The book says dream first, details later, not details never.. You wrote in the book about what happens when somebody says no and how to turn that no into a positive and quickly turn on your heels to open up some other door or avenue.
Jonathan Yao—Kato, Los Angeles."The food we do at Kato is our way of speaking up for young Asian-Americans.
There's a cultural reference behind every dish, but we try to make sense of it in a modern context.".There's an enduring narrative in the restaurant world that serious chefs must pay their dues, working their way up rung by rung.But in a strip mall on the west side of L.A., another story is taking shape.
This one's about a precocious 26-year-old with almost no formal experience.Meet Jonathan Yao, one of the most imaginative, natural-born cooks we've ever encountered.
, Yao interprets the flavors he grew up with as the son of Taiwanese immigrants in the San Gabriel Valley—booming and fading the levels of burnt shallot, sweet soy, basil, and Chinese celery.Three-cup chicken may be the "Free Bird" of Taiwanese cuisine; if you only know one thing about the island's food culture, this dish—seasoned with equal parts soy sauce, sesame oil, and rice wine—is probably it.
Yao's three-cup cover takes the form of a paste, rubbed into curls of octopus or painted on buckwheat crackers sandwiching sweet raw scallops.Jason has spent nearly 20 years writing about food and drinks on the internet, starting as an intern at CHOW (RIP).
A proud nerd, he’s obsessed with the science and technicalities of what we cook and eat: He’s tested through several categories of knives and kitchen tools for Food & Wine and wrote about.the molecule that makes bananas smell like bananas.
for Serious Eats.. He’s also a cocktails and spirits expert, the former senior editor at., and a huge fan of Caol Ila Scotch.