Madame Wu, restaurateur to Hollywood’s elite, dies at 106

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Sylvia Wu, whose famed Southern California restaurant drew Hollywood’s biggest stars for four decades, has died at age 106. Madame Wu’s Garden on Wilshire Boulevard in Santa Monica became a dining destination shortly after it opened in 1959, popular for its cuisine and pagoda-style decor. Madame Wu herself was known for wearing a floor-length silk gown while alternately greeting Tinseltown’s elite and picking up the phone to take to-go orders. Mae West favored the cold melon soup, while Gregory Peck and Paul Newman enjoyed the shrimp toast and crab puffs. The LA Times says she died Sept. 19.