambitions and future plans revolve around ensuring that Ghadanian culinary legacy is kept alive.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
Looking back to all the careers I’ve worked in medical field as hospital administration, unit manager, residency coordinator, certified nurses assistant, home care provider, I don’t regret any of it. I’ve enjoyed every minute of it. I love helping people and the elderly population. I still take care for the elderly by day and keep my cooking passions for night. Whatever I do and wherever I turn cooking seems to follow me naturally. It’s a passion and I have the love for it. I have a lot of skills and great qualities in both fields. I enjoy cooking for my elderly clients during the day providing them with healthy meals which makes me feel very productive and impactful.
One advice I can give to someone who is starting a new in this career is follow, your passion and dreams. When you do what you love you will be very happy, successful and productive. You can think you like something else as career but when you try it and not enjoy it you have to change and go with what your gut is telling you to do. It took a long time for me to finally be happy with what I’m doing. Cooking is in my blood and I love to share it with the younger generation and with the rest of the world.
What’s been one of your main areas of growth this year?
The biggest area of growth in the last 12 months have been doing what I love which is teaching kids and adults how to cook and preparing delicious meals for friends and families. When I see the kids facial expressions when making food and they finish cooking them, the final product and eat them, it makes my heart melt and so happy that I’ve taught them something they will forever remember and take with them as they get older. These cooking skills are a part of our daily living skills and every child needs to learn and grow from it. As for my adult cooking classes, I’ve helped wives not get a divorce because you can make your husband happy by filling their stomach with delicious food. That’s one of my mother’s saying. So teaching couples or single men and women delicious meals has tremendous improvement and growth for me.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://Hyefeastla.com
- Instagram: Hyefeastla
- Facebook: Hyefeastla
- Youtube: Hyefeastla
Image Credits
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