Danny Bowien calls Mission Chinese Food Cookbook a work in progress; in addition, it is a tribute to the transformative passion that turned a Korean-American adopted by white parents from Oklahoma into a James Beard Award‑winning chef and a food revolutionary. His reinterpretation of Chinese food has drawn the support of culinary master René Redzepi, whose New Nordic cooking borrows from cuisines worldwide.
Originally a pop-up restaurant, Mission Chinese Food evolved into a kitschy hole-in-the-wall in San Francisco's Mission District that Anthony Bourdain deemed "the mutant offspring of a taco cart, a charitable pop-up, a loose gathering of chefs." Bowien includes many pan-Asian favorites: spicy Chongqing chicken wings that mesmerized Momofuku's David Chang; salt cod fried rice, a riff off a Chinese favorite; and a mouth-numbing take on spicy mapo tofu. The recipes are geared toward the experienced cook, but the conversational tête-à-tête with Lucky Peach editor Chris Ying, and down-to-earth candor, makes this book an enjoyable read for fans of Asian fusion cuisine. --Nancy Powell, freelance writer and technical consultant