Houston chef Lena Le’s career in the kitchen has skyrocketed in just a few short years. One of the ingredients that drives her success is her social justice way of hiring.
“We are, 100-percent of our employees are domestic abuse survivors and human trafficking survivors. We help them to regain their life, we train them to have a skill and have a job,” Le said during her appearance on KPRC 2′s Houston Life show.
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Le’s philanthropy also reaches victims of crime in the Houston area, including jugging victim Nhung Truong, who was left paralyzed after being beaten and body-slammed at a Chinatown shopping center.
“I’ve been feeding Nhung Truong for over a year now,” Le said. “Oh my gosh, every week we’re sending her meals.”
During key times of the year, Le’s foundation works to help feed food and hope to other survivors.
“And during holidays, that’s when, you know, veterans with PTSD, or like, you know, survivors of domestic abuse, they don’t really have family to hang out with or to spend time with. And that’s when we bring, like a holiday feat to them.”
Le gives a lot of thanks to Houston for her career and finding success so fast. She’s only been doing this for seven years after moving here to be with her husband back in 2015.
“At the time, I used to live in the UK and over there we walk everywhere. We took busses and everything. But then over here in Houston, you need to have a car,” so she ended up staying home a lot and cooking for her husband.
“He suggested I go to culinary school and the rest is history!”
Le opened Lena’s Asian Kitchen, creating a meal-prep and catering business, serving up healthy Asian comfort food. She never thought that journey would take her into the world of TV chef competitions. She’s fresh off a big win, being crowned champion in the latest episode of the Food Network’s “Chopped,” which she says was nerve-rattling.
“It was like having a panic attack all day,” Le says. “I didn’t eat, ‚I couldn’t drink, I was nauseous all the time,” until she started cooking, which is when everything calms down.
Her next big TV moment is tonight on the Food Network on “Beat Bobby Flay.”