Joyce Chen (chef)

Joyce Chen
Born (1917-09-14)September 14, 1917
Beijing, China
Died August 23, 1994(1994-08-23) (aged 76)
Lexington, Massachusetts
Culinary career
Cooking style Northern-style Chinese cuisine

Joyce Chen (née Liao Chia-ai Chinese: 廖家艾; pinyin: Liào Jiā'ài; Wade–Giles: Liao Chia-ai, September 14, 1917 – August 23, 1994) was a Chinese-American chef, restaurateur, author, television personality, and entrepreneur.

Joyce Chen was credited with popularizing northern-style Chinese cuisine in the United States, coining the name "Peking Raviolis" for potstickers, inventing and holding the patent to the flat bottom wok with handle (also known as a stir fry pan), and developing the first line of bottled Chinese stir fry sauces for the US market.

Starting in 1958, she operated several popular Chinese restaurants in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Chen died of Alzheimer's disease in 1994; since then, her accomplishments and influence on American cuisine have been honored by the US Postal Service and the city of Cambridge.

Early life

Born in Beijing to a high ranking family in the Republic of China under Sun Yat-sen,[1] Chen and husband Thomas with their children Henry and Helen left Shanghai in 1949 as the Communists were taking over the country.[2] Chen and her family ultimately settled in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In 1952, her son Stephen was born. The family was on the second-to-last boat to leave Shanghai before Mao Zedong's victory in the Communist Revolution resulted in China's isolation from the rest of the world.[2]

In her book, Joyce Chen Cook Book, she said that she grew up with a family chef who left to cook for her father's friend, "Uncle Li," who became the Chinese ambassador to Russia. At that point her mother and her governess cooked the family meals, and Joyce Chen watched, and she learned.[1]

Restaurants

In 1958, Chen opened her first restaurant, "Joyce Chen Restaurant", at 617 Concord Avenue in Cambridge. According to her son Stephen, here she pioneered the all-you-can-eat Chinese dinner buffet to boost sales on otherwise slow Tuesday and Wednesday nights. She also used the buffet format to allow customers to sample unfamiliar but authentic dishes at a pace of their own choosing.[3] She promoted healthy Chinese cooking and refused to use Red Dye No. 2 and other food coloring in her restaurants.[4] For Chinese-speaking and English-speaking staff and customers to communicate more easily, Chen introduced the practice of numbering menu items.[4]

Chen introduced northern Chinese (Mandarin) and Shanghainese dishes to Boston, including Peking duck, moo shu pork, hot and sour soup, and potstickers, which she called "Peking Ravioli" or "Ravs".[5] The first restaurant closed in 1971. Members of Bolt, Beranek and Newman's IMP team, when they were working on the first IMPs to create the ARPANET in 1969, would eat Chen's food at her restaurant, which was located next door[6] to BBN.[7]

Joyce Chen's second restaurant, "The Joyce Chen Small Eating Place", was opened in 1967 at 302 Massachusetts Avenue in Central Square, located between Harvard University and MIT. Joyce Chen's son, Stephen Chen, also noted that the opening of this restaurant changed the landscape of the Central Square area in Cambridge. Up until then, it was a retail and industrial area, dominated by a NECCO (New England Confectionery Company) factory. People lined up to get Chen's Chinese food at this small restaurant, which seated 60 people. According to Stephen Chen, at this restaurant his mother introduced the Northern style of dim sum, and the now popular "soup dumplings" (shao long bao). The restaurant was very popular with computer hackers.[8][9] It closed in 1988.

In 1969, Chen opened her third restaurant,[10] a much larger space seating 500 people, in an existing building located at 500 Memorial Drive in Cambridge. This restaurant benefited from its proximity to MIT and Harvard. However, this restaurant was required to close in 1974, and the building was demolished so that the MIT dorms New House, and later, Next House, could be built on the site. New House was jokingly known as the "Joyce Chen Small Living Place" for a time.[11]

In 1973, Joyce Chen opened her fourth restaurant in a modernist custom-designed building at 390 Rindge Avenue, near Fresh Pond.[12] This restaurant, also called "Joyce Chen Restaurant", seated 263. It operated for 25 years, closing in 1998.[13][14] It has since been replaced with residential housing.

Joyce Chen was a warm hostess who formed relationships with many guests, including John Kenneth Galbraith, James Beard, Julia Child, Henry Kissinger, Beverly Sills, and Danny Kaye.[15] A former Harvard president called her eating establishment "not merely a restaurant, but a cultural exchange center".[12]

Career highlights

Following the 1958 opening of her first restaurant, in 1960 Joyce Chen began teaching Chinese cooking at the Cambridge Center for Adult Education and the Boston Center for Adult Education. There were waiting lists for her classes. At this time, she introduced many Americans to home style and gourmet Chinese cooking techniques.

