For restaurateur, painter, actor, and designer Michael Chow, the world is in a state of Technicolor. Hitchcock and Lean are the masters; Ruscha, Newton, and Hockney are his friends. His precision is exacting, his jabs are hysterical, his energy is relentless, and his joy is contagious. Chow’s world is a place where “motherfucker” is a term of endearment, and Hermès suits, Charvet socks, and George Cleverley shoes are the only things in this life one absolutely must own.

He sees life’s moments as scenes he’s prewritten in his head, his friends and loved ones serving as willing actors. Evidently, the philosophy has served him well: Chow has built a restaurant empire that merges East and West and turns his eponymous hotspots into dazzling theaters of cultural energy.

Two weeks before the premiere of AKA Mr. Chow, the forthcoming HBO documentary from Nick Hooker, Chow invited me to lunch at his Beverly Hills restaurant. Seated in a corner booth below the portrait Warhol painted of him in 1981, Chow dishes on control, his childhood, and the restaurant’s future, offering Vanity Fair the exclusive on his planned foray into fast food. Below is our conversation, where I was lucky to get a word in edgewise—even at the very beginning.

Michael Chow: How tall are you? This is a reverse interview.

Vanity Fair: I’m five foot 11 and three quarters. I would like to grow one quarter inch.

Lucky.

You’re lucky too.

No, I’m something else. I’m a dinosaur.

But you have so much energy! At the young age of 84, I was impressed by all the things you seem to accomplish in a day. What does a typical day look like for you?

First of all, I'm extremely... not a little bit lucky, but—[He looks around his restaurant.] This is impossible. This is impossible. Look, I have my little baby who is two years and three months old [a daughter, Skye, whom he welcomed with wife Vanessa Rano in 2021] and she can swim already. She's a different kind of human. So at this very moment, anybody older than you, I'm finding a little bit difficult to talk to. I'm so quick now that at your age, your energy, right now I'm in power with you.

Who wakes you up? Your alarm, your wife, your daughter?

Unfortunately, all of the above. But I'm very good in the morning. I’m educated by movies so as far as waking up is concerned, immediately an image comes to me: Laurence Olivier. The latest thing I’m really into is name-dropping. Sir Laurence, Lord Laurence, late Laurence Olivier, in a very important movie for me, Richard III.

Which is every actor’s dream role, right? Every actor wants to play Richard III at a certain point.

Yes. And Richard III is name-dropping again. Shakespeare, name-dropping. Olivier, name-dropping. So Richard III, as you know, is a little bit like Scrooge. And Richard III has a nightmare before the battle.All the shit starts haunting him: all the people he’s killed, they’re all coming. Then, the morning comes. And Larry Olivier says: "Richard is himself again." So in other words, he is himself again. So why did I tell you this story? You asked me what my morning is like. When I have to go to sleep, oh my God, all this shit, all the torture, all my sin. I'll go through all that. But in the morning, “Richard is himself again.” So right now, it's morning. I'm Richard.

Do you wake up early?

I wake up in the middle of the night and I do things that you won't believe. I talk to Dubai, I talk to the whole fucking world, and then I go to sleep again. I work nonstop. I'm so fast and also, I used to play high stakes poker—in fact, I still do a little bit—but anyway, in poker you have to make a decision just like that. I am into destiny, and destiny, if you get it wrong, most people will think you are an ego-maniac. But I believe in destiny. Richard III is destiny, Lawrence of Arabia is destiny, Winston Churchill is destiny, Ben-Hur is destiny, Napoleon is destiny, Lionel Messi is destiny.

Like Messi, you also had some health problems as a kid.

Exactly. You see the setup? Destiny. I had terrible asthma. I never went to school. Spoiled, fragile, weak. I had a very famous father in the world of the Beijing Opera. So big. Like Elvis, Shakespeare, Toscanini, Picasso, the whole thing. Then, my mother sends me to London. I lost everything I knew in one second. What I do next is destiny.

When you arrived in London, you said that society gave you two options: open a restaurant or a laundromat.

True. It’s still true now, and I would take it even further. I would say in general, all Asian men in the west live in fear, unless you become a banana everywhere. Yellow outside, white inside. That’s why everyone lives in fear, psychologically.

You feel like there’s been no progress since you arrived in London in the 1940s?

Well, it depends on what you're walking into. But you're constantly aware of that, yeah.

After trying your hand at acting, you chose restaurants, and created some of the most glamorous spaces in hospitality’s history. Did you innately have an eye for design, or did you work with a team?

