"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. 'Oh, God, what are you eating? That's gross,' Chen recalled during a recent busy lunch hour at his San Francisco restaurant and bar, China Live, on the edge of the nation's oldest Chinatown. 'And now everybody wants the braised pork and Chinese sauerkraut. Hopefully, perception of Chinese (food) has now come a long ways.'"
"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. The Chens aren't the only ones elevating Chinese cuisine. They're within walking distance of the equally established Empress by Boon, Mister Jiu's, and the newer Four Kings."
George Chen immigrated from Taiwan to Los Angeles as a child and experienced classmates' ridicule for traditional lunches like braised pork and Chinese sauerkraut. Chen founded China Live in San Francisco, operating multiple live stations and planning to revive his fine-dining Eight Tables while launching Asia Live in Santa Clara with his wife, Cindy Wong-Chen. Upscale Chinese-American restaurants have proliferated in cities such as San Francisco and New York, offering refined tasting menus and creative deconstructions of traditional dishes, including special Lunar New Year offerings. Restaurateurs face challenges convincing some diners to accept fine-dining price points for Chinese cuisine.
Read at Fortune
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