The maverick chef

When UNESCO declared Chengdu a city of gastronomy in 2011, the capital of Sichuan province became the first Asian city to ever be awarded that culinary honour. As an ambassador of this culinary tradition, Yu Bo, chef-proprietor of Yu Jia Chu Fang (Yu’s Family Kitchen) felt an immense pressure to do his native cuisine due justice. And when Fuschia Dunlop, one of Britain’s foremost experts on Chinese cuisine and culture, named him ‘one of the most brilliant chefs in China’, the stress surmounted.

Not that the 47-year-old minds being kept on his toes. “It’s allowed me to constantly rethink and evaluate what I can bring to the table,” he tells epicure over a phone interview, affirming what Yu has always been known for: changing the face of Sichuan’s cuisine, and turning it into more than just the lip-tingling signatures the province is famed for. At his understated restaurant housed in a central courtyard on Kuanzhai Lane, his reinterpretation of Chinese classics with a modern slant has propelled him to the top of the country’s culinary charts.

Only 12 tables at Yu Jian Chu Fang are available (six for lunch, six for dinner), and despite its tremendous success over the past five years, the restaurant has never expanded. Yu runs the place with his wife, Dai Shuang, and a lean team of cooks.

Excerpt from the August issue of epicure.