1996: Kitchen Evolution

Crab over glutinous rice, drawn by Lucey Bowen from Ian Lloyd's photograph accompanying "Chefs of Asia," Gourmet, October, 1996.

     Perhaps I exaggerate, but Fred Ferretti's Gourmet, 1996, feature "Chefs of Asia," was a new fusion of some diverse cultural and societal trends.  Previous travel articles and restaurant reviews often identified the chefs and managers of Asian hotels and local restaurateurs.  Celebrity chefs had been around even before television, but they were either French, British or American.  Ethnic Asian restaurateurs and chefs in the San Francisco and New York had been mentioned by name, with short biographies.  "Chefs of Asia" featured eight  chefs and their signature dishes, photographed on their home ground.   In Shanghai, Taipei, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, and Jakarta, they are not anonymous cooks turning out traditional standards.  They are inventors, "keeping tradition in a modern manner."  They refine and combine in new ways.
Feretti's thesis is audacious.  "All of Asia's cooking, " he says, "is rooted in China."  Chinese migrants ot Southeast Asia brought with them their ingredients and techniques, and adapted  them to the foods of that region.  He could argue that these modern chefs cook "the manifestation of a broad, changing Chinese kitchen."  Perhaps, if you choose to ignore the equally ancient foodways of the sub-continent of India.

See how the restaurants reviewed have evolved or become extinct:

New York:
Nadaman Hakubai at the Kitano, 66 Park Avenue is Hakubai at the Kitano.
Typhoon Brewery at 22 East 54th Street is now Papillon.
Aja at 937 Broadway is closed.
Azusa of Japan at 3 East 44th Street is still Azusa.

San Francisco:
Betelnut Pejiu Wu at 2030 Union Street is still Betelnut.

Los Angeles:
Manhattan Wonton Company at 8475 Melrose Place is closed.
Chaya Brasserie at 8741 Alden Drive, West Hollywood is still Chaya Brasserie.