Talking a return to Center City with Susanna Foo

One recent morning, Susanna Foo could be found, bundled in a quilted jacket, picking out boxes of butternut squash, cauliflower, and sweet potatoes at the chilly wholesale produce market in Southwest Philadelphia. The weekly shopping dates to her days on Walnut Street, when for 25 years her eponymous restaurant was the toast of the town.

She'd pioneered a new cuisine, a blend of Chinese sensibility and French technique. And even after decamping five years ago to a cafe in suburban Radnor, she remains picky about her vegetables. We caught up with her and her son over a bowl of chili at Norm & Lou's, the market's diner (and later by phone) and asked about her itch to replant the Foo flag in Center City.

Q. I know you won't open until summer, but why head back to the city?

A. When I sold the restaurant . . . I was in a lot of stress. Also, my son was in the process of divorce, and it made it hard for me. I made a wrong decision and sold the building.

So why now?

I was depressed for a few years, but I'm back to the energy level. My son Gabe says the city is a more exciting place to be with all the 20-year-olds and 30s. He wants to have a bar in the restaurant. There are empty-nesters, too, and my customers are empty-nesters.

I see that Anne Coll, your former executive chef, will head the kitchen. What should we look for?

Anne is working with me now in Radnor. She has things she wants on the menu. And I have some from traveling in China, maybe Sichuan's famous chicken salad with roasted sesame dressing. And our classics like Hunan Chicken, Mongolian Lamb. But not Crispy Shrimp. (That brought a wail from Gabe: "But I love the Crispy Shrimp!")

Speaking of China, how'd you end up in the Philadelphia area originally?

My mother-in-law and father-in- law took over a hoagie shop in Wayne. They were living in Taiwan, and when mainland China was admitted to the United Nations [in 1971] they thought it was going to be taken over by China. So they came . . . because my brother-in-law E-Ni Foo and his wife Betty were already here.

How'd the hoagie business go?

That was about 1974. Their shop was up by the Wayne Farmer's Market. The next year a McDonald's opened nearby. So suddenly they have no business. That's when E-Ni started cooking real Hunan food, clean and fresh. People were waiting in line. I visited from Taiwan and worked summers when they get busy.

Your new place - no name yet - is going to be at 1720 Sansom, former site of the sushi place Genji. Did you ever eat there?

When we lived in the Academy House in the 1980s and my husband was still living, we went almost every week. When the boys were 7 or 8, Gabe got the sushi. His brother Jimmy got the shrimp.

Gabe says he's trying the Starvation Diet, where you cut way down on pasta and carbs, skip breakfast, and don't eat lunch until 2 o'clock. You on board?

I love potatoes. I love butter. I love bread. I don't really care about these diets. I eat pasta. I eat bread. I eat everything.