I have to go back to the beginning. Okay? And the beginning is Shanghai. The city was very decadent. So when I was young, I was brand conscious already. For instance, sunglasses must be Ray Ban, and I will give you a specific shot which you can look at. In Hitchcock's Psycho, 35 minutes into the movie, Janet Leigh is asleep in the car, and there’s a knock on the window. And boom, you see the American cop with the glasses: Ray Ban. That's the fucking sunglasses. At the same time, the lighter must be a Zippo, and jeans must be Levi’s with a 501 button. So all my life is like that.

Is it all in your head? Or are you keeping scrapbooks, mood boards?

All here. [He taps his head] I collect all the things and I have a very good memory. Can I look at your socks?

I'm not wearing socks today.

Okay, you’re not wearing socks. That's another school of thought. But if you're wearing socks, you must have long socks.

You like high socks?

It’s not about what I like. It tells you what to do. I never like anything. Everything in my life is it. It tells me what to do. You follow me? I'll give you everything. Do you know what’s the chicest shoelace?

Tell me.

It’s from Hermes. It's one inch thick, made out of silk, and the butler is supposed to take it out every day in the morning and iron it. We can't get a fucking chicer shoelace. Shoes are bespoke by George Cleverly. My suits are made in Paris at Hermes. Ties, shirts, everything. Socks are Charvet. Everything is analyzed for me in the head. I collect it all. That's what I fucking think about all day long.

When you were growing up, was it your mother or your father that informed your taste, your eye?

I have perfect parents in the sense that my father was completely an artist and my mother was completely the smartest woman on this planet. One taught me one side and the other taught me the other. So I'm a mix of the two. It's part of my destiny, you see?

[Gesturing to the Warhol print of Mr. Chow, currently hanging just above him in the booth] So when I look at this young man in the painting—

First of all, this is by Andy, right? Warhol? Yes. Look how chic this motherfucker is. Andy calls me, he says, "What would you like for the portrait?" I said, "Hold the color and lots of diamond dust. That's my order." And what did he do? He held the color and that’s a lot of diamond dust.

Let’s go piece by piece in this restaurant, and you explain to me the history.

You point and I'll give you all kinds of shit.

Okay, the checkered floor.

The floor is Valentino. In his home, he had a checkerboard dance floor. In the history of Hollywood—fucking Hollywood—Rudolph Valentino is like the king. Shut the fuck up. Right? You can't get chicer than that. Pair it with the Richard Smith painting, the whole fucking thing is perfect. The Smith exhibited at the Hayward Gallery Museum in London before arriving here. And this fucking thing is 50 years ago to the day. I changed everything the minute this restaurant opened. On opening night you had Marvin Gaye playing, Olivia de Havilland, Eartha Kitt. You know what this motherfucker is? [He lifts the dining plates]

Cy Twombly.

Yeah. You can't get chicer than that. Apart from maybe the queen.

Sure.

Look at our menus, the handmade paper. The Helmut Newton image. I sat for Helmut, how many times? 11 times. All over the world. So on one side you have Helmut and on the others you either have the David Hockney portrait of me or Ed Ruscha. So, again, very chic. I’m the first motherfucker—excuse me, when I say “motherfucker” it’s a tagline. Do you know what I mean by tagline? Like in the movies? Good movies have taglines.

So “motherfucker” is your tagline.

“Motherfucker” is my fucking tagline, but some people object to the word fucker. “How can you say that?” So if they do, I’ll use “beta blocker.” It rhymes: mother fucker/beta blocker. When I say beta blocker, it means motherfucker.

Okay, your G-rated version.

What was I talking about?

We left off with the menus.

Billy Wilder—name-dropping—very good friend. I only have very few people who love me and I love them. Billy Wilder is one, Helmut Newton is another. So usually quite high level. Federico Fellini, another one I bonded with. Bacon, I bonded with Francis. But normally people don't like me for some reason. Anyway, that's another story. Where am I? Back to—

Menus.

Billy Wilder.

Billy Wilder. Sorry.

Billy Wilder said, "Make subtlety obvious." That's a motherfucking incredible thing. I want to make subtlety obvious.

Your recall isn’t limited to design and art. One of the best scenes in the documentary is when you get to show off your unmatched photographic memory of film history.

That's not true. Quentin [Tarantino] has more. Maybe Marty [Scorsese] has more.

Okay, but that's their full-time job. So for someone who's not a director, it’s like watching A Beautiful Mind. You can name the opening shot to nearly every movie.

Yes, I have a different kind of talent. My glorious moment was sitting next to Quentin for the first time through my ex-wife's [Eva Chow] gala at the LACMA. I don't know him, but we were playing the First Shot of a Movie game, and then thank God he gave me Magnificent Obsession with Rock Hudson. Nobody’s seen it. I gave him the first shot. He was shocked.

