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Ming Cao and his wife, Haiquing Ren, tried hard to retire from their 30 years together in the restaurant industry. Their failure is our pleasure.
John Park
For as chic as fondue (from the French word fondre—to melt) is today, one might not guess its humble beginnings. During the Middle Ages in Burgundy, France, it is said that vineyard workers invented what we know as meat fondue. They set a boiling pot of oil in the middle of the vineyard so workers could cook pieces of raw meat during short breaks. In 18th-century Switzerland, cheese fondue developed as a means for the peasant classes to eat their aging cheeses and stale bread through winter. During the mid-20th century, Americans decided to melt chocolate, and voila!, another version of fondue was born.
At La Petite Fondue, diners experience the full gamut of fondue history in a warm, artful, unhurried setting.
La Petite owner Ming Cao and his wife, Haiquing Ren, have been restaurateurs together for 30 years. Cao, an oil painting teacher by trade, came to the United States from China at the age of 36. He began American life as a dishwasher at a Chinese restaurant in New York City. He laughs remembering that time,
“For 10 years I am a teacher. Then I come to America and work as a dishwasher!” Cao, with his enduring smile, laughs while moving his hand through the air in a plummeting fashion. But Cao was a quick learner. Within six months he earned the position of head chef. Within a year, Ren, also a teacher in China, joined him. They married, moved to Roanoke and began their joint entrepreneurial restaurant careers.
For decades, Cao and Ren offered Roanokers Asian cuisine in small family-style settings. They started with Chinese restaurants. However, when the informal Chinese buffets came to town, the couple couldn’t compete, nor did they care to abandon their commitment to the intimate family dining experience. They decided to put their efforts into Japanese restaurants, owning several over the next many years, some still in existence today (Sakura and Ichiban).
Eventually, Cao and Ren decided it was time to retire. Cao wanted to devote more time to painting, both wanted a more relaxed lifestyle. They sold Ichiban (their restaurant at the time) and tried the retirement life. After two years, Cao was bored. “Retirement is boring,” Cao laughs, while Ren, sitting beside him, smiles and shakes her head.
It was around this time that the Cao family experienced The Melting Pot, a chain fondue restaurant. They fell in love. Cao says he started checking the restaurant’s website, hoping one would come to Roanoke. After two years of waiting, Cao decided he would open one himself. “The Melting Pot [type] restaurant is my dream,” says Cao smiling and waxing nostalgic. “It is so neat and cozy. Roanoke needs a restaurant like this.”
While Cao and Ren love the The Melting Pot concept, La Petite Fondue is its own place, reflecting the couple’s personal tastes and past restaurant experiences. To begin, Cao uses a vegetable broth base for his fondues instead of oil. He also treads lightly when adding red wine to his House Signature Broth to keep the broth from tasting sour. In ventilation design, the couple took extra measures to keep heavy fondue odors from permeating the air. Even the artwork on the walls reflect Cao’s personal tastes as an artist, admirer and collector; each piece acquired over years of worldwide travel.
Compared to larger fondue restaurants, La Petite Fondue’s menu is small. Cao says this is for two reasons. First, it allows them to provide diners the highest-quality ingredients. Second, it keeps his job as sole kitchen staff at a manageable level.
“Before, we had lots of headaches,” explains Cao, comparing La Petite Fondue to past restaurants. “Here, we don’t have much headache; only me in the kitchen. And we have good servers who like it here. [The] main thing is to make a restaurant happy by having happy workers.”
When my husband and I visited La Petite Fondue, our server was not only happy, but attentive, careful and informative (case in point: he was the person who first educated me in fondue history). He helped us make good decisions for each of the four courses. As Ren explains, critical to the fondue dining experience is a skilled and knowledgeable server who knows how to work equipment, prepare fondue in front of people, fill potentially awkward silences (while fondue is heating) with appropriate conversation and be attentive to guests (who typically take two hours to dine) without being overbearing. Our server was all the above.
I also appreciated the small menu. My options were limited, but they were great options, so I didn’t mind. The meat courses are beautiful to the eye and palate. I chose the La Petite Fondue, my husband chose the Fondue Combo. Both are mixtures of chicken, marinated red meats, and seafood (lobster, shrimp and scallops). I thought the seafood was the tastiest, which is unusual for me. It is incredibly fresh and Cao stages it together with the other meats in elegant artistic arrangements. The dipping sauces (four served with the main course) add a fun and flavorful variety; complementing the natural goodness of the meats and vegetables.
For dessert, we (meaning I) chose the dark chocolate fondue (guests choose from milk or dark). It was a lovely crescendo to a meal where each distinct course, layered together, provided a distinctive, intimate dining experience.
Not bad for a food type that has its roots in humble peasant food.