BRUCE SEIDEL | USA 2014 | DOCUMENTARY | 60 MINS | ENGLISH
Find out more about the Lucky Chow series here!
About Lucky Chow Season 1 screening at CAAMFest San Jose (2015):
SUN SEPT 20 | 11:30AM | JAMsj
FREE WITH ADMISSION – RSVP at PublicPrograms@JAMsj.org
LUCKY CHOW, a six-part PBS series, follows LUCKYRICE culinary festival founder Danielle Chang as she travels across America, exploring the Asian food landscape. Each episode examines a different food theme and features many of the country’s most renowned chefs and culinary stars.
The series begins with the ramen craze that has swept the country and features New Yorker-turned-Japanese ramen chef Ivan Orkin, of the acclaimed Sun Noodles, and ends with Berkeley, CA-based Ramen Shop. In another episode, the two titans of Northern Thai cuisine, Andy Ricker of Pok Pok Thai and Saipin Chutima of the much loved Lotus of Siam, join forces to create their collective version of northern laab, a spicy, tasty drinking delicacy in Chiang Mai. Through the lens of Asian food and drink, LUCKY CHOW explores how Asian culture has impacted our understanding of food and food culture.
Don’t worry, we won’t leave you hanging. Japanese food truck, Kushi Yaki Kuishinbo, will be on-site to satisfy those post-screening cravings.
Episodes include:
“Ramen Mania”
Ivan Orkin, the renegade New Yorker-turned-Japanese-ramen-chef, discusses ramen culture in New York versus Tokyo. Chef Nakamura from Sun Noodles explains what makes a great bowl of ramen. Later, seafood purveyor-turned-ramen-chef Yuji Haraguchi creates a New York deli-style version of his broth-less ramen dish, mazemen, using sustainable and typically discarded seafood from a nearby supermarket. The episode ends in Berkeley, Calif. with a tour of the local greenmarket from three former Chez Panisse chefs. After traveling to Japan, they opened a restaurant in the U.S. that serves ramen dishes with their local and personal spin.
“Bay Area’s Pacific Rim Cuisine”
Silicon Valley, where “peach” orchards ran abundant just a generation ago and now dominated by “Apple” (Computers), is also home to the world headquarters for Google. Olivia Wu talks about home-style “Jia,” one of the most popular “on campus” restaurants at Google. Behind the scenes with Baadal, Google’s first “sit-down” restaurant, is an assembly line churning out 2,000 servings of Indian fried rice on “Biryani Fridays.” Epitomizing the ethos of Bay Area food culture, two retired Japanese semiconductor executives, who constructed an indoor, vertical farm called Ecopia, seek to redefine farming culture in the midst of global warming. Lastly, Hodo Soy Beanery brings tofu products into the mainstream just as Asian food products and palates have gone mainstream.
— Ashlyn Perri
Co-presented by: Contemporary Asian Theater Scene (CATS)
Executive Producer: Danielle Chang, Bruce Seidel, Donald Young Producer: Bruce Seidel, Donald Young Cinematographer: Michael Pessah, Marshall Rose Sound: Tad Chamberlain
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