Chef Danny Bowien of Mission Chinese: "we're living in a post-authentic world"

Life and Art from FT Weekend

Forhecz Topher

Tv & Film, Arts, Society & Culture

4.6 • 601 Ratings

🗓️ 24 October 2019

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Award-winning chef Danny Bowien has never fully fit in. Adopted from Korea, Bowien was raised by a white, Christian family in Oklahoma, in "the buckle of the Bible Belt." In 2010, as a young chef in San Francisco, he started the first pop up restaurant ever as an experiment – it became wildly popular for turning Szechuan Chinese food upside down. He now runs two successful Mission Chinese restaurants in New York.

Bowien is known in the food world for subverting not just Chinese cuisine, but also what chefs should look like and the rules they should follow. He speaks with Lilah about why authenticity is no longer the benchmark for good food, what it has been like to publicly fail, and how a restaurant becomes an institution.

Also: we want to hear your stories about astrology! Do you have a memorable experience to share with us? When do you turn to it? And if you're a skeptic, what doesn't sit right? Record an audio message with your thoughts, and email it to [email protected]. You can also chat with us on Twitter @FTCultureCall.

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Links from the episode:

–Patricia Lockwood's hilarious essay on John Updike in the London Review of Books https://www.lrb.co.uk/v41/n19/patricia-lockwood/malfunctioning-sex-robot

–Tickets to the FT's NextGen festival, in London on November 16 (where you can hang out with Gris!): https://www.ftnextgen.com/

–Danny Bowien's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dannybowienchinesefood

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Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to Culture Call, a transatlantic conversation from the Financial Times.
0:08.1	I'm Griselda Murray Brown in London.
0:10.1	And I'm Lila Raptopoulos in New York.
0:12.5	Coming up on today's episode.
0:15.6	Danny Bowen, welcome to the podcast.
0:17.7	Ten years ago, authenticity was such a hot word.
0:21.5	Oh, I'm going to take you the most authentic version.
0:23.7	But I think that now we're living in a post-authentic world.
0:26.6	I think right now, credibility is the most important thing.
0:36.2	Today on Culture Call, we are entering the world of food.
0:39.6	And in particular, we're going to be thinking about the New York food scene.
0:42.6	In the U.S., we have, as you know, Gris, a lot of chef superstars over here.
0:47.7	That's your Bobby Flay, your barefoot contessa, your Emerald-Augosi,
0:52.3	your Samin Nosrat of salt-fat acid heat. What are the most famous
0:55.9	food people in Britain? I feel like it's Mary Berry. It is Mary Berry. It's not only Mary Berry.
1:02.4	There are other British chefs who Americans know, I think, Gordon Ramsey, Jamie Oliver,
1:07.9	of course. Yes, Jamie Oliver. I remember binge watching YouTube clips of Jamie Oliver
1:14.0	in a dark time in my life. I have gotten past that point, but I do know how to make an excellent
1:18.4	salad dressing in a jam jar. Yeah, I mean, TV and I guess more recently YouTube is the way that
1:24.7	chefs become famous people, basically. I mean, Nigella Lawson was the classic TV series.
1:31.1	I'm thinking also of Yotam Otelengi, who, you know, has been popular for quite a long time now.
1:37.1	Not to throw shade on these people, but I feel a bit bored of them, actually.
	...

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