About the
ACAI Founders
Phyllis Louise Harris
CEO and Founder, ACAI
"Betty Crocker was probably my mother's best friend," recalls ACAI founder Phyllis Louise Harris. "When she got married, mother didn't know very much about cooking but she was an avid reader who relied on Betty Crocker's Cookbook for much of her training. My father had been a short-order cook in a small restaurant he owned in downtown Minneapolis where his mother made wonderful fresh breads and pies everyday. Everything else was meat and potatoes like those served on the Iowa farm where he was raised." It was the depression and family meals took on the flavors of inexpensive Mid-western cooking. Stewed chicken with homemade noodles, fried corn meal mush, hamburger hot dish, meatloaf, tuna casserole, creamed chipped beef on toast, pot roast with potatoes and carrots not a single "foreign food" in the bunch. "Maybe that's why I found Chinese food so exciting," she said.
John's Place and the Nankin were two of Minneapolis's oldest Chinese restaurants and the places where she first encountered the flavors of Asia, if not in its classic form. Chicken chow mein, steamed rice and egg foo young seemed to be very exotic choices at the time - dishes her father didn't welcome in the house. "My mother and grandmother would take my sister, brother and me out for Chinese food once in a while. But the choice was always chow mein and I just assumed that's what Chinese cooking was all about."
Harris became more intrigued with Chinese cooking when she moved to New York City and began to explore the restaurants in Chinatown. An inquisitive and ardent cook she soon found Florence Lin's cooking classes at the China Institute in America and began her lifelong study of Asian cuisines.
"Florence was one of the most talented and well-known Chinese food authorities of the time," recalls Harris. "In addition she would bring outstanding guest chefs to our classes where we learned to cook everything from pigs ears and periwinkles to handmade noodles and dim sum. Along the way we also learned how to use almost anything in our refrigerator for a classic Chinese meal." Part of her training included visits with master chefs in China where she learned how to cook local seafood and produce. Harris continued her interest in Chinese cuisine on trips to other parts of the world to study the work of such outstanding chefs as Kenneth Lo in London, Millie Chan in New York City and Kin-Jing Mark in Las Vegas. At the same time she began expanding her interest in and knowledge of the cuisines of the Asia Pacific Rim through private lessons and special classes from the Culinary Institute of Arts, California Culinary Academy and the Disney Institute. In 1990 she began teaching Chinese cooking and in 1993 became food editor of Asian Pages newspaper. Today she is a consultant on Asian cooking for local and national publications and organizations.
"I have come to appreciate the great diversity of cooking among the countries of Asia," said Harris. "From the simple dishes offered by food stands throughout Asia to the more complex cuisines in the beautiful restaurants of major cities, classic Asian cooking offers diners opportunities to enjoy centuries-old traditions. We created ACAI to provide a place where students of all nationalities can experience these flavors and techniques first hand. And where teachers who specialize in these culinary arts can help new generations learn how to continue these age-old arts. We are truly dedicated to the preservation, understanding and enjoyment of the culinary arts of the Asia Pacific Rim."
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