{"id":29957,"date":"2026-02-20T12:56:37","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T04:56:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=29957"},"modified":"2026-02-20T12:56:37","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T04:56:37","slug":"chinese-food-but-make-it-fine-dining-us-chefs-push-back-against-takeaway-stereotypes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=29957","title":{"rendered":"Chinese food, but make it fine dining? US chefs push back against takeaway stereotypes"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Taiwan-born chef George Chen, whose family immigrated to Los Angeles, in the US state of California, in 1967, remembers vividly how his classmates would look at his school lunch of braised pork and Chinese sauerkraut between two pieces of bread.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018Oh, God, what are you eating? That\u2019s gross,\u2019\u201d Chen recalls during a recent busy lunch hour at his San Francisco restaurant and bar, China Live, on the edge of the oldest Chinatown<\/span> in North America. \u201cAnd now everybody wants the braised pork and Chinese sauerkraut. Hopefully, the perception of Chinese [food] has now come a long way.\u201d<\/div>\n
The immigrant kid who felt 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 duck<\/span>, a noodle station and a dessert station churning sesame soft serve.<\/div>\n
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Taiwan-born chef George Chen at his China Live restaurant and bar in San Francisco. The chef has built a reputation for serving Chinese fine dining in the Bay Area. Photo: AP<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

With all this, he hopes to one day revive his upstairs restaurant, Eight Tables, where course-by-course dinners ranged from US$88 to US$188. In addition, he and his wife, Cindy Wong-Chen, are preparing to launch a similar concept, Asia Live, in Santa Clara, also in California.<\/p>\n

The Chens are not the only ones elevating Chinese cuisine. They are within walking distance of the equally established Empress by Boon, Mister Jiu\u2019s<\/span> and the newer Four Kings.<\/div>\n

Upscale Chinese-American restaurants, from San Francisco to New York, have sprung up in recent years, garnering buzz with their refined tasting menus that soar far beyond Chinese takeaway-food staples.<\/p>\n

The creative deconstruction of Chinese food is part of their culinary hallmark, as many chefs are hungry to showcase their own culture, but in an industry where diners rarely question the high prices of French haute cuisine or Japanese omakase, Chinese restaurateurs often contend with resistance in getting customers to pay fine dining prices.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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