Gourmet chef looks to satisfy Chinese cultural taste
in Evanston
Students who take weekend excursions
to Chicago for authentic Chinese cuisine need look no further than
Northwestern’s doorstep when Lao Sze Chuan opens this summer.
Owner and chef Tony Hu said he had
meant to open the restaurant’s downtown Evanston location 10 years ago, but the
plan has only materialized recently. The restaurant, which will open at 1637
Orrington Ave. in August, will add authenticity to a Chinese restaurant culture
in America that has been Americanized, Hu said.
“Most of the (customers) are from
Asia and a lot of (local) people fall in love with us,” Hu said. “I think in
Evanston there is a lot of demand for authentic cuisine.”
The Evanston opening will add to
Hu’s 11 restaurants that make up the Tony Gourmet Group, some of which are in
Chicago. Another Lao Sze Chuan restaurant will open in Schaumburg
Since Hu graduated from the Sichuan
Culinary Institute and moved from China to Chicago, he has spiced up taste
for Chinese cuisine within the local communities on campus and around Chicago.
Chelsea Yang, former president of the Chinese International Student
Association, said Hu donated food in January to the club’s first cultural
night, which was open to all NU students.
Chinese students at NU love Hu's
restaurants partly because of the diversity of food offered.
“(Tony uses) Chinese cuisine as an
agent of connection to authentic Asian culture,” Yang said. “We are so overwhelmed
with academics and culture conflicts … having Chinese food is such an emotional
relief on the weekends.”
Yang said many students take weekend
trips to the restaurant’s Chinatown location to taste dishes including orange
beef tenderloin, spicy hot pot and boiled beef in spicy Sichuan sauce.
Hu was a bit of a celebrity in his
hometown at Sichuan, said Kellogg student Tony Zhang, who said he heard about
Hu while growing up in the province. Hu, Zhang said, was a Chinese cuisine
pioneer, bringing Sichuan food to Chicago in 1998 when Chicago’s Chinese
restaurant scene was predominantly Cantonese.
Yang said she thinks Lao Sze Chuan
will introduce authentic Chinese cuisine to Evanston, which is home to Asian
restaurants including Joy Yee's, Phoenix Inn and Lulu's.
“For actual Chinese people, these
kind of fusion restaurants just don’t have authentic flavor of Chinese
cuisine,” Yang said.
Hu and three restaurant managers
attended the Greater China Business Conference organized Kellogg on
Saturday, Zhang said. Hu has also catered for business school workshops in
January , Zhang said.
Lao Sze Chuan looks to be a popular
choice among NU students because it serves not only Sichuan food, but also
other regional cuisine from Shanghai and Guangdong provinces.
“Evanston has a lot of people who
are into Chinese food,” Zhang said. “I think that’s why he had a great
opening.”
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