Hannah Cheng: Co-Founder and CEO of Mimi Cheng’s

Episode 745

On this episode of The Kara Goldin Show, we’re joined by Hannah Cheng, Co-Founder and CEO of Mimi Cheng’s — the cult-favorite dumpling brand on a mission to bring family recipes to the world in a fresh, modern way. What began in 2014 as a small New York City dumpling shop, inspired by Hannah and her sister Marian’s mom’s recipes, has grown into a thriving brand with restaurants, ready-to-eat Taiwanese meals, and soon frozen dumplings launching nationwide at Whole Foods in Fall 2025.
In our conversation, Hannah shares her journey from JP Morgan’s trading floor to running one of NYC’s most beloved dumpling spots, and how she balanced Wall Street with entrepreneurship during the early years. We dive into what has allowed Mimi Cheng’s to thrive for over a decade in a notoriously tough industry, why staying self-funded and self-operated has been key, and what it takes to expand from restaurants into CPG. Hannah also opens up about building a business with her sister, her favorite collaborations, the lessons she’s learned as an angel investor, and her vision for turning Mimi Cheng’s into more than a meal — but a lifestyle brand.
Whether you’re a foodie, a founder, or simply someone who loves a great family business story, this episode is full of inspiration and insight you won’t want to miss. Now on The Kara Goldin Show.

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Transcript

Kara Goldin 0:00
I am unwilling to give up, that I will start over from scratch as many times as it takes to get where I want to be. I want to be you. Just want to make sure you will get knocked down. But just make sure you don’t get knocked out, knocked out. So your only choice should be go focus on what you can control. Control, control. Hi everyone, and welcome to the Kara Goldin show. Join me each week for inspiring conversations with some of the world’s greatest leaders. We’ll talk with founders, entrepreneurs, CEOs and really, some of the most interesting people of our time. Can’t wait to get started. Let’s go. Let’s go. Hi, everyone. Welcome back to the Kara Goldin Show. Today, we’re heading to New York City, the city where food culture and entrepreneurship collide. And my special guest today is Hannah Cheng, who is the co founder and CEO of Mimi Chengs, the dumpling brand that started as a cult favorite restaurant in New York City and is now expanding into packaged foods and frozen aisles nationwide, from a career on the trading floor with JP Morgan to making the leap into food, what started in 2014 as a family run dumpling shop with her sister, Marian, inspired by their mom’s recipes, has grown into a thriving brand, with restaurants ready to eat Taiwanese meals in the northeast and frozen dumplings launching at Whole Foods nationwide this fall. So I’m excited to dig into how Hannah has built Mimi Cheng’s from scratch, how she’s navigated nearly a decade of success in the notoriously tough restaurant business, and her vision for making dumplings more than just food but a lifestyle brand. So Hannah, welcome to the show. So excited to meet you

Hannah Cheng 1:55
finally. What an intro. Thank you again for having us here.

Kara Goldin 1:59
Absolutely. I’m so proud of you so and so honored that that you came on. So let’s start simple, when someone eats or someone purchases, someone tries Mimi Cheng’s dumplings for the first time, what are they really buying into? Besides amazing, amazing food,

Hannah Cheng 2:19
I think they’re buying into family, heritage, as well as just they’re buying into themselves. I think we always ask ourselves, one of our North Stars is when you buy our product, how do you feel about yourself? Do you feel like you’re worthy of feeding yourself better food? Do you feel like you’re worthy of a great dining experience? And we want our product to make our customers feel like they are worthy of all these things,

Kara Goldin 2:44
definitely, definitely. So you started your career at JP Morgan, and when you finally made the leap, you were actually on the trading floor. I mean, crazy amazing, you know, very, very noble career, for sure, but you decided to leave Wall Street for this decision, this entrepreneurship, right? Yeah. So what was it that you said, Okay, today’s the day, or what, like, what really triggered this?

Hannah Cheng 3:19
Well, I actually did both for two years, which I don’t recommend for from a lifestyle perspective, but from a financial security perspective, it definitely was great to not have to worry about money while I was building out this business. And then after two years, it felt like the restaurant was a really viable business. So it was time to take the leap and do it full time, or, you know, kind of keep talking about it. So the way I thought about was like, I could always come back. It’s not like I’m signing this job away in blood and I’ll never get it back. I can always find something similar to it and come back, but I’ll never get this opportunity again to try running my own business with my sister.

