No Longer Just "Takeout": Asian American Chefs Use Their History to Create a Culinary Future

New York City -- Inside the courtyard of the Bloomberg Tower, a location once far from the culinary map of Chinese cuisine, Hutong is staking a bold claim, leading the charge to redefine the very idea of Chinese food in America.

The restaurant distinguishes itself through its meticulous culinary process that elevates China's most celebrated dishes, including the Peking Duck, to new heights. The kitchen adheres to a rigorous, multi-step preparation for the Peking Duck: inflating air to separate skin and meat, applying house-made syrup mixtures with boiling water to tighten the skin, air-drying the duck for over 20 hours, and finally, roasting it in a charcoal stove. This traditional rigor culminates in a theatrical tableside flambé, caramelizing the bird's skin for a unique finish.

This boundary-pushing approach extends to pastries. Executive Pastry Chef Conn Zhang has garnered acclaim by transforming daily Chinese staples, including breakfast items, hot pot, and milk tea, into the unforgettable "Treasure Bowl". This dessert presentation takes these familiar tastes and repackages them with fine-art staging, showing that sophisticated Chinese cuisine has no traditional limits.

Cookbook author and culinary historian Grace Young argues that Chinese cuisine faces a unique perceptual barrier, often stereotyped as inexpensive takeout and consequently dismissed as unworthy of the fine-dining category.

"[There is] a very important challenge for Chinese cuisine in this country, and that is that it's perceived as a cheap food, inexpensive. And it is. When you go to Chinatown, the majority of the restaurants are more affordable than other restaurants. And that becomes a challenge for Chinese cuisine in the country because you don't see elevated restaurants like Hutong," Young said, "And so people are less accustomed to thinking that when I eat Chinese food, it can be expensive and fine dining. They're accustomed to thinking of French cuisine that way, Italian, and Japanese, but there has been a barrier with Chinese cuisine."

Across town, there's another rising powerhouse in New York's Asian fine dining scene that's also redefining the genre. Joomak, a tasting-menu restaurant nestled inside Maison Hudson. Originally launched as a pop-up, Chef Jiho Kim reimagined it as a refined destination blending Korean, Chinese, and American influences.

"Originally, I started Joomak as a pop-up, then as Joomak Banjum with a lot of Korean-Chinese inspiration. Now at Maison Hudson, it's a place for special occasions, tasting menu only, with dishes for celebrations," Kim explained.

Among the standouts is his signature king crab rice dish. The live Norwegian crab is steamed, poached in butter, and paired with premium koshihikari rice enriched with crab miso. A packet of dried gochujang with furikake inside is cracked open over the top, releasing a burst of heat and umami.

Kim said the inspiration came from an after-school snack in his childhood in Korea. "After school, I'd come home, grab some rice, add a little butter, egg, soy, sprinkle furikake, and eat it."

The tasting menu also showcases scallops with almond panna cotta, skate cheek braised in gochujang with Montauk shrimp, and a bibimbap risotto.

As Kim explained, "In New York City, there isn't such a thing as just one authentic cuisine anymore. A lot of French restaurants are using Asian ingredients, and Asian restaurants are using French techniques. The end product is a multicultural blend. This is what I tell people is New York cuisine!"

Hutong is located at 731 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY 10022
Joomak is located at Maison Hudson, 627 Greenwich Street, New York, NY 10014