Person

Wong, Dennis Edward

• Wong, Dennie Edward

1917-1999

Dennis Edward WONG was born in Victoria, B.C. in the Spring of 1917, two months premature and weighing less than two pounds—a “miracle baby,” according to his daughter, Janice Mar Wong. He was the second child and the favoured first son of Rose and Joseph Wong, a Chinese family quick to adopt Western customs; his maternal grandfather was an early convert to the British Wesleyan Church.

Dennis grew up surrounded by a large and doting extended family, with dozens of cousins and indulgent aunts and uncles. His father ran a prosperous greenhouse business growing potted chrysanthemums and tomatoes. Dennis’ elder sister, Josie, noted they were one of the few Chinese families living outside of the perimeter of Victoria's Chinatown, a minor fact today, but significant in that era. Dennis’ father was active in the fight against segregation in Victoria schools, which culminated in the Chinese student boycott protests of 1922.

In the 1930s, when Dennis was a teenager, on a cold winter night, the greenhouse attendant left the nursery heaters unattended, and Dennis’s family awoke to a greenhouse of frozen plants; their business never recovered. Amidst the Great Depression and with many bills to pay, Dennis left school and embarked on a series of food-related apprenticeships to help his family, including as a cook on the ferries that crossed the Georgia Strait, and as a bus boy at the Empress Hotel in Victoria.

Dennis was working as a sous-chef at Poodle Dog restaurant when he met his future wife, Mary, at the Leap Year Dance held in Victoria's Chinatown on New Years’ Eve in 1940. They were immediately smitten with one another. Dennis and Mary spent the next 59 years together, and raised four children.

After his apprenticeships, Dennis went on to open his own restaurants, in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, serving as the proprietor of the Wings and Lotus restaurants for 35 years. There, he prepared what he knew and loved best: his beloved southern Chinese village-style cuisine, modified for a tentative western palate. He introduced several generations of Canadian diners to staple Chinese fare, cooking dishes such as fried rice, egg foo yung, chicken chow mein, and sweet and sour spareribs.

Among his family and friends, Dennis was especially known for his love of food and cooking. “If I were asked to describe my father in a single sentence, I would say he was quick, feisty, funny, sentimental, generous, egalitarian, and a great cook,” said his daughter, Janice. “In the kitchen—wherever that kitchen might be—he was calm and fluid: he made everything seem effortless.”

“When I was very young, my father pointed out a peacock in Vancouver’s Stanley Park. I was startled to hear him musing whether or not the glorious bird would be good to eat. I later grew to realize that my dad loved food; he loved to cook and he loved to eat. To him, all the world was a gastronomic temptation,” recalled Janice, looking back on her childhood memories of her father.

In 1999, after a long and slow decline, Dennis passed away, surrounded by his family.

Mar, Mary (1922-2020)

Description supplied by collector/curator