Kara Goldin 4:06
It’s so interesting because I remember when we were starting hint and we met with a few people. There were, you know, we were definitely, we decided to go all in. We were self funding the company as well, but some of the people that we talked to would say, you know, you’re, I mean, it’s very risky, right, what you’re doing. And then there were other people that we knew who thought that we should stay with the job and then start our company no matter how much money you have, because you know you want to minimize the risk. So did you feel like people were kind of giving you this advice, like, what are you doing and and also, you’re starting a company with. With your sister. I mean, did they just think like, what Hannah, what has happened to you?

Hannah Cheng 5:07
I don’t, I wouldn’t recommend most people do this. I generally, my advice to people is you don’t work with family and you don’t work with friends unless you’ve worked with them before. However, I think my sister and I, the way our dynamic is we’ve never been competitive growing up, and we’ve always been each other’s number one fans. So even though we might not always see eye to eye on every business decision, at the end of the day, we know the other person’s intention and motive came from the best place. So it’s she’s the best business partner I could have, because I have 100% trust in her and vice versa, and that removes a lot of the drama and anxiety around starting your own business. When you have this person in your corner that you know will always have your back,

Kara Goldin 5:57
it’s so so, so true. I couldn’t agree more, it’s not for everybody, but especially if you have different skill sets, for sure. So what were those early days like you’re taking this idea was, was the idea that you would open a restaurant, multiple restaurants, that you would be on, on the shelves at Whole Foods, what was kind of the first idea, and then the first step that you

Hannah Cheng 6:25
took? So our initial idea was always a frozen food company. So we joke now that the restaurant’s been a 12 year long marketing play for us to get on shelf to retail. And one of my friends I remember at the time. You know, frozen food 12 years ago is very different than what it is today. Covid has Chenged a lot of consumer behavior and expectations around the freezer aisle for the better, in my opinion. And my friend 12 years ago at this time said, Well, you don’t have a brand. People are not going to know to come look for you in the frozen aisle. And my college roommate and best friend, her grandfather, actually helped launch the rayos sauce side of the business. And so since I was 18, I kept hearing about this restaurant, how they had one restaurant and then created this incredible sauce line. And so we thought to ourselves, why don’t we follow Ray’s model? We’ll open up one restaurant, build some brand equity, show proof of concept, and then go into retail, and then, of course, opening restaurants, I think, in general, especially in New York City, is one of the hardest things you can do career wise. And we did it with zero restaurant experience. We signed a 10 year lease, brick and mortar lease in New York with without having ever done a pop up, which, again, is not the advice I give to entrepreneurs these days, but luckily, it worked out for us. And as we built that restaurant, and we learned actually how to run a restaurant, which That in itself, was a trial by fire. We just kept getting hungry and hungrier for to open more and more restaurants, because as we hired amazing people, amazing people like to grow and to get promoted, and it’s very hard to do that with one location. So we kept opening more restaurants, building more brand equity, and then covid. We were actually having our best year ever in 2020 and then covid hit, and it came all to a screeching halt, and it actually forced us to go back into frozen. Actually. Eva Chen from Instagram, she was DMing us, saying, like, how can I help support a small business? And she’s like, why don’t you do frozen? And was like, You know what we’ve been talking about doing frozen for so many years, and we had explored it twice before, and what we found each time was a lot of times people, you know, have these stories where restaurants start a CPG line because they think it’ll be an additive line of business, not knowing that it’s a completely different business. You can’t run it as a hobby or as a side business. So each time we dug into it further and further, we realized this isn’t the time for us to do that yet. And then with covid and with Eva saying, like, hey, I’ll put it on my Instagram. If you guys do this, we’re like, you know what? We have nothing to lose. At this point, the restaurants closed, so we did, and the dumplings sold so well, we started delivering them to the Hamptons, to Upstate, and we did gold belly, and we saw the demand for again, covid was a captive market, very different, but the fact that there was this level of interest felt very promising. So it felt like the right time to move in to frozen.

Kara Goldin 9:43
I love it. So you started with one restaurant, and today, how many restaurants do you have?

Hannah Cheng 9:49
So we started with one, and then we have, we’ve opened four in total. But as we expanded into retail and we saw how well it was doing, and the opportunity to. Like the size of the opportunity at the end of the day, you only have so many hours in the day. And if our goal in five years is to be a huge frozen food company and not somebody who operated a handful of restaurants with a frozen food company, we decided it was the right time to pare down our restaurants so we still have our original location in the East Village as a way to stay connected to the community, as well as an R D kitchen, just a way to stay plugged into the hospitality world. And we actually have a location opening in JFK terminal one next summer, which we’re very excited about. And then our frozen food business also has a food service side to the business, so you can find it at different stadiums, restaurants, hotels, things like that.

