Chinese restaurants are the hardest-hit sector of the US restaurant industry in light of COVID-19, and it has been estimated that around 60% nationally have completely closed since the pandemic. But some of the reasons that have exacerbated the crisis — the stereotype of uncleanliness, the expectation of low prices, and the fear of racist attacks felt by workers — have been around all along. Will the pandemic mark the end of an era for independently-run Chinese restaurants? Will it be an opportunity to course-correct, or modernize? And how can all of us help? We'll hear from some of the people working on the front lines of the issue as well as forward-thinking chefs from coast to coast.
CATHY ERWAY
Cathy Erway is a James Beard Award-winning food writer and the author of The Food of Taiwan: Recipes from the Beautiful Island and the memoir The Art of Eating In: How I Learned to Stop Spending and Love the Stove. She hosts the podcast Self Evident, exploring Asian American stories, and Heritage Radio Network's Eat Your Words.
WELLINGTON CHEN
Wellington Z. Chen is the Executive Director of the Chinatown Partnership Local Development Corporation. He is responsible for guiding the overall direction of the Partnership, including strategic planning, setting policy, and serving as the public representative of the organization as well as the Chinatown BID. He was the first Chinese American to serve on a community board in Queens and a local development corporation.
He currently serves on: Advisory board of CUNY School of Public Health; Bowne House Historical Society; Coro Leadership New York Center; Governor’s Island Advisory Council; GrowNYC; the Public Policy Committee and the board of YMCA; the Metropolitan Museum of Art and NYS Regional Economic Development Council among others.
He has been honored with many awards including Business Person of the Year from Queens Chamber and the Liberty Freedom Medal. He was born in Taiwan and grew up in Singapore, Hong Kong, and Brazil before coming to The United States to obtain his architectural degree.
BRANDON JEW
Brandon Jew is the executive chef and owner of Mister Jiu’s, a contemporary Chinese American restaurant in the heart of San Francisco Chinatown. Mister Jiu’s combines the local, seasonal and organic bounty of the Bay Area together with classic Chinese techniques and flavors. The restaurant celebrates its place in the historic neighborhood working to evolve and define Chinese American cuisine in the Bay Area.
Brandon’s training spans from Bologna, Italy to Shanghai, China and many restaurants within the Bay Area. He considers Judy Rodgers (Zuni Café), Michael Tusk (Quince) and his grandma, Ying Ying, to be his most influential mentors
Brandon has appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Mind of a Chef, Ugly Delicious, and Vice Munchies. His honors at Mister Jiu’s include one Michelin star, Bon Appetit #3 Restaurant on Hot 10 2017, SF Magazine Chef of the Year and James Beard nomination for Best Chef West 2018 and 2020.
LUCAS SIN
Lucas Sin, Eater Young Guns Class of 2019 and Forbes 30 under 30, opened his first restaurant when he was 16, in an abandoned newspaper factory in his hometown of Hong Kong. Despite spending his Yale undergraduate years in the Cognitive Science and English departments, Lucas spent his weekends running restaurants out of his dorm, known as Y Pop-up. He backpacked and cooked his way through Japan, before settling at Kikunoi Honten in Kyoto. He’s also spent time at Modernist Cuisine in Seattle and Michelin-starred kitchens in Hong Kong and New York.
Beyond the bings and noodles at Junzi Kitchen, Lucas also directs the funkier, more indulgent After Hours menu: fried chicken, instant noodles, juicebox cocktails, and the like. His monthly personal project is a no-longer-secret, collaborative tasting menu exploring the narrative of contemporary Chinese cuisine, which we call Chef’s Study. During the COVID-19 crisis, he runs the collaborative delivery pop-up known as Distance Dining.
JENNIFER TAM
Jennifer Tam is the co-founder of Welcome to Chinatown, a grassroots initiative to support Chinatown businesses following the rapid decline in business as a result of COVID-19 and increased xenophobia. Welcome to Chinatown works with 20+ Chinatown businesses aimed at helping them uncover resources to sustain their business throughout and past the coronavirus pandemic, through services such as bulk order meal orders to donate to frontline workers, providing free resources to small business relief funds and grants and marketing and branding support.
Professionally, Jennifer leads communications at Foursquare and also volunteers her time as the employee resource group (ERG) lead for Fourmation, Foursquare's ERG for people of color. A native Texan, Jennifer moved to New York nearly a decade ago and has been a Chinatown resident ever since. Influenced by a family of restaurant owners and chefs, it’s rooted in her belief that food is a powerful vehicle for cultural diversity, expression, and community. Chinatown is a true embodiment of this belief, and Jennifer is deeply grateful this community welcomed a transplant like her to be part of a neighborhood so rich in history. She’s had Wo Hop’s salt and pepper squid over rice with a runny egg too many times to count.
WILSON TANG
Wilson Tang has owned and operated the famed Nom Wah Tea Parlor—New York's first dim sum restaurant—since 2010. Since taking over the family business, Tang has grown the restaurant group's footprint to encompass fast-casual and full-service concepts, along with partnerships, in New York, Philadelphia, and Shenzhen (China). His entrepreneurial spirit has been recognized and featured in various national print and cable media including Bon Appétit, The New York Times, "NBC News," AMC, Food Network, and Travel Channel. Tang lives in the Financial District—a few blocks away from the original restaurant—with his wife, Mae, and his children, Ryan and Lucy.
GRACE YOUNG
Named the “Poet Laureate of the wok” by the food historian Betty Fussell, Grace Young has devoted her career to preserving the traditions of wok cookery. She is currently working on Coronavirus: Chinatown Stories, a video series with videographer Dan Ahn. Her accolades include 2020 James Beard and Webby Award nominations for her video the Wok Therapist, a James Beard win for Stir-Frying to the Sky’s Edge, and five IACP awards including the Culinary Classics Award for The Breath of a Wok. Grace has been featured in The New York Times, All Things Considered, and on CBS News Sunday Morning. She is the co-founder of Wok Wednesdays, an online stir-fry group and has taught over 12,000 students with her popular Blueprint class, The Art of Stir-Frying. Her family’s wok, which dates back to 1949, was displayed at MOFAD’s Chow exhibit and will soon be relocated to the Smithsonian National Museum of American History where it will continue to serve as a significant artifact of Chinese American culinary history. Watch the special video series Corona Virus: Chinatown Stories by Grace Young