(light-hearted music) (person speaking indistinctly) (light-hearted music continues) (quirky music) (mechanical parts creaking) (quirky music continues) (dissonant music) (food sizzling) - I don't ever like look at failure as like a, it's such a blanket term, like failure, there's all this negativity associated with failure.

But I think that like, for me, I'd rather like live my life taking risks than to play it safe and look back five or 10 years from now and be like, "What if I did this?

What would've happened?

What could have happened?"

(upbeat music) When I moved to New York to open Mission Chinese on Orchard Street, there was a lot of uncertainty, there was a lot of excitement, and there was a lot of fear.

I've never built anything in my life.

(machines tapping) It opens finally, and from day one, it's insane.

The reviews started coming.

Timeout magazine on table one, Rubber Sheets on table three, two people from Eater on table seven.

This would be every night.

At the time, I was very dismissive of it, and if anyone interviewed me, I'm like, "Oh yeah, man, we're like super lucky, whatever."

It was like, no, we were good, we were crushing it, and it was the best restaurant because it wasn't like anything else.

I was still scared.

(off-putting music) We had white heat and I didn't know how to handle it.

(animation whooshing) Fast forward two years later of this restaurant being open, all but three hours a day, run by kids that are partying, health department comes through.

I was in California doing a James Beard dinner.

I got a call, my manager was like, "Hey the restaurant got shut down by the health department."

I remember laying in my bed and just staring at the ceiling, like I don't know what to do.

I get another phone call and it's Rene Redzepi from Noma, and he's like, "They're coming for you.

Are you ready for what's gonna happen?

(glass shattering) Everyone smells blood, they're gonna want to tear you to pieces, and you have to be sharp, you have to be ready."

(slow music) We plugged as many holes as we could.

We painted, we did everything we could, but it was an uncontrollable problem.

A few days later, the health department comes back in, (thunder cracking) shuts us down again.

I remember begging the health inspector, "Are you positive?

Because that's it for me, I'm never gonna be able to cook again."

And the guy's like, "I don't know what to tell you, dude."

And we closed.

I was really ashamed of myself, and I put it all on myself for a long time.

I really didn't blame anybody else.

Really shortly after that, I stopped drinking, and we had our son, and when we opened up Mission Chinese the second time, in Chinatown, it was like, I have to be all in and give it the attention it deserves.

And that's why Mission Chinese now is so successful, is because everything that we have, we've worked really hard for.

Nothing was handed to us.

Success doesn't define you.

How do you handle failure?

That's what defines you.

(birds chirping) This is a dish that kind of made me really love Sichuan food and the idea of cooking Sichuan food.

But I really think that it's at a point now where we're not gonna change it.

(booming music) - The first iteration of this recipe that I saw, back in San Francisco, was insane.

It had 25 ingredients in it.

When we opened up the New York location together, first thing right away was trying to simplify it in a way that you were happy with.

And so I simplified it and simplified it, and kept asking if it was okay for me to like basically mess around with his dish.

- Now it's like one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, 12 things in here now.

I look at this as a mark of success and also trust.

- I had never had Sichuan food before I started working for Danny.

- Oh really?

Never even at a Sichuan restaurant?

- I'd never had a Sichuan peppercorn.

I was just interested in getting weird and figuring out what Chinese food meant to you, creating dishes that complimented these intense flavors that honestly weren't my palette.

- We're gonna poach the tofu.

When you silken tofu, if you cook it in salted water quickly, it kind of seals up.

The fact that I would make it so difficult on myself, on Angela, about something that's just like, it should be a conversation.

We should always be asking, "Can we make it better?"

Better, oftentimes, is more simple.

The tofu is blanched now.

Aged beef fat goes into the pan and starts rendering.

It kind of smells like Peter Luger Steak House in here now, which is great.

A teaspoon of Sichuan peppercorn, and then some of the doubanjiang, Sichuan peppercorn oil, a little bit of chili oil.

We need a lot of fat.

How much of this should we add?

It's really challenging finding balance with something that's this spicy and numbing.

And then we'll add some mushroom powder and a little bit of sugar, nice little spoon of fermented black bean sauce that we make with scallions and ginger.

The first bite you should have should be like porky umami.

And then you should get the spicy, tingly.

Salt and sugar should kinda come towards the end.

You don't wanna taste it and be like, "Oh, this just tastes salty."

I hope that this tastes okay, we didn't taste it once.

- Danny, I think visually, like if you've met him through the years, he looks very different.

And I think, somehow, this is a representation of that.

But we've stuck with this.

There's something comforting for him about that.