Kara Goldin 10:45
That’s awesome. So the first two years, when you were opening Mimi Cheng’s, but still on the trading floor, you were taking your mom’s recipes, how much was your mom involved in those decisions about which recipes, and did you Chenge any of those recipes at prior to launching?

Hannah Cheng 11:08
So they were all her recipes, and of course, she had zero measurements, as like most good home cooks don’t have they send you a list of ingredients, and then you kind of tinker around with it. And she and my dad came to New York originally for two weeks for the opening, and ended up staying for two months to help out. And now, every time they come visit, they always have a return ticket booked. I think they’re a little scarred from getting stuck for so long working for free. And so she helped us perfect our recipes, because a recipe at home, you it doesn’t just scale up proportionally in a restaurant, and just the way a restaurant recipe doesn’t scale it proportionally to a co manufacturer level. You always have to tinker a little bit for the process, for the equipment.

Kara Goldin 11:55
So you and your sister Marian started Mimi Chengs together. So what would you say to other entrepreneurs you’ve touched on this little bit, but the pros and cons of being in business with a family member, I think that the one thing that you and I were chatting about, even before we got started, is that if you have different skill sets, that’s that’s such a key. But can you talk a little bit about the dynamic there,

Hannah Cheng 12:23
for sure? So we always describe ourselves as a Venn diagram, and the way the duties kind of falls that I’m more front of house issues, sorry, she’s more front of house, and I’m more back of house. So for example, the financials, the planning, the supply chain, logistics, everything where from idea conception to getting on shelf mainly falls within my domain, and then from on shelf to customer experience falls in Marion’s domain. But of course, you know, we weigh in,

Kara Goldin 12:58
so you open Mimi Cheng’s the restaurant, and you know, you’re, I guess, opening these other restaurants in the early days as well. Did you have a moment when you thought, this is really a brand, right? Like this? There’s an expectation when people come in and it could be more. I know you started thinking about this as a brand that was, you know, potentially gonna be frozen, but what was the moment when you kind of trusted that this was that it’s gonna happen?

Hannah Cheng 13:37
Oh, that’s such a good question. I don’t know if there’s a specific time or date or event that I can point to, it was almost more of a gut feeling. And I think in general, when you lead with your heart and what you’re really, truly excited and passionate about, and you stick to your priorities, I think that that idea of of intention and passion always comes through, regardless of when it what stage it’s at, so I don’t think I have a specific time I can point to for sure. But you know, we’re always excited when people recognize the brand, and also surprised, even though it’s been 11 years later.

Kara Goldin 14:20
So yeah, so covid, it was the point when you started really doing direct to consumer, as you mentioned. So how many years was that from the time that you actually started the first restaurant? Six years? Five and a half? Yeah, yeah, that’s and did you ever think it was going to take that long to actually do it?

Hannah Cheng 14:44
You know, it’s not that it took a long time. I felt like we had a lot of learning to do in different ways before we got to got to retail. We had always been exploring retail, even within during those five years and. I remember someone had connected us with the largest dumpling company in the world, the individual who used to run their dumpling category. And he would tell us about his their Costco road shows and how they had multi million dollar marketing budgets. And he would it was so hard that he has a grown man would like break down crying regularly on these road shows. And I’m thinking to myself, we don’t have a $3 million marketing budget. We are not ready to play in this field yet. We still have so much to learn. And covid really forced our hand in this. And it also, like I mentioned before, it Chenged the expectations from consumers about frozen food. You know, it used to be a lot of sad TV dinners, a certain type of frozen pizza, and now it’s Roberta’s pizza. It’s restaurant quality food. And people are realizing, especially during covid, that frozen food is actually an amazing way to get high quality food, because the nutrition and taste are preserved right on the spot. And I think that really helped open up the door and buyer, buyer, you know, almost like they were ready to see more innovation in this category

Kara Goldin 16:13
because of covid. Yeah, definitely. And also frozen, the ability for consumers to receive frozen right as more and more people were doing that, more and more companies were doing that. You know, the costs and the ability to do that for a brand also Chenged significantly. Did you find that as well? Maybe in the early days you were looking into it, and by the time covid came around, it was, it was still hard, but it was definitely Chenging.

