The Los Angeles restaurant community is abuzz after word came down about the passing of Susan Campoy, chef and owner of Julienne , a French-inspired bistro in San Marino. The 70-year old Campoy passed away at the City of Hope on March 4 after an extended battle with breast cancer.
Campoy inherited her love of food from her father, who ran a cafe in downtown Los Angeles. She honed her culinary skills by cooking and entertaining for friends and family; that led to her starting a home-based catering business. In 1985, after a divorce, Campoy needed a better way to support herself and her four daughters. That’s when Julienne opened on Mission Street in San Marino.
Initially, just a few tables and a display case, Julienne expanded its offerings over the years by adding more seating and a variety of take-out foods, prepared meals, frozen entrees, vintage wines and gourmet gift items. In 1990, by popular demand, the trendy eatery began serving breakfast.
One of Campoy’s proudest achievements was lobbying for a training kitchen at the Echo Park complex of the Good Shepherd Center for Homeless Women and Children . Campoy tirelessly campaigned to have a kitchen built that could be used to educate women as pastry chefs. In June, the Village Kitchen opened its doors to teach culinary skills to recently homeless women. Campoy, who served on the Center’s board, outfitted the kitchen. At the dedication ceremony, she said, “It’s just like that old adage: `Give a man a fish, you had fed him for today. Teach a man to fish and you have fed him for a lifetime.'”
Another one of Campoy’s goals, writing a cookbook, was also completed at the time of her death. Colleen Dunn Bates of EatLA.com says, “She wrote it while running the restaurant, creating the kitchen at the Good Shepherd Center, having chemotherapy and doing the several thousand other things she did. By the time she was in the hospital, the book was written and was in the final editing stages” The book, which is being self-published, will be available in May.
In one of their tributes to Campoy, the Los Angeles Times reprinted one of her favorite recipes from her childhood, Grandma Jolly’s Rhubarb Meringue tarts. The recipe will be part of the new cookbook.
Food and restaurant blogs are filled with tributes to Campoy, who stressed balance in life and followed her own advice by only serving breakfast and lunch and closing Julienne on Sundays.
Another cancer patient at the City of Hope blogged, “I, along with thousands of others, mourn her passing. Those who knew her personally and those, like me, who never met her but admired her flair for life as much as her flair for food. Those who nibbled her famous scones or sipped cafe au laits on the patio. And those who learned to cook at the kitchen she outfitted at the Village Cafe for homeless women. We will all miss Susan”
Memorial donations (of money or blood) may be made to the City of Hope. A complete obituary may be found at on the Latimes website.