A Texas Chinese family restaurant’s founders pass the torch but still put in a shift: meet Papa and Mama Teng, 85 and 76

‘At home I feel sleepy. Here, I feel like I can carry a 50lb bag of flour,’ says ‘Papa’ Teng, 85 and still working at the restaurant he and his wife founded

The ‘mom-and-pop’ spirit has stayed as Jeng Chi in Richardson, Texas, has grown. Nine members of the Teng family keep it going – or is it the other way round?

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(From left) Francisco Teng, CEO and co-owner of Jeng Chi, with his family: his mother Mei Teng, his nephew Kai Teng, his father, Yuan Hai Teng, and his wife, Janelle Teng, at the restaurant in Richardson, Texas, which continues to flourish 34 years after it first opened. Photo: TNS

Published: 6:15pm, 26 May 2024Updated: 7:49am, 27 May 2024

On most mornings, while Richardson’s Chinatown – in the US state of Texas – lays dormant, Jeng Chi’s kitchen rings with the clangs of metal pans and the squeaks from the gears of a decades-old dough roller.

The wheels of the cart Yuan Hai “Papa” Teng uses to move ingredients rattle against the kitchen floor tiles as the 85-year-old moves from station to station, prepping different items.

Francisco Teng says his father comes to the restaurant several times a week – sometimes as early as 1am – to prepare the kitchen. The work is not easy, but Papa Teng says he feels more alive when he is working at the restaurant.

“When I’m at home, I feel tired and sleepy. When I’m here working, I feel like I can carry a 50-pound bag of flour,” he says in Chinese.

Yuan Hai Teng, 85, co-founder of Jeng Chi restaurant, prepares dough to make buns at the restaurant. Photo: TNS

Francisco is the second Teng in the family to own Jeng Chi, one of the oldest Chinese restaurants in Richardson’s Chinatown – itself among the longest-running Asian-American enclaves in North Texas.

He and his wife, Janelle, own and manage the restaurant. Papa and Francisco’s mother, Mei “Mama” Teng, are technically retired, but still love working at the business.