Feb 24, 2022

More than just a vegan eatery—some call it a cult

Loving Hut chain offers food, meditation and access to the ‘Supreme Master’

Melanie Velasquez
San Francisco Examiner
February 22, 2022

Many go for the vegan and skip the cult bit.

If you have ever ventured into the Bay Area vegan restaurant scene, you’d be familiar with the Asian fusion restaurant chain Loving Hut. Lien Hoang opened San Francisco’s version Hut on Irving St. in December 2010 largely because of her concern about killing animals and the meat industry’s harmful impact on climate change.

The storefront’s bright yellow appearance and the aroma of food could capture the attention of any hungry pedestrian. Plant-based meat replacements are aplenty – chicken, pork, fish. Right now, the San Francisco restaurant is still taking COVID precautions by only offering take-out.

It seems innocuous; it’s just vegan food. But underneath it all lies an international chain with over 200 locations across 42 countries run by a multi-millionairess named Supreme Master Ching Hai who claims god-like status, reputedly has 2 million followers and hawks expensive merchandise over the internet.

But before I knew all that, during my early vegetarian years, I would go to the San Diego Loving Hut on Friday nights with my friends and family. Later, I visited my older sister in Santa Clara and was surprised, yet so ecstatic, to find a Loving Hut in the food court of the Valley Fair Mall. I thought Loving Hut only existed in San Diego. That day, my sister referred to it as “cult” food. But as I carelessly chowed down on orange faux-chicken, my 16-year-old mind didn’t fully process that — even when she went on to talk about how it was a joke in an animated series she watched.

In college, I became vegan and did not have a vegan-friendly dining hall. I got take-out from Irving St. Loving Hut more often than any other vegan restaurant. Sometimes you just need non-pretentious, good, solid food. That’s exactly what you get: good, solid, comfort food. It was won-ton soup when I contracted the flu going around the dorm pre-pandemic; chow mein and potstickers on any given evening; and a slice of carrot cake when I needed some extra uplifting.

Hoang’s personal favorites include the spicy “cha cha” (vegan shrimp), spicy lemongrass delight, and bun hue spicy noodle soup. Hoang has been happy with the local support of the Inner Sunset and other San Francisco regulars who come by often to order to-go or just chat with her. You can feel the homemade food love.

Hoang is a firm believer in translating kindness into cuisine. As she greeted every new patron who ordered to-go, you could feel her smile through her mask. She attributes these values of her restaurant to Supreme Master Ching Hai. When asked about her mission, Hoang said, “[For] everyone to live in harmony as brothers and sisters.”

Back in 1992, when one of Hoang’s friends introduced her to Supreme Master Ching Hai, she fell in love with her lectures after watching one of the Supreme Master’s talks in Gilroy. Soon after, she was initiated by Ching Hai, herself (which is rare nowadays), in April 1993 on UC Irvine’s campus.

Born in Vietnam as Hue Dang Trinh, Ching Hai is the founder and self-appointed spiritual leader of the Guanyin sect of Buddhism, which may have as many as 2 million followers, many of whom follow her on the internet. She has likened herself to the reincarnation of Buddha and Jesus. She says she’s “God’s direct contact.” In fact, that is the name of one of her many websites that accompany her spiritual and business ventures.

Ching Hai is also a businesswoman who started Loving Hut as a way to provide accessible vegan food. She runs everything from ecoVegan, a food distribution company, to a musical that ran for one night in Los Angeles named “Loving the Silent Tears.” In addition, she sells expensive jewelry, lamps, clothes, art, framed portraits of herself, music, and books.

Van Luong and Karen Lam are two Ching Hai appointed volunteers — they prefer the term liaisons — from the San Francisco center of Supreme Master Ching Hai International Association. They were initiated in 1990 during college. We sat down for a conversation at the Milpitas location of Loving Hut. Luong and Lam are frequent patrons of Loving Hut and have been following Ching Hai for 30 years.