In 1962, Joyce Chen published her influential cookbook, the Joyce Chen Cook Book.[1] Publishers had balked at her insistence on color pictures of food, so she had the book published privately at her own expense. She pre-sold over 6,000 copies of her book at her restaurants before the book was printed.[15] MSG was popular at the time, and was included in most of the recipes.[1]

In 1967, Chen starred in her own cooking show called Joyce Chen Cooks, on the Public Broadcasting System (PBS).[16] Twenty-six episodes were filmed on the same set as The French Chef (featuring Julia Child) in the studios of WGBH in Boston.[17] The show aired in the US, as well as the United Kingdom and Australia. Celebrity chef Ming Tsai later said of Chen, "She is the Chinese Julia Child [...] Joyce Chen helped elevate what Chinese food was about. She didn't dumb it down. She opened people's eyes to what good Chinese could taste like."[3]

With a spirit of adventure, according to her son Stephen Chen, in 1968 Joyce Chen took her then 16-year-old son Stephen, and 20-year-old daughter Helen on a trip around the world on Pan Am Flight 001. Joyce, Stephen, and Helen Chen also traveled to China in 1972, the same year that President Nixon first visited China. A PBS documentary on this trip was produced. Soon after Joyce Chen's China aired, she and her family were the victims of a home invasion by five intruders who had seen the film, according to her son Stephen Chen.[18]

In 1971, Joyce Chen launched a line of Chinese cooking utensils.[3] At that time she helped popularize and held the patent to the flat bottom wok with a handle, also known as a stir fry pan,[2][3] and sold polyethylene cutting boards (Sumitomo Bakelite).[2] In 1982, Joyce Chen Specialty Foods was formed to sell bottled sauces. In 1976, according to her son, Stephen, she suffered a serious injury to her right hand when she dropped a large glass jar that contained her stir fry sauce. She underwent four to five hours of microsurgery, but never fully recovered the use of her right hand.

Legacy

Chen was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 1985 [19] and succumbed to it in 1994 in Lexington, Massachusetts.[15]

Posthumously in 1998, Chen's contributions to cuisine were described in Beard House, The Magazine of the James Beard Foundation.[20] In September 2012, the city of Cambridge held their first "Festival of Dumplings" in Central Square to honor Joyce Chen's birthday.[21][22] There have since been dumpling festivals in 2013 and 2014.[23] The New York Historical Society exhibit, Chinese American: Exclusion/Inclusion (September 26, 2014 - April 19, 2015) reviews the history of the Chinese in America, and featured Joyce Chen's contributions.[24]

On September 26, 2014, the US Postal Service issued 20 million copies of the "Celebrity Chefs Forever" stamp series, which featured portraits by Jason Seiler of five American chefs: Joyce Chen, Julia Child, James Beard, Edna Lewis, and Felipe Rojas-Lombardi.[25]

According to the Postal Service, "Joyce Chen is one of the great popularizers of Chinese food. From her landmark restaurant in the Boston area to her cookbooks and trailblazing PBS television show, Chen invited newcomers to sample unfamiliar dishes in ways that firmly established Chinese cuisine in the United States."[25]

Stephen Chen is president of Joyce Chen Foods, Inc., which sells products inspired by Joyce Chen's recipes, including Asian sauces, oils, condiments, spices and frozen potstickers.[26] Her daughter, Helen Chen, markets "Helen's Asian Kitchen" products for Harold Import Company.[27][28] Helen Chen has written three cookbooks of her own.[29] Son Henry Chen (d. 2007) owned "Joyce Chen Unlimited", a retail store in Acton, Massachusetts, which closed in March 2008.[30]

