Chinese Goes Uptown

As chefs create dishes with attention to regional authenticity and quality ingredients, Chinese cuisine moves beyond the buffet and into fine dining.

By Melanie Wolkoff Wachsman

Mandarin, Shanghai, Szechwan and Cantonese, China’s four main cuisines, can be found in U.S. restaurants that range from the simple to the splendid. But it wasn’t always the case, and for American-Chinese cuisine to move past the fast-food category, it needed to dispel some misconceptions.

“The misconceptions lie in the depth of what American-Chinese offers,” says Larry Wong, executive chef of Tao in New York. “The image of fast-food stir-fry is cemented to Chinese food. But the truth is that flavors and recipes arrive from all provinces of China.”

“Authentic Chinese food is incredibly fresh, but many Chinese chefs in this country still use canned ingredients, and think diners prefer fried and sweet food,” adds Susanna Foo, executive chef/owner of Susanna Foo Chinese Cuisine in Philadelphia, and author of Susanna Foo Fresh Inspirations: New Approaches to Chinese Cuisine (Houghton Mifflin, 2005). “About 80% of the Chinese restaurants in this country are Cantonese. So, when people think Chinese food, they think Cantonese.”

But that could change as consumers come to know real Chinese food, according to Bill Sy, CEC, AAC, co-director of culinary arts at The Art Institute of Phoenix. “Traditional Cantonese cooking is known for lots of sauces, seafood and simple ingredients,” he says. “But the new Cantonese cuisine includes the best skills from all four regions.”

Time for change

Many chefs are prepared to help American-Chinese cuisine move uptown and meet the needs of consumers with new expectations of Chinese food. This change in taste comes as more Americans travel east and return home with palates craving authentic, regional Chinese fare.

“Over the next 10 years, you’ll see big changes for Chinese food,” predicts Foo. “It’s like in the 1990s, when more people started to travel to Italy, and came back realizing there’s more to Italian food than just spaghetti and pizza.”

Foster City, Calif.-based Martin Yan, HAAC, cookbook author, chef/founder of Yan Can and SensAsian restaurants and the Yan Can Cook Group, sees a rise in modern Chinese cuisine. “The future of upscale Chinese restaurants is bright and prosperous,” says Yan. “People are very receptive to new foods. Look at Penang in New York, which serves Malaysian cuisine. No one had heard of such a thing years ago. No one ate sushi or Thai food. Now look at the explosion of those foods. There’s an explosion of Chinese food, too.”

Yan points to Las Vegas as evidence. “Fifteen years ago, Las Vegas had nothing but buffets. Now all the best chefs open restaurants there,” he says. “Every Las Vegas hotel has an upscale Chinese restaurant.”

Wong agrees that the Chinese culinary scene has changed dramatically in the last 10 years. “As American-Chinese moves into the upscale area, plating and fancy garnishes are given more attention,” he says. “Portions shift from traditional family-style platters to individual plates. Preparations are more health-conscious, shying away from peanut oil and lard that was traditionally used. Different provincial recipes are also incorporated.”

At Tao, for example, Wong serves Peking duck, a classic northern-China dish. Black-pepper-sizzled filet mignon and Hong Kong XO shrimp (XO sauce is made from top-quality dried seafood, red chili pepper and spices) borrow their flavor and preparations from popular Hong Kong recipes.

“The Peking duck is extremely popular,” Wong says. “We roast 30 to 40 ducks per night, on average. And our other Chinese-influenced dishes move consistently well.”

Worldly guests keep the culinary staff at Twist, in the Renaissance Hollywood (California) Hotel, on their toes, says Steve Ferraro, executive chef. “Our guests are more knowledgeable about different world cuisines. We constantly evolve our menus to reflect this,” he says. “Some guests think that Chinese items will be very spicy or heavily seasoned. This is the biggest misconception that we deal with. After guests taste the item, we win them over.”

Ferraro’s caramelized-ginger chicken with wok-seared vegetables; glazed duck breast with savoy cabbage, forbidden rice, red wine and scallion oil; and duck pot stickers with pear salad, hoisin sauce and mango vinaigrette are examples of Twist’s Chinese-influenced menu items.

Fresh, fresh, fresh

Incorporating fresh, indigenous Chinese ingredients shifts consumer perceptions. “It’s much easier to get ingredients now,” says Foo. “Twenty years ago, I never could find fresh bamboo or lemon grass. Even ginger was hard to find. Mango was seasonal, but now it’s available year-round. I hated pork in this country. Today you have boutique producers like Niman Ranch, where you can get wonderful pork that tastes like what you'd get in China.”

While the term “fusion” makes her cringe, the melding of authentic Chinese dishes with French techniques presents a winning combination at Foo’s restaurant. “I base my food on original Chinese recipes, but change it depending on the season. People say it’s fusion cooking, but I don’t think so,” she says.

Chinese Regional Cuisines

Cantonese is based on sauces, seafood and simple ingredients. Popular dishes are sweet-and-sour pork, black-mushroom chicken, salt-and-pepper pork and Cantonese lobster.

Shanghai incorporates many stewed and braised dishes that are mildly sweet, use all-natural ingredients, are lightly seasoned, and use moderate amounts of garlic, ginger, rock candy and fermented sweet rice. Common dishes include braised lion heads (large ground-pork meatballs braised with Chinese cabbage), steamed fish and Yang Chow fried rice.

The Szechwan region can be compared with India, with its many spices, and Szechwan peppercorn, star anise, black pepper and many kinds of chilies are common. Regional dishes include orange-peel beef, Kung Bao chicken and Yu Shang pork.

Mandarin cuisine, based on Shangtung, used to be the cuisine of the Chinese royalty. It uses garlic, ginger and scallions in signature dishes that include braised prawns, scallion sea cucumber and hot-and-sour soup.

For example, veal and spinach fill dumplings instead of traditional pork and bok choy. Her lamb pillows are based on a traditional Mongolian recipe, calling for a mixture of ground lamb, scallions and ginger, and Foo adds additional herbs, such as rosemary, thyme, coriander and oregano.

“It tastes really good. I just changed the Chinese recipe by adding more flavor,” she says.

Exposing the region

Independent operators aren’t the only ones capitalizing on regional Chinese cuisine. Scottsdale, Ariz.-based P.F. Chang’s China Bistro introduced a “flavors of Sichuan” menu in February. Research-and-development chef Bob Tam calls it P.F. Chang’s most ambitious menu. It results from Tam’s extensive travels in the Szechwan province and its capital city, Chengdu. The menu offers Chengdu spiced lamb-marinated lamb tossed with cumin, mint, tomatoes and yellow onions. Another dish on the menu is imperial black cod stir-fried with soy beans, pine nuts, red peppers and black mushrooms, in an abalone/white-wine sauce.

“I realized that preparing provincial flavors didn’t change our strategy,” says Tam, who estimates that 89% of the current menu exemplifies traditional Chinese dishes, albeit with some westernized tweaks. For example, says Tam, P.F. Chang’s best-selling lettuce-wraps appetizer would traditionally be made with squab or pigeon, not chicken.

Tam is so confident about the new menu’s success that he’s already exploring another region of China. “We’re looking forward to pushing the envelope even more,” he says.

Other restaurants are following suit. “The mom-and-pop Chinese restaurants today are not the same as 30 years ago,” Tam says. “Now they have more authentic flavor and products. You’re going to see more regional cuisines, things Americans may not know about. Americans are embracing Chinese regional cuisines, and the cuisine is really looking back to its roots.”

Melanie Wolkoff Wachsman is based in Louisville, Ky.