It’s been half a century since Michael Chow, better known around the world as restaurateur Mr. Chow, opened the doors to his first eatery in London on Valentine’s Day, 1968.

“I’m still in denial it’s been that long,” he says from his 57,000-square-foot art studio in downtown L.A., which is where he plans to throw an epic party to celebrate the anniversary, Chinese New Year, and the launch of his new book Mr. Chow: 50 Years. “But if it’s a dream, don’t wake me up.”

Nostalgia is tricky for Chow. While his restaurants have attracted an international roster of boldface names from Hollywood, Wall Street, and the art and fashion worlds, what inspired the business was his deep sense of loss.

“Mr. Chow’s was set up for everything that I lost as a young man, when I left China and arrived in London with nothing,” he says. At the age of 12, his family, which was part of Shanghai’s cultural elite, sent him to England to escape political turmoil. He arrived in the darkness of the famous London fog of 1952, completely alone, and would never speak to or see his father again.

“His parting words to me before I left Shanghai were, ‘Wherever you go, always remember you are Chinese,’” Chow says. “[When I set up my restaurant], I longed for the greatness of China, for my parents, for my culture. I wanted to promote all of that and remember it too.”

His father, Peking opera grand master Zhou Xinfang, “one of the most important actors of the 20th century,” indirectly gave him the secret to a loyal clientele. “Life should be like musical theater: never bore the audience. That’s my mantra.” To wit, he refers to his staff as “performers,” not waiters, and a night in one of his restaurants still feels like a show.

“Mr Chow is a place where all arts meet. Every detail is a universe that contributes to the vision of bridging East and West, and making my father proud,” he says.

Schnabel, Warhol and Basquiat’s portraits of Michael Chow from 1984, 1981 and 1985. From left, © Julian Schnabel/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, © The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc./Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, by Jean-Michel Basquiat.

The original Mr. Chow opened in London 50 years ago, with Beverly Hills following in 1974, New York’s 57th Street in 1979, Miami in 2009, Malibu in 2012, and both Las Vegas and Mexico City in 2016. The book also documents some of the restaurants that didn’t make it, like EuroChow in Westwood, California, which was open from 1999 to 2001, and the outpost in Kyoto, Japan, which lasted from 1987 to 1988, and featured a wall covered in Haring’s work. Food critics have not always been generous about the fare at Chow’s. (In 2006, The New York Times’s Frank Bruni famously gave the newly opened Tribeca location a zero-star review http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/28/dining/reviews/28rest.html), but at a certain point it became apparent that people come to the restaurant for more than a mere meal. “We are on our third generation,” Chow says, pointing out several clients that he’s hosted for weddings and birthdays, and then their kids’ birthdays and weddings, too. “The full spectrum of life happens here.”