With such a love for film and an appreciation for storytelling and directors, why was this the right time for your documentary?

My very good friend, Lana Jacke who used to work with Warhol, wanted to do this documentary, so we shot a lot of footage and she followed me to China. I had two major exhibitions with two museums. Celebrated my father's 120th anniversary and all that. So we had a lot of footage. Then Nick Hooker approached me, and we went from there. But also what convinced me to do this documentary is someone told me that it's not for me, it's for the next generation. This documentary is dealing with two centuries, with a father and a son and their destiny to bridge China and the United States. I'm a collagist. My painting is that way too. I'm born to create harmony between the two cultures. I'm motivated by that. That's what gives me so much energy.

You painted as a child, but what inspired you to return in recent years under the name M.?

When I was young, I fell in love with Beijing opera. Then at 13, I moved to London and I lost it all. That’s when I discovered painting. But the political reality forced me into the restaurant world. The restaurant didn’t allow me to paint. But I'm an artist through and through. So I turned this so-called business of restaurants into theater. And the minute I made it into theater, I had an opportunity to transcend to a higher level. My medium is painting. I have used paint more than any other human being ever. Before me was Bacon. I'm an expressionist, my father's an expressionist, and expressionists deal with injustice and pain. That's the source of their material. I had the opportunity to continue the theater world with my restaurant, but in the painting world, I deal with the pain.

A lot of people have tried to emulate what you've done, turning dining into theater. Has anyone else been successful in your opinion?

Before me, the only one was Cipriani. I learned a great deal from them. For 90 years they have made magic in Venice. Look, their clientele started with Hemmingway. Name-dropping, boom.

But otherwise, I started the whole fucking thing. Every night you're looking for the performance to transcend, to become this magic moment, to create poetry. No luxury without fantasy, as it were. I changed the DNA of high-end restaurants.

Do you think anyone else has been successful at achieving that since you arrived?

No.

If I'm going to eat in New York, Los Angeles or London and I'm not eating at Mr. Chow, where would you tell me to go?

Do you know Wiltons Restaurant on Jermyn Street in London?

Yes.

Particularly their lunch. The body language, the details, the way they serve you, the history… But the theatricalness comes from the function of what they're doing. The way they present the thing, everything is the best. If they dress the crab, the mayonnaise will be shut-the-fuck-up, so to speak. Why let mediocrity rule the world when you have this kind of magic? Here in LA, I like Lawry’s.

Lawry’s Prime Rib? Interesting.

It has its own thing. I'm looking for that kind of shit.

And New York?

My friend Nobu Matsuhisa’s bar on 62nd street. That’s the cool one. At the bar. Very specific.

You’ve lived all over the world. Why do you stay in Los Angeles?

I live in the movie world. In my head, I write scripts. Meeting you, I had set up the whole fucking thing already. Automatic pilot. Notice I'm eight minutes late. I want to know what I am walking into, you see? And I'm directing this movie, I'm trying to control this movie. Your reputation and things, I already knew. I wrote the script and I've tried to control the script.

What’s one movie everyone should watch?

For me, Visconti's Leopard is one. And Lawrence of Arabia is another.

What’s next for you and for Mr. Chow?

Recently, I realized why restaurateurs are not billionaires and yet the fashion world is full of them. Around 80 years ago, a man called Pietro Cardani went to Paris from Italy. The French are very snooty and said, "Oh my God, you can't have a name like Pietro Cardani in fashion." So he changed his name to Pierre Cardin. Why am I mentioning him? Because he, like Coca-Cola, when somebody said, "Bottle it,” started making dresses in a factory instead of with 20 seamstresses. 1000 a day. Changed the whole fucking world.

So I woke up recently and decided it’s time now for the low end. Do you want to know what I’m going to name it? I’ll give it to you. O.O. to Go. O.O. To Go. Which is double O.

Like your glasses.

That's one reference. The other reference is ping pong, the bridging of east and West. Ping pong diplomacy. With O.O to Go, I have a chance to become a billionaire. I want to be a billionaire when I grow up, okay. I took care of the top end, now I'm going to go to the bottom, okay?

Do you have a menu?

I'm going to distill my food, my menu for the people. I'm going to hopefully contribute to the fast food industry and bring new technology in from Shanghai. I’m excited about it because I had the same feeling before I opened Mr. Chow. Start step by step, very modestly, as it were. A dam comes from one drop of water, kind of shit. Confucius. While I still have the energy to show the West how wonderful Chinese culture is through food. I'm doing the same thing again, but this time, on a mass level.

Anything else you want to talk about today?

Well, we didn't talk about sex, but that's okay. Everybody always laughs when I want to talk about sex.