Peter Chang (chef)
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Peter Chang 张鹏亮 | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1963 (age 62–63) Hubei, China |
| Spouse | Lisa Chang |
| Culinary career | |
Current restaurant(s)
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Previous restaurant(s)
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| Website | http://www.peterchangarlington.com/ |
Peter Chang (simplified Chinese: 张鹏亮; traditional Chinese: 張鵬亮) is a Chinese chef specializing in Sichuan cuisine who is known for his restaurants in Virginia and other states in the Southeastern United States.
Chang was born in 1963 in a farming village Hubei Province, attending culinary school in Wuhan. He was assigned to work on a cruise ship on the Yangtze river, where he met his wife, Lisa. After working in luxury hotels and winning national cooking competitions in China, Chang was encouraged to take the foreign service cooking test, earning a two-year contract to work in the Embassy of China in Washington, D.C.[1][2]
Chang and his family arrived in the United States in 2001, and during his tenure at the Chinese Embassy he cooked for then-Vice President Hu Jintao. One morning in 2003, just days before they were set to return to China, the Chang family left the embassy with plans to settle in the United States.[2][3]
Disappearances and movement
A map, captioned "The restless chef," accompanying a 2012 Washington Post article about Chang has arrows indicating Chang's movements between cooking positions in ten southeastern U.S. locations in a period of about eight years. It shows a journey from the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C., to suburban Richmond, via the Virginia suburbs of Washington, suburban Atlanta, Knoxville, and Charlottesville.[4]
After leaving the Chinese Embassy, Chang became the chef at a Chinese restaurant, China Star, in Fairfax, Virginia. To avoid Chinese bureaucrats and U.S. immigration officials, he worked under a pseudonym, "Mr. Liu." The restaurant had a typical menu of American Chinese cuisine, but there was also a Chinese language menu with more sophisticated Sichuan cuisine.[1][2][3]
Chang was discovered by users on the DC-area food website DonRockwell.com and by Washington City Paper food critic Todd Kliman, and the increasing publicity led Chang to leave China Star for TemptAsian in Alexandria, Virginia. After a review was published in the City Paper in 2005,[5] Chang left TemptAsian for a new restaurant in Fairfax called Szechuan Boy. Kliman wrote a review of the new restaurant in Washingtonian magazine,[6] which prompted Chang to leave Virginia altogether.[1][2][3]
In September 2006, users on Chowhound found Chang working at Tasty China in Marietta, Georgia.[7][8] The chef was gone by the spring of 2007, but in June 2008 he was found working at Hong Kong House in Knoxville, Tennessee. In the fall of 2009, Chang moved to Taste of China in Charlottesville, Virginia, which quickly became a popular destination, with lines extending out the door.[1][2][3][9][10]
The March 2010 issue of The New Yorker featured an article by Calvin Trillin entitled "Where's Chang?", chronicling the chef's movements, Kliman's reviews, and interviewing John Binkley, a retired Washington economist who had eaten at each of Chang's restaurants and become friends with the Chang family.[1] The article brought national recognition to Chang and Taste of China; and by the end of the month he had left the restaurant, citing differences with the owner.[10][2]
Chang was seen at Tasty China in Georgia in late March 2010, and that December he opened Peter Chang's Tasty China II in Sandy Springs, in northwest Atlanta.[11][12]