Nadia Liu Spellman, CEO of Dumpling Daughter, didn’t have a typical upbringing in a family-owned restaurant.
Her parents operated Sally Ling’s, a renowned fine-dining Chinese restaurant in Boston, hosting celebrities like Julia Child and Yo-Yo Ma.
This experience sparked Liu Spellman’s passion for authentic Chinese cuisine.
In 2014, inspired by her family’s recipes, she opened the first Dumpling Daughter store, offering frozen dumplings made in a factory.
These dumplings, along with other products on Amazon, generated over $4.5 million between November 2022 and October 2023, with most revenue coming from her three Boston-area restaurants, selling up to 4,000 dumplings daily.
Dumpling Daughter differs from Sally Ling’s in its simplicity, following her father’s advice to create a business that didn’t require her constant presence.
Liu Spellman, now 41, shares with CNBC Make It how she applied her parents’ wisdom to develop a thriving brand.
Despite their restaurant’s success, Liu Spellman’s parents initially discouraged her from the industry due to the strain it put on their relationship.
Heeding her father’s advice, she first pursued a finance career in New York City but soon realized her heart was in cooking and the restaurant world.
Reflecting on her childhood memories and wanting to honor her parents’ legacy, Liu Spellman felt drawn back to the food industry.