Ornate lamps from Ching Hai’s webstore, The Celestial Shop, inside the Milpitas location of Loving Hut. (Melanie Velasquez/The Examiner)
Ornate lamps from Ching Hai’s webstore, The Celestial Shop, inside the Milpitas location of Loving Hut. (Melanie Velasquez/The Examiner)

Lam explained the promises of Ching Hai that can be achieved when you dedicate yourself to lifelong veganism — plus two-and-a-half hours of daily meditation: “You will live great in one lifetime, one life liberation… you follow everything else, all the precepts and meditation, everything, then Master promise you, she’ll take you back home, this one lifetime.”

Lam said initiation is imperative towards the journey “going home,” which is a metaphor for heaven.

“The initiation is the important part,” she said. “You have to get that first. Otherwise, you can sit for 1,000 years and do all this aesthetic, ‘stand on one leg’ or something; you still don’t get this enlightenment. The important thing is you have to find that teacher that is already enlightened,” said Lam.

Luong and Lam says Ching Hai is their enlightened teacher who guides her followers through meditation. Without her guidance, Lam warns, demons can pretend to be Jesus or the Supreme Master during meditation and could lead you astray.

If you have visited a few Loving Hut locations, you would notice that the decor is similar, but not exactly the same as the last one you visited. The answer is the Celestial Shop. It’s one of Ching Hai’s many side gigs (in addition to being Supreme Master) where she sells her blessed merchandise to her followers. For example, a common motif of the San Francisco and Milpitas location is the lamps. The cheapest lamp on her website goes for $430 and the most expensive one is $3,030 plus tax and shipping. Some of the other decor in the restaurant is also bought from the Celestial Shop. Lam said that she saves up to buy Ching Hai’s paintings and jewelry.

Where the money goes from these all these businesses is unclear. In the past, she has been criticized for her questionable practices. In 1996, Ching Hai and her followers attempted to donate $640,000 to Clinton’s Presidential Legal Expense Fund, but the money was returned because the organizers said they were suspicious about the source of funds. Lam says the profits go back to Ching Hai’s followers, vegan activists, or to relief funds for different natural disasters. The most recent major donation was $20,000 for the 2018 earthquake that struck Hualien, Taiwan.

The duality of Ching Hai, being both a spiritual leader and business tycoon, is ever present in her endeavors.

Her spiritual precepts and practices seem well-intentioned – combating climate change, being truthful and faithful, not harming any living beings and refraining from intoxicating substances. Luong, Lam, and even CJ, the owner of the Milpitas Loving Hut, said they found Ching Hai when they were young and felt depressed.

“When I was young, I always feel depressed. You feel like you’re lost, (you don’t) belong here or something is missing,” said Luong, “One day my mom had a friend that would (play Ching Hai’s) videotape… I happened to watch it and I go ‘Wow, this is what I’m looking for.’”

Cult or not, Ching Hai’s followers are firm in their beliefs. What Hoang, Luong, Lam, and CJ have in common is that they seem like genuine people who care about being kind to all sentient beings and passing the love to all who meet them.

But Ching Hai is also a businesswoman looking to sell expensive goods to a loyal consumer base. She also sells photos of herself poorly photoshopped in front of different whimsical fantasy scenes of nature.

Supreme Master TV is played at every Loving Hut, a 24/7 online livestream with scheduled programming of shows captioned in 14 languages. Programs include interviews conducted and produced by volunteer members about different vegan restaurants in the world, vegan cooking, weather around the world, and replays of Ching Hai’s lectures.

On a special day, Supreme Master TV airs urgent messages from Ching Hai. The latest one is her most recent conversation with the Chief of COVID (a presumed spiritual being who controls COVID) announcing the end of the pandemic to be November 4, 2099. According to Ching Hai, the Chief of COVID said the only way for the pandemic to end, is not the vaccine or any medically recommended protocols, but for everyone to be vegan and seriously repent through meditation.


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