Spicy rain and dew in Shanghai

On a recent trip to Shanghai, it was my pleasure to meet with my former neighbor from Lake Bluff, David Brode and his fiancé Joanne Jaing. David was the executive chef for the Wrigley family for three years. He travelled with the Wrigley's on their private jets and yachts and cooked for notable friends of the Wrigley's such as Warren Buffett. David travelled to Shanghai several years ago and opened and closed two oyster themed restaurants. Joanne has a successful wine and gourmet food business called Cuve. The company name is derived from the wine term cuvée which is the first 2,050 litres of grape juice gently pressed from 4,000 kg of grapes. Joanne dropped the second "e" from the name to make it easier for the Chinese to pronounce.Joanne's Chinese name is Yulu Jaing. Yu means water and Lu means dew. Jaing means spicy so her Chinese name translates as spicy rain and dew. It was her parents intention to name her Lu Jaing. However, after a meeting with a feng shui expert at her birth it was determined that she had a high percentage of fire in her spirit. Feng shui is a Chinese philosophical system of harmonizing everyone with the surrounding environment. It identifies the five elements of air, water, fire metal and wood. Dew was not enough to balance her strong fire spirit so they added Yu (water) to make her name Yulu. It is said that only 1% of the population have all five elements. She has all five elements. Since she has fire as her strongest element, success in business comes more easily when you build on that that strength. Alcohol is good for creating a fire so success in importing wine was almost guaranteed.Prior to starting her business, Joanne attended Aston University in Birmingham, England where she earned her degree in marketing. She wanted to attend school in the USA but her parents were fearful because there are too many guns and crimes there. After graduation she was hired by Bentley in a management development program. The top three executives at Bentley attended Aston University and recruited heavily at that school. She came to realize that the top management track at Bentley was a 15 year process that would require her to spend five years in Boston and five years in Australia before returning to Asia. She worked at Bentley for 3 three years and left to start her own business.Joanne's mother is a gourmet cook gets along very well with Dave. In fact Dave is always happy to hear that his future mother-in-law is coming to visit so they can compare recipes and cook together.Their wedding will be held in Shanghai on January 18, 2015 and a second ceremony will be held in Spain on February 8 to commemorate the place where David proposed. A reception will also be held in the Chicago area in the spring.The happy couple - Joanne (Wulu) Jaing and David Brode