Second-generation Asian chefs modernize cuisine

The Kao Mun Gai chicken dish at Oakland's Hawker Fare tastes a lot like the version that chef James Syhabout's mother used to serve at the Thai eateries she ran for decades. But while his mom poached the chicken, Mr. Syhabout cooks it in sealed plastic bags submerged in hot water.

"My mom didn't sous vide anything," says Mr. Syhabout, referring to his cooking method. "I know how to make a better, moister chicken."

Mr. Syhabout, 33 years old, is among a new generation of Asian-American chefs in the Bay Area who have followed their parents into the restaurant business. Apart from Hawker Fare, other up-and-coming local establishments such as Namu Gaji and Mozzeria, both in San Francisco, are also run by second-generation restaurateurs. In other cases, such as Pagolac in San Francisco, the children have made over the original place.

Breaking from their parents, these chefs have more modern takes on food and business that sometimes fall far from the tree. The result is a range of eateries that in many cases are more upscale and cater to more cosmopolitan tastes, helping to establish the Bay Area as a place where Asian chefs can play with or stray far from tradition.

"People used to think of Asian food as cheap food," says Thy Tran, founder of the Asian Culinary Forum, a San Francisco nonprofit organization that promotes Asian cuisine. "But it's starting to evolve."

There are no data on how many second-generation restaurateurs there are in the Bay Area or how that unknown number might compare with other places. But Ms. Tran says the region is particularly well suited for such endeavors because of its large Asian population and food-loving culture.

Not surprisingly, these restaurants tend to charge more, and many are viewed as successful businesses. Some dishes cost upward of $20 apiece at Namu Gaji, which moved earlier this year from San Francisco's Richmond District to a prime spot in the trendy Mission District.

Phat Thai, a food truck run by brothers Bobby and Alom Hossain, serves more than twice as many customers in a few hours as their mother's Thai restaurant served in an entire day, Bobby Hossain says. It has been so successful that the brothers are in talks to open a restaurant as well.

Indeed, Mr. Hossain, 30, says the biggest change between generations is how he runs the business. While he follows exactly the recipes taught to him by his mother, Wannee Hossain, a private chef who used to run her own Thai restaurant, "our approach is a lot more aggressive in terms of the marketing and getting our brand out there," he says. "Our parents were more conservative and reserved."

Mr. Hossain says he launched the food truck last year after talking to a friend who ran one. There is less overhead with a food truck and he can serve more customers than a small restaurant. While his mother's eatery typically served 50 to 75 people in a 12-hour day, Mr. Hossain says he sold 197 lunches between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. on Tuesday of last week. He uses Twitter, among other means, to let people know where the truck will be on any given day.

Wannee Hossain says she was surprised when her sons decided to start a food truck, partly because they never seemed that interested in helping in the kitchen when they were younger and because growing up they saw firsthand how hard it is to run a Thai restaurant. But given that the truck has been such a success, "we should have done it a long time ago," she says.

Meanwhile, Dennis Lee of Namu Gaji says he puts his mix of cross-cultural experiences into his Mission District restaurant. His family is from Korea but he grew up outside of Boston, where his mother ran a Japanese restaurant. As a child, he says, he "struggled with my cultural identity."

Mr. Lee worked at various jobs in the food industry, but it wasn't until seven years ago when he learned he had a daughter on the way that he opened Namu. Namu is known as a Korean restaurant, but Mr. Lee says no one from that country would call it that. 
While Mr. Lee bases his food on Korean and Japanese techniques, Namu's menu also features a hamburger. Even the stonepot, a traditional dish with rice and kimchee, uses seasonal local vegetables and not just traditional Korean ones.

Mr. Syhabout, the Hawker Fare chef, who also runs the one-star restaurant Commis in Oakland, began working in his mother's kitchen when he was 12 years old, peeling garlic and washing dishes. He started cooking there when he was tall enough to reach the stove.

By the time he was in seventh grade, Mr. Syhabout knew he wanted to be a professional chef, but he would take a different path from his family. "I wanted to explore more," says the chef, who went to culinary school and worked at Manresa in Los Gatos and two restaurants in Europe.

Mr. Syhabout opened Commis in 2009, which features dishes like lamb roasted with eucalyptus and asparagus with herring roe, and offers a set menu for $75 a person. He would sometimes cook Thai food for his staff to eat and decided to open Hawker Fare in the location where his mom used to run a restaurant; the eatery opened shortly before his daughter was born about a year and a half ago.

Becoming a father made him nostalgic. "I know who I am professionally, but I didn't really know who I am culturally," he says. Having the two restaurants allows him to explore both without compromising either, he says.

Mr. Syhabout's mother helped with the recipes at Hawker Fare, but has still never eaten at Commis. "She grew up where food is nourishment," Mr. Syhabout says. "She doesn't understand why people spend two hours eating."