When I first met Danny, he said that we would be attached at the hip, and I did not know what that meant.

And pretty much instantly I knew what that meant.

But I think there was a turning point in our working relationship where I had to say that you had to view us as different people.

If we're working independently towards bettering ourselves, that's gonna be better than thinking that we're the same sides of one brain.

- That's even more helpful.

- Yeah, I think it had to get to a point where I'm working for you, and it's a yes-chef mentality, but breaking away from that has been really instrumental to our successes, for myself, and then in your own way as well.

- [Danny] So this is all ready, we like to sprinkle, like I've been really into green Sichuan peppercorn lately, even though that is an alteration.

- Yeah, that's okay.

- To the last one.

But like the green Sichuan peppercorn's a lot more floral and fruity.

And then I just like them with these daisies on here.

- [Angela] I think it looks good, I think it looks strong.

(thrumming music) (thrumming music continues) - Peter Chang came to my attention with a lot of mythology tied to him.

It was in this realm of, if you haven't had Peter Chang yet, you haven't had authentic Sichuan cooking.

(rock music) Peter Chang cooked at very high-end restaurants in Beijing.

He was on TV.

He was as close to a celebrity as a chef could be in China.

(audience applauds) His odyssey in the United States starts at the Chinese embassy in Washington D.C.

He was hired to be the embassy chef, so he cooks daily for the ambassador.

One morning he made breakfast for the ambassador, and he and his family saw this was their moment, and they just fled.

They didn't even know where they were gonna go, they just left.

He had no paperwork, he had no work visas.

So he teams up with this guy and starts China Star in Fairfax, doesn't have a good relationship with the owner, packs up and leaves.

Goes then to a restaurant called Tempt Asia, then goes to another Fairfax restaurant, China Gourmet/Sichuan Boy.

From there he had a brief stop in Knoxville, Tennessee.

And then he came back to Charlottesville, Virginia for a place called Taste of China, this whole time, people, the Changians, and the food critics were chasing him.

There was a couple of boards in particular where the speculation would start.

One of them would spot Peter Chang in the kitchen and go, "Okay, we found him."

The next thing you know, there would be a group of 20 people having a celebratory dinner because they found Peter Chang again.

He wouldn't stay very long at these restaurants before he would flee.

He had this tough go because he had to conceal his identity.

Conversely, he was on the other end thinking, yes, this is great, I'm getting a reputation, (crowd cheering) I'm getting established.

People know that my food is good.

And what no one knew, until recently, was that he wanted to create a lot of restaurants so that he could show Americans what his native cuisine is like.

I can't imagine he could have envisioned an end game like we have now.

(uncomfortable music) (knife chopping) (Peter speaking in foreign language) (Fuchsia speaking in foreign language) (Peter speaking in foreign language) - And are you at the place now where you can just make whatever you want?

(Peter speaking in foreign language) - That's your story, the ever-so-elusive Peter Chang.

(Peter speaking in foreign language) (Peter continues speaking in foreign language) - I personally love chicken breast.

I grew up eating chicken breast that's like, we didn't really eat a lot of dark meat.

For a while, it was like not cool to like chicken breast.

I think there's something so magical about chicken breast that's cooked perfectly.

- I think it's just typical of Chinese cooking.

So you always suit the cooking method to the ingredient.

So chicken breast, like if you overcook it, it becomes very wooly and leathery.

And so it's really well suited to stir frying, so you keep the kind of tenderness.

- Yeah, I mean there's so many amazing things about Fuchsia Dunlop.

I know her because I'm a fan, and I've always used her books as a resource.

She just has so much knowledge.

(Peter speaking in foreign language) (Peter continues speaking in foreign language) - [Fuchsia] So you can see that the water is now not flowing away from the chicken.

It's with the chicken now.

- [Danny] That's interesting.

I've never seen that technique before.

(Fuchsia speaking in foreign language) (Peter speaking in foreign language) - [Fuchsia] So it's all melted together.

When you stir a bit of oil into meat like this, it separates better in the oil.

- Ah, okay, that makes sense, so it doesn't clump up.

(Peter speaking in foreign language) (food sizzling) (Fuchsia speaking in foreign language) (Peter speaking in foreign language) - With chicken, if you don't season the surface well, it's just going to stick like crazy.

(Peter speaking in foreign language) - [Fuchsia] Onion, quite a lot of chilies.

(laughs) - There's a few, few chili peppers.

(Peter speaking in foreign language) - [Fuchsia] A little bit of whole Sichuan pepper.

(Fuchsia speaking in foreign language) (Peter speaking in foreign language) - [Fuchsia] Ground, roasted Sichuan pepper, three kinds of Sichuan pepper.