Hannah Cheng 16:46
It you know, I think that it’s a double edged sword, because covid Chenged and made people more receptive to frozen food. But then on the supply chain side, the logistics for frozen went haywire. The cost of frozen freight was astronomical, and quite a few businesses decided to leave frozen retail because of of that. And as we were going to frozen, everybody who is familiar with the CPG world kept telling us, like, Oh, you’re going into frozen that’s the hardest aisle to be in. And I think I just got used to hearing that from the restaurants, because when we were starting to think about opening a restaurant, everybody said, Why would you do that? It’s the hardest industry to go into, especially in New York City, which is arguably one of the most competitive and top culinary destinations in the world. Who do you guys think you are opening a restaurant with zero culinary degrees, zero culinary experience, we just had the heart and desire to do this and to share what it was. We wanted to create an experience that felt more similar to what we grew up with. So like really great food in terms of taste and quality of ingredients did not also really fun crossover fusion flavors. You know, I kind of hate the word authentic, because what’s authentic to you is not what’s authentic to me. For me, authenticity is the same as eating congee for breakfast, as much as it is eating scallion pancakes, but also with avocado, egg and cheese in it, because that is my experience. That’s my cultural mashup. And we just found food, especially dumplings, to be such a fun palette, a way to cross over and just have fun with different flavors.

Kara Goldin 18:32
Was there a dumpling that you put on your either your menu, or you launched with that you thought, this is gonna be amazing, and it wasn’t. Or is there one that you launched that you were like, I don’t know. I guess we could try and it just killed it.

Hannah Cheng 18:52
Yeah, there definitely are a handful of those that come to mind. And so one of my favorite flavors is a more traditional flavor, which is actually fish dumplings. And we made it from scratch. They were super fresh. Nobody liked it. It was probably our worst selling flavor. And then the flavors that have done really well, our top two flavors over the last decade, one has been our collaboration with pizza. Loves Emily. It’s this amazing cheeseburger with a gochujang based sauce, white cheddar cheese, caramelized onions, crushed pretzels. It sounds bizarre to put it all in a dumpling and it, I guarantee you, it will be one of your most memorable, best bites you’ve ever had. And our chicken parm has also been we’ve done many variations of a chicken parm, including our own in house recipes. We’ve done a collab with John and binnies with a really fun crispy cheese skirt around the dumplings. And I think there’s this old misconception about anything with red sauce in the freezer aisle that it kind of will taste like jarred sauce with Oregon. Know. And did you get a chance to try the cheeseburger? Sorry, the chicken parm dumplings last night? I did. It was so good. I’m so glad you enjoyed it, because we were so meticulous about the sauce. We said, like, we really want the red sauce to taste like a red sauce that you make from scratch, and that’s what we did with this dumpling. And so when you try it, it tastes really fresh, and people it actually captures the essence of chicken parm, just like in a new fun format. And so I would say those two flavors have been our best sellers, and then the traditional fish dumpling has been our worst seller. But I was talking to someone last week, and they were we were talking about Mimi Cheng, and they said the thing that they loved most was that they never knew what our monthly special was going to be, but they knew we would deliver on flavor, and that’s what we’ve always strived to do, is to make really good food, tasty food, healthy and accessible,

Kara Goldin 20:59
definitely. So what? How many dumplings does somebody eat in a sitting? I mean, when I look at kind of the serving size of a obviously this varies, but what is sort of typical for people.

Hannah Cheng 21:14
So what’s interesting is that in Asian cultures, dumplings tend to be more of the main entree, because it’s a dish that has everything you would need, has protein, it has vegetables, it has little carbs, so it’s really complete meal. But I feel like in American culture, it tends to be more of an appetizer. So I would say like as an appetizer, you’re probably looking at at least three to five, and then for me personally, as a meal I would like about eight to 10, depending on how hungry I am,

Kara Goldin 21:44
definitely so the the when you think about the Mimi Cheng cult status in New York City, how do you think you got there? Like, how do you think you just became known for doing what you’re doing, and obviously good and good quality. But was there anything that really kind of you attribute that to? Maybe it’s collaborations. You’ve talked a bit about that. But was there any one thing, or do you think it was a combination of multiple things?