Many Joyce Chen disciples still own and run Boston area Chinese restaurants.[5] Among them is Pui Chan at "The Wok" in Wellesley, Massachusetts. Chan worked for Chen starting in 1976 at the Alewife location. Chan opened his own restaurant with Chen's encouragement in 1978.[31]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Chen, Joyce (1962). Joyce Chen Cook Book. Philadelphia: J.B.Lippincott. pp. 1–3, 22. ISBN 0397002858.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Chen, Helen (1994). Helen Chen's Chinese Home Cooking. New York: William Morrow. pp. 1–5, 33–38. ISBN 0-688-14609-0.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Daley, Bill (February 20, 2013). "Taught American palates to speak Chinese". The Chicago Tribune. Retrieved June 1, 2013.
  4. 1 2 "SAVORING THE LEGACY OF JOYCE CHEN". Retrieved 2016-04-23.
  5. 1 2 Mennies, Leah. "The Story of Peking Ravioli". Lucky Peach. Retrieved 2015-04-15.
  6. ↑ "Contact < Utility | Raytheon BBN Technologies". Bbn.com. Retrieved 2013-10-03.
  7. ↑ Hafner, K., & Lyon, M. (1996). Where wizards stay up late: The origins of the Internet. New York: Simon and Schuster, p. 112.
  8. ↑ "40 years of Boston (Phoenix) food". Phoenix. 2006-11-15. Archived from the original on 2013-10-05. Retrieved 2013-10-03.
  9. ↑ Eric S. Raymond The new hacker's dictionary entry for marginal
  10. ↑ "Joyce Chen: Chinese Chef, Restaurateur, Entrepreneur, WGBH Host". joycechenfoods.com. Retrieved 2017-09-14.
  11. ↑ Staff (September 4, 1984). "The Traditional Freshman Quiz is now a contest for new students" (PDF). The Tech. Cambridge, MA. Retrieved 2016-02-20.
  12. 1 2 Robertson, Rain. "Joyce Chen". Culinary Cambridge. Cambridge Historical Society. Archived from the original on April 10, 2015. Retrieved 12 June 2013.
  13. ↑ "Joyce Chen (1917-1994) - National Women's History Museum". Retrieved September 5, 2013.
  14. ↑ Miara, Jim (March 30, 1998). "Last pieces of Joyce Chen empire fall to creditors". Boston Business Journal. American City Business Journals. Retrieved June 12, 2013.
  15. 1 2 3 "Joyce Chen, 76, U.S. Popularizer Of Mandarin Cuisine". New York Times. August 26, 1994. Retrieved July 16, 2012.
  16. ↑ "Joyce Chen Cooks". Joycechenfoods.com. Retrieved 2013-10-03.
  17. ↑ "The Origins of the Cooking Show". The New York Times. Retrieved 2013-10-03.
  18. ↑ "People in the News", The Lewiston Daily Sun, December 17, 1973.
  19. ↑ Notable American Women: A Biographical Dictionary Completing the Twentieth ... - Susan Ware - Google 图书
  20. ↑ Pataki, Amy (1998). "Flavors of the Far East". Beard House, The Magazine of the James Beard Foundation.
  21. ↑ Gordon, Jane (September 21, 2012). "Acton Resident Attends Inaugural Dumpling Festival in Honor of His Mother". Acton Patch. Archived from the original on October 25, 2012. Retrieved May 31, 2013.
  22. ↑ "Cambridge celebrates Joyce Chen's birthday with Festival of Dumplings". Wicked Local Cambridge. GateHouse Media, Inc. September 20, 2012. Archived from the original on November 11, 2013. Retrieved June 12, 2013.
  23. ↑ Schweitzer, Sarah. "Dumpling festival a tribute to Joyce Chen". Boston Globe. Retrieved September 29, 2014.
  24. ↑ "Chinese American: Exclusion/Inclusion". New-York Historical Society. Retrieved October 1, 2014.
  25. 1 2 "Five Celebrity Chefs Immortalized on Limited Edition Forever Stamps". United States Postal Service. Retrieved September 30, 2014.
  26. ↑ "Joyce Chen brand seeks boost from new product". Boston.bizjournals.com. 2006-05-01. Retrieved 2013-10-03.
  27. ↑ "Helen's Asian Kitchen Asian Cuisine Products by Helen Chen and Harold Import Company". Helensasiankitchen.com. Retrieved 2013-10-03.
  28. ↑ Julian, Sheryl (February 10, 2010). "She uses her noodle". Boston Globe. Retrieved June 12, 2013.
  29. ↑ Seltzer, Anne-Marie (September 3, 2010). "Helen Chen Remembers Her Mother". Lexington Patch. Patch. Retrieved 12 June 2013.
  30. ↑ Schiavone, Christian (2008-03-19). "Joyce Chen Unlimited Closing". wickedlocal.com. Archived from the original on February 9, 2013. Retrieved May 31, 2013.
  31. ↑ "The Wok: About Pui and Carol Chan". Wokwellesley.com. Retrieved 2013-05-31.

Further reading

  • Ardnt, Alice (2006). Culinary biographies : a dictionary of the world's great historic chefs, cookbook authors and collectors, farmers, gourmets, home economists, nutritionists, restaurateurs, philosophers, physicians, scientists, writers, and others who influenced the way we eat today. Houston: YES Press. ISBN 9780971832213. Retrieved 24 March 2018.
  • Chen, Joyce; White, foreword by Paul Dudley (1962). Joyce Chen cook book. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Co. ISBN 978-0397002856.
  • Chen, Joyce; White, foreword by Paul Dudley (1978). Joyce Chen cook book (paperback)|format= requires |url= (help). Harper Collins. ISBN 978-0397012787.
  • Chen, Joyce (1982). Joyce Chen Cook Book (2nd ed.). Joyce Chen Gourmet Products.
  • Chen, Helen; Davis, illustrated by Earl C. (1994). Helen Chen's Chinese home cooking. New York: Hearst Books. ISBN 978-0688127565.
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