Fuchsia Dunlop on inventive chef Yu Bo, and a possible Los Angeles restaurant - mandarin restaurant signature dishes

Writer Fuchsia Dunlop's favorite story about her culinary adventure in Sichuan involves her group dinner at a monotonous hotel in Chengdu, China on 2001.
This meal had 42 delicate and complicated dishes and introduced her to a young envelope --
A chef named Yu Bo pushed push
"It's like anything I 've ever eaten in China before, it's an official banquet I 've read but never seen before.
"A few years later, after writing an article for food magazine about serving as a tour guide/translator in Chengdu, Dunlop put Yu Bo on a map for western readers --
Born in Yu Bo and two of his equally popular compatriots-Xiao Jianming and Lan guizhan ---
At the World flavor conference in Northern California
Now headquartered in the UK, author Dunlop and Yu Bo of five cooking books, he currently runs a restaurant called Yu jiachufang (
Kitchen)
Leaving his home with a Grand Prix
Fixe, the seasonal menu, will appear in the food bowl on May 4.
Dunlop said he will present some of his signature dishes, including a set of 16 different cold-dish appetizers.
"This is a showcase of the famous Sichuan cuisine cooking motto, each dish has its own style and hundreds of different flavors.
"We recently caught up with Dunlop to discuss Sichuan cooking and what chef Yu Bo is doing.
The interview has been edited for space and clarity.
Tell me about Yu's family kitchen.
This is a very different Chinese food from what Westerners usually get used.
It's like going to a private house and having a banquet in a very elegant private room.
There are dozens of dishes, as well as various flavors, textures and cooking methods.
His style is more of a Michelin style.
Style restaurant.
Very hard-
Great cutlery.
He was inspired by private dining at the magnificent Mandarin Hotel in the past, when the rich kept private chefs and entertained their friends to an amazing dinner.
His food, when you go to a very successful Michelin restaurant
The star restaurant in Journey to the West is an intellectual game that is as thoughtful [one about]tastes.
Give an example of Yu Po dish that makes you think.
It has been an important part of Chinese classical cuisine for hundreds of years, a bit like playing with your guests ---
Eating is not only a sensory enjoyment, but also an intellectual enjoyment. [Yu Bo's]
The food was full of wisdom. You'll [be served]
A pot of porcelain filled with a brush and a plate of red ink.
Even if the calligraphy brush is put away to look like a calligraphy brush-it is actually a flaky puff pastry that folds and all layers look like the hair of the brush.
Then you dip it into the ink-it's actually a sauce-and then you put it in your mouth.
He sometimes makes another classic Sichuan dish.
You will get a bowl of silk tofu that looks like freshly made.
But it's actually chicken breast, crushed into very fine paste with some chicken protein and starch.
This is a joke: Sichuan cuisine looks cheap, but there are a lot of cooking techniques in it.
Purple-red Dunlop and Yu Bo will attend a number of gourmet Bowl events in Los Angeles, including the Sichuan summit held at the Million Dollar Theater on May 4.
The summit will be a cooking demonstration by Dunlop and Yu Minhong.
Tickets are $18.
The two will also be invited guests at the Sichuan dinner on the 978 th.
Broadway is known for its signature cuisine from hip hot Monterey Park and Sichuan Impression.
Tickets are $88.
In China, when did the formal banquet appear again?
This style of private dining was clearly lost during the Cultural Revolution.
It is not acceptable to have such a banquet.
Chinese cooking is recovering and rediscovering many of the complexities of the past.
But Yu Bo has a personality and always thinks like an artist.
He and his wife Dai Shuang knew very well the traditional roots of Sichuan cuisine seasoning techniques, ingredients and cuisine, but he played with tradition in a very innovative way.
He is a very unusual talent.
You are the leader of the Chinese food tour.
What do you think about Chengdu?
Chengdu is a very relaxed and independent place to think.
People are known for their leisure and happiness --loving;
They enjoy sitting in the tea room all their lives chatting and eating delicious food.
Chengdu has a very good climate, soil and agricultural products, and has been known as a rich land in history.
Like California, people are obsessed with seasonality.
This can be traced back to the history of China for hundreds or even thousands of years.
Of course, the most famous raw material is Chile, which is the most recent imported product from Mexico.
This is one of the most exciting food destinations in China because the taste here is exciting.
You have hot air and the taste of Sichuan pepper.
There are a lot of fresh ingredients here.
Sichuan cuisine is never dull.
Yu Bo spent some time in Los Angeles.
Does he want to open something here?
I think he wants to do something more permanent. in Los Angeles].
One of his motivations is to show people the other side of Chinese cuisine and I think he is willing to do it abroad. food@latimes.