San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Bay Area chefs honor a legend
‘ She influenced countless generations,’ says Thomas Keller of S. F. restaurateur
Cecilia Chiang, who died Oct. 28 at age 100, was known as the matriarch of Chinese food in the United States not just for her groundbreaking San Francisco restaurant, the Mandarin. She was also a prolific mentor well into her 90s, when she continued to dine at restaurants and advise people in the industry, said local chefs and restaurateurs in the wake of her death.
She was known as a mentor and inspiration to a range of notable local chefs who’ve gone on to national acclaim, including Belinda Leong of B. Patisserie, Corey Lee of Benu and George Chen of China Live.
“For me as well as for many people in our profession, she showed us what it took to be successful: It was to be confident in yourself and your idea and to have the courage to do it,” said Thomas Keller, who got to know Chiang over the course of her many visits to his famed Napa Valley restaurant, the French
Laundry. “She influenced countless generations.”
Until the pandemic and the resulting shutdown of restaurants, Chiang continued to dine out almost nightly and to be a champion for the restaurant scene, said Leong, 42, the pastry chef who met Chiang around nine years ago.
“She loved going to new restaurants and loved supporting Asianowned restaurants,” said Leong.
She noted that about two years ago, Chiang ate at three Michelinstarred Wine Country restaurants — the French Laundry, Single Thread and Meadowood ( recently destroyed in a fire) — all in one week.
“I just went to nine stars!” she told Leong. Despite the almost 60year difference in their ages, Leong said she and Chiang were best friends and saw each other once or twice a week. Leong remembers the many bits of wisdom she imparted, like “Focus on working hard, success will come after,” and “Make sure you properly dress for the occasion, don’t overly dress and don’t be too casual.” Also: “Try to keep busy, you won’t be bored.”
Chiang’s mentees included Alice Waters, who met her in the early ’ 70s not long after her own Berkeley restaurant, Chez Panisse, had opened.
“She kind of took me under her wing, I think because I was so new at the restaurant business,” said Waters, who would go on to travel with Chiang and cookbook author Marion Cunningham to China, Japan and France. “She was so clear about the way she wanted her restaurant to look and to be. She recognized that in me.”
Chiang was known for giving chefs, including Waters, feedback on their food.
“Getting a compliment out of her is not easy,” said Chen, with whom Chiang consulted on two San Francisco restaurants, Betelnut and Shanghai 1930. She also gave him plenty of notes on his dishes at his current restaurant, China Live. “When you get ‘ pretty good’ or ‘ better than last time,’ you’re taking that well.”
Chen met Chiang through his mother when he was still in high school in Los Angeles, and he remembers her as an outspoken and stylish “Auntie Cecilia.” Chen later worked at the Mandarin as a waiter from 1979 to ’ 84 when he attended UC Berkeley. He remembers her attention to detail, from the handmade pancakes for the restaurant’s Peking duck to the appearance of the dining room staff.
“If somebody spotted her parking her Mercedes in the parking lot, smoke signals would come out,” Chen said. “Everyone would button their shirts, comb their hair.”
Many decades later, Chiang, then 96, heard that Chen was going on a twoweek research trip in Asia and asked to join him. They ate their way through Shanghai, Taipei, Singapore and Hong Kong, he said.
Former Chronicle restaurant critic Michael Bauer, who became close friends with Chiang after she sold her restaurant in 1991, said her insistence on opening a highend Chinese restaurant — which she did when she moved the Mandarin to Ghirardelli Square in 1968 — was revolutionary at a time when people expected Chinese food to be cheap.
Bauer also said her particular history of growing up in a wealthy family in the 1920s and ’ 30s in a house with cooks from both southern China and northern China made her irreplaceable in the restaurant world.
“She’s probably the last palate in the world that understands the grand Chinese cuisine before the Communists took over,” said Bauer. “I don’t think anyone in the food business has that background today.” Brandon Jew knew he wanted Chiang’s blessing when he was planning what would become Mister Jiu’s, his modern Chinese American restaurant in Chinatown, about seven years ago. But when she invited him to dinner at her house with a few friends, she let him know that she didn’t think opening his new restaurant in Chinatown was a good idea because she hadn’t had a good experience there as a Mandarin speaker among Cantonese speakers.
Tough as her feedback was, Jew says, her example compelled him to follow his dream regardless, because he said they had a similar mission.
That included, he said, “Wanting people to ( hold) Chinese food in a higher esteem than we thought was being experienced.”
“She’s probably the last palate in the world that understands the grand Chinese cuisine before the Communists took over.”
Tara Duggan is The San Francisco Chronicle’s assistant food editor. Email: tduggan@ sfchronicle. com Twitter: @ taraduggan