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Taiwan-born chef George Chen, whose family immigrated to Los Angeles in 1967, remembers vividly how his school lunch of braised pork and Chinese sauerkraut between two pieces of bread was looked at by his classmates.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2018Oh, God, what are you eating? That\u2019s gross,\u2019\u201d Chen recalled during a recent busy lunch hour at his San Francisco restaurant and bar, China Live, on the edge of\u00a0the nation\u2019s oldest Chinatown. \u201cAnd now everybody wants the braised pork and Chinese sauerkraut. Hopefully, perception of Chinese (food) has now come a long ways.\u201d<\/p>\n
The immigrant kid who felt like he had to hide his food has built a reputation for serving Chinese fine dining in the Bay Area. At China Live, Chen is like a circus ringmaster overseeing a dumpling-making station, a stone oven roasting Peking ducks, a noodle station and a dessert station churning sesame soft serve.<\/p>\n
With all this, he hopes to one day revive his upstairs restaurant, Eight Tables, where course-by-course dinners ranged from $88-$188. In addition, he and his wife Cindy Wong-Chen are getting ready to launch a similar concept, Asia Live, in Santa Clara.<\/p>\n
The Chens aren\u2019t the only ones elevating Chinese cuisine. They\u2019re within walking distance of the equally established Empress by Boon, Mister Jiu\u2019s, and the newer Four Kings.<\/p>\n
Upscale Chinese American restaurants, from San Francisco to New York City, have sprung up in recent years, garnering buzz with their refined tasting menus that soar far beyond Chinese takeout-food staples. Many will put special spins on traditional\u00a0Lunar New Year\u00a0dishes for the Year of the Fire Horse, which starts Tuesday. Doing creative deconstructions of Chinese foods is part of their culinary hallmark, as many chefs are hungry to showcase their own culture.<\/p>\n
But in an industry where diners rarely question high prices of French haute cuisine or Japanese omakase, Chinese restaurateurs often contend with resistance in getting customers to pay fine-dining tabs. Still, these owners and chefs insist their food, labor and cooking techniques are just as worthy.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy shouldn\u2019t I?\u201d says Chen about his prices. \u201cJust because we\u2019re in Chinatown? Or just because people\u2019s perception of Chinese food is that it\u2019s only good if it\u2019s cheap? It\u2019s not true.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since husband and wife Bolun and Linette Yao opened Yingtao, named for Bolun\u2019s grandmother, in New York\u2019s Hell\u2019s Kitchen in 2023, they have been up-front about their mission: \u201ccontemporary\u201d Chinese food as an elegant dining concept. Their Michelin-starred restaurant offers a $150 chef\u2019s tasting menu.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are trying to break this bias, this boundary of people who only think about like Sichuan food, Cantonese food, the takeout box,\u201d said Bolun Yao, who has nothing but respect for casual Chinese takeout restaurants.<\/p>\n
After earning a master\u2019s degree in food studies at New York University, Yao knew he wanted \u201cto build a bridge between traditional Chinese and the fine dining scene that New York people are familiar with.\u201d<\/p>\n
Emily Yuen, who was a James Beard Award semifinalist last year for her Japanese American fare at Brooklyn\u2019s Lingo, is helping Yao achieve his goal as Yingtao\u2019s new executive chef. For Yuen, a Chinese Canadian whose culinary education emphasized French cooking, the importance of representation \u2014 from who\u2019s in the kitchen to what\u2019s on the plate \u2014 has always stayed with her.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want go back to like, who I am, and kind of explore that,\u201d Yuen said. \u201cI was really like struck by his (Bolun\u2019s) mission statement and it just really struck a chord with me of wanting to elevate Chinese culture and Chinese food.\u201d<\/p>\n
She is eager to play around with typical recipes like the Cantonese custard egg tart, \u201cdan tat,\u201d with a savory makeover with caviar and quail eggs. \u201cEgg on egg on egg,\u201d Yuen said.<\/p>\n
Similarly, Ho Chee Boon, the Michelin-starred chef who transformed the long-dormant Empress of China in San Francisco into Empress by Boon in 2021, is pushing for Chinese cuisine to be considered fine dining in the U.S. The Malaysia-born restauranteur was accustomed to seeing high-end Cantonese food in China and India.<\/p>\n
\u201cI try to do something for the Cantonese cuisine and for the culture as well, for the young people and to know about and for other people to know about it,\u201d said Boon, who has opened a chain of his Cantonese Hakkasan restaurants from Dubai to Mumbai and in the U.S.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can try to something better here,\u201d he said, \u201cand let people come back to Chinatown.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chinese culture and food has had its ups and downs when it comes to its reception in the West. More than 200 years ago, Europe highly desired Chinese silks, ceramics and tea, said Krishnendu Ray, director of NYU\u2019s food studies PhD program.<\/p>\n
China\u2019s defeat by the British in the 19th century Opium Wars led to a view of China \u201cas a poor country,\u201d Ray said. Racist myths that Chinese people and their cuisine were strange and dirty persisted when Chinese railroad laborers came to the U.S. and were segregated to enclaves.<\/p>\n
Even today,\u00a0Asian American restaurants have been impacted by tired stereotypes.<\/p>\n
Ray says the rise in an \u201cethnic\u201d food\u2019s prestige tends to correlate with its country of origin rising in economic power. In Michelin\u2019s New York City guides \u2014 which highlight between 300 and 400 restaurants \u2014 Ray found the percentage of Chinese regional cuisine went from 3% to 7% of mentions between 2006 and 2024.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s wonderful that there are these restaurants now\u201d in Chinatown, said Luke Tsai, food editor for the San Francisco Bay Area PBS station KQED. \u201cIt\u2019s fine also if you don\u2019t think it is worth it. But at the same time, I\u2019m really glad that these restaurants exist.\u201d<\/p>\n
Many Chinese chefs want to make it clear they are not serving fusion, or food tinged with Asian influences. Their food is \u201cmore East to West rather than West to East,\u201d said Chen, of China Live. Yuen, of Yingtao, agrees that kind of characterization puts the \u201cfusion\u201d in confusion.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think fusion food is in a lot of those places where it\u2019s dimly lit with the trendy cocktails,\u201d Yuen said. \u201cWhat we\u2019re trying to do is just Chinese.\u201d<\/p>\n
What also matters to these chefs is incorporating Chinese cooking techniques and not defaulting to European ones. At Empress by Boon, chef Boon and his staff maintain four wok stations with woks shipped from Hong Kong.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to do exactly everything the same operation,\u201d Boon said. \u201cWe want to keep the traditional, but we can look in a modern way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chen takes pride in having an open kitchen where customers can see woks and clay pots being utilized. They represent techniques from various regions of China.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou actually look at the greater culinary disciplines of China and because you have the space, you can showcase the cuisine,\u201d Chen said. \u201cI think that\u2019s really served us well.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
#Ancient #stigma #Chinese #food #vanishing #rapidly #top #restaurant #scenes #break #bias<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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