Hannah Cheng 22:20
I always think there’s no such thing as a magic bullet, but I think what really put us on the map was the quality of the ingredients we were sourcing. And that was a big story that we told around it, and I think it was one of those early situations where we weren’t trying to be the cheapest option on the block. We were. We were looking to be the highest quality option. And then on top of that, I think our monthly specials, people were really intrigued by those. And as we built rapport and trust, and people were like, okay, these specials are actually really amazing and fun, we were able to get kind of crazier and crazier with the flavors that we did. But I don’t think there was one thing. I think it again, it kind of goes back to just leading with your heart and like making every business decision from that point, from a point of finding joy and passion, versus, is this the best business decision? You know, there’s definitely been times where we’ve like, oh, this special probably won’t be the best seller, but how fun would it be to do it? And we’ve done it,

Kara Goldin 23:24
I love it. So there are many people who think about taking investment. You’ve self funded your product to date. You’re also an angel investor, and who has looked at and invested in various deals. What lessons from being an entrepreneur yourself and just from building Mimi Chengs has influenced how you invest? I would imagine that having you as as an investor in a company I know firsthand is, you know, it’s a great, it’s a great asset, because you’re not just talking to somebody who’s sitting in, you know, the position of having been a private equity or a venture, right? You’ve actually been an operator and, and I think that that’s key, and also an operator that starts at zero, right? Which is, which is also so key. But what are, if you were to name a couple of things or a couple of lessons that you’ve learned that really influence how you invest?

Hannah Cheng 24:33
Yeah, I think so. We, our restaurants have been self funded, and then our new business venture with the frozen food, we actually decided to fundraise, which we can chat about that after this question, because that was also an interesting process to decide whether or not to actually bring on outside investments. But I think it’s exactly what you said. It brings so much credibility, and also the network. Because I’ve built something from zero, I’m. Geek to have such an incredible network of entrepreneurs and people in this world that I’m able to help make connections, whether that’s a really good lawyer or an amazing graphic designer or, you know, like anybody in the ecosystem. And I think that when you’ve built something from zero, you understand the founder’s journey better than anyone else, and sometimes it can be really lonely that journey. So when you have someone that understands what that journey feels like, you feel less alone. You’re like, oh, okay, this is a normal part of the process. It’s completely normal. I’m not failing. This is just part of the learning process. And so for me, when it comes to investing one, of course, it has to be a good idea, but it really comes down to the founder. Like, how much do I believe that this founder really wants this to succeed? What’s their track record in finishing something and seeing it through? And then it really comes down to a gut feeling about the founder?

Kara Goldin 26:04
Yeah, definitely. And I would imagine you have to like the product or service and and get it right. So last question, we’ll end it kind of spicy. So what? What’s the Mimi Cheng’s product you personally crush on at maybe late night, you’re like, I’m starving, I need to grab something. What is that flavor?

Hannah Cheng 26:29
So it’s a bit of a cheat answer in terms of the stuff that’s available on shelf. I’m so partial to the chicken, bok choy, zucchini, dumplings, because that’s not a traditional recipe, but it’s my mom’s signature recipe, and my two year old son loves it. He always requests it, so it’s a really easy seven minute meal to make for him. But I have this mini freezer that just has all of our new product samples. So a lot of times I’ll just pull out something from our R D process and have it like I had this morning for

Kara Goldin 27:01
breakfast. I love it so Hannah, thank you so much for joining us today and sharing the Mimi Cheng story. I absolutely love your brand and the story from bringing your mom’s dumpling recipes to New York City to restaurants to packaged goods frozen aisles, your journey shows what happens when persistence and and drive and family and vision all come together for everyone listening. You can check out Mimi Chengs in New York, but also at Mimi Chengs.com and going into many, many stores nationwide, but Whole Foods in particular, and as always, if you love this episode, please share it. Talk all about Mimi Chengs and Hannah and what you’ve heard. Thank you so much again, Hannah. Really appreciate it. Likewise. Thank you, Kara. Thanks again for listening to the Kara Goldin show. If you would please give us a review and feel free to share this podcast with others who would benefit. And of course, feel free to subscribe so you don’t miss a single episode of our podcast, just a reminder that I can be found on all platforms. At Kara Goldin, I would love to hear from you too. So feel free to DM me, and if you want to hear more about my journey. I hope you will have a listen or pick up a copy of my Wall Street Journal, best selling book, undaunted, where I share more about my journey, including founding and building hint. We are here every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Thanks for listening and goodbye for now.

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