James Daniel Bowien (born 1982) is a chef and restaurateur. He is the founder and owner of Mission Chinese Food in New York City and Brooklyn and co-founder of Mission Chinese Food in

San Francisco, California San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

. Bowien is a

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winner, and the main subject of season six of the food and travel show ''

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''.Dao, Dan Q. (November 16, 2017).
Bing-Watch the New 'Mind of a Chef' Episodes Featuring Mission Chinese Food's Danny Bowien
. ''Saveur''.

Early life

Bowien, born in South Korea, was adopted at a young age by a family in Oklahoma.Martin, Brett (November 21, 2012). �
Danny and the Electric Kung Pao Pastrami Test
��. GQ Growing up as one of the only Korean Americans in school left him without a clear sense of identity, and his roots in Asian culture fostered a need to do something respectable.�
How Mission Chinese Chef Danny Bowien Defines Authenticity
��. ''Asia Society''. (April 20, 2018) Retrieved October 17, 2019. He had various jobs, including as a dishwasher in a Vietnamese restaurant, and at age 19 he moved to San Francisco.

Career

After a spell in culinary school Bowien worked at several restaurants in the

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, including the Italian restaurant Farina.Kauffman, Jonathan (September 8, 2010).
Mission Chinese Food offers a Matrix mind-twister of a meal
. ''SF Weekly''. Through his work there he was sent to the 2008 Pesto World Championships in Genoa, Italy, where he won first place. Bowien partnered with Anthony Myint on a series of food truck pop-ups including Mission Street Food and Mission Burger, and with the owners of a Chinese restaurant called Lung Shan on Mission Street, started Mission Chinese Food as the first restaurant-within-a-restaurant pop-up. It was named the second Best New Restaurant in America by ''

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'' Magazine and fourth Best New Restaurant in America by '' GQ'' Magazine. Bowien was nominated the 2011 Rising Star Chef by the ''

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'', and in 2012 he was a James Beard Award Finalist. He was included in ''

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'' Magazine's 40 Big Thinkers under 40, and ''San Francisco Chronicle''’s Bay Area 30 under 30. After leaving San Francisco in 2012 Bowien opened a standalone Mission Chinese Food in

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's Lower East Side. In 2013, he opened a Mexican restaurant, Mission Cantina, in New York. Mission Cantina was closed 3 years later. In May 2013, Bowien was awarded the prestigious "Rising Star Chef" by the James Beard Foundation for his work in the Mission Chinese Food in San Francisco and New York City. In 2014 Bowien moved Mission Chinese Food to New York's Chinatown. In 2017, Bowien was chosen to be the main subject of the sixth season of the food and travel show ''

''. It premiered on November 14, 2017, on

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. In 2018, Bowien opened a new Mission Chinese Food location in Bushwick, Brooklyn in front of the independent music venue Elsewhere. In September, 2020, Bowien announced permanent closure of the Mission outpost on East Broadway in Chinatown, due to the hardships COVID-19 had on the hospitality industry. While the Mission Chinese Food in Chinatown had closed permanently by the end of September 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Bushwick location remained open.

Culinary style

Bowien is recognized for his impact on the democratization of fine dining.Interview. (September 12, 2018). �
Restaurateurs Danny Bowien and Mr.Chow compare notes on Chinese food and the truth of a dish
��. ''Interview Magazine''. Retrieved October 17, 2019. Bowien is known as a populist, making food that is accessible to everyone.Birdsall, John (May 10, 2019). �

��. ''Los Angeles Times''. Retrieved October 17, 2019. His work in the kitchen is notable, according to ''GQ'', for pioneering the elevation of Chinese food and breaking down barriers in an industry known for its strict Eurocentric hierarchy.

References

External links

dannybowien.com

eatatmission.com

missionchinesefood.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bowien, Danny 1982 births Living people American male chefs American restaurateurs James Beard Foundation Award winners Food and drink in the San Francisco Bay Area South Korean emigrants to the United States People from Moore, Oklahoma Asian American chefs Chefs from San Francisco