(Peter speaking in foreign language) - And you're gonna see how tender the chicken meat is in there.

It's got a lot of spring to it.

(cooking utensils clanging) (food sizzling) (Peter speaking in foreign language) (understated music) (Peter speaking in foreign language) - Wow, that looks amazing.

Oh man, it smells so good.

Let's try it.

I've been eyeing this piece here on the edge the entire time.

(Fuchsia speaking in foreign language) (Peter speaking in foreign language) - Might be some of the softest chicken breast I've ever eaten in my life, it's so good.

The balance though too.

I mean, you're adding four types of chili pepper, three types of Sichuan pepper.

It's like to, this is not that spicy.

It's spicy, but it's not hot.

And I think whenever you see all these things going in, I think that you would perceive it as a different thing.

(Fuchsia speaking in foreign language) (Peter speaking in foreign language) - It's what they call it's not just la hot, it's siang-la, fragrant and hot.

- To me, this is the addictive flavor of Sichuan food.

(conflicting music) (child crying) (conflicting music continues) (person speaking indistinctly) When I had mapo tofu the first time, it was a moment that everything changed for me.

I was like a very jaded line cook that also thought they knew everything about everything.

And then I had this and I was like, I have no idea what just happened to me, and it changed my perspective.

And I feel like that's why it's so important for me to show this dish.

- But we're going back to the roots of the dish, which is beef.

- The OG is like the beef.

(Peter speaking in foreign language) (Peter continues speaking in foreign language) - And if you add a bit of salt, it makes it easier for the tofu to absorb the flavors.

- You like it soft though, or do you like it more?

(Fuchsia speaking in foreign language) (Peter speaking in foreign language) - [Fuchsia] He likes the really tender tofu.

(Peter speaking in foreign language) - Yeah, yeah, so again, he's seasoning the wok so that he gets a nice slippery surface.

(food sizzling) And then adds the beef.

- So it's just like if you're making like a ragu, or a bolognese, you're searing the meat first, and then you'll flavor it.

- And also, if you don't cook out the water, then you don't fry the other ingredients.

- [Danny] I see.

(Peter speaking in foreign language) - [Fuchsia] Chili and fava bean sauce, pixian chili bean paste, and the fermented black beans, which have been used in Chinese cookery for more than 2000 years.

- Wow.

- It's traditionally very oily, but he doesn't put too much oil in the beginning, as you saw, he prefers to add the oil later.

The Sichuanese chefs call this (speaking in foreign language) home style flavor, when you have all these wonderful beany fermented sauces.

- [Danny] So he's just really kind of like frying it so it gets aromatic, but not really burning at all.

- [Peter] Water.

(Peter speaking in foreign language) (Fuchsia speaking in foreign language) (Peter speaking in foreign language) - [Fuchsia] So now he's putting some more oil in.

(Peter speaking in foreign language) - So it gets this wonderful ruby red color, and the ground roasted Sichuan pepper.

- I'm so excited, man.

(dishes clinking) - [Fuchsia] And finally the scallions.

(Peter speaking in foreign language) (Peter continues speaking in foreign language) - Yeah, well the customer's not always right, you know.

But what's crazy is it's not that much meat, it's the sum of its parts.

- So when people are trying to eat less meat for environmental and health reasons, China has so many solutions, 'cause you can just reduce the meat you eat and you still get all the flavor.

- Right, right.

(Peter speaking in foreign language) - [Fuchsia] You don't need to tinker around with it too much.

(light-hearted music) (wheel spinning) - Whenever I would go to restaurants as a kid, my dad would order a steak, well done.

And even in Oklahoma, there was one restaurant I remember we went to, and they're like, "No, they won't cook it well done."

I remember back then, I was like, "That doesn't make sense."

But I caught myself kind of going through the same dilemma as a chef, kind of being like, if you don't have it the way I want you to have it, then you can't have it at all.

(upbeat music) In San Francisco, we had this idea of making dumplings.

I wanted to make them myself, and make every dumpling to order, because I felt like I had something to prove.

And what happened was after day three of making about 1,000 to 1,500 dumplings a night, I got to the point where I was like, "This is stupid.

I should probably rethink this whole idea."

So this is the dough I would make.

I use a double zero flour.

It's a more finely-milled Italian flour, I use a lot for pizza and pasta.

I just like the texture.

And then to that, it's grated cheese.

You will see little tiny flecks of Parmesan cheese, but I think it tastes really good.

So the cheese is the salt.

And then instead of adding water or eggs, I'll just add a little bit of white wine.

Bringing it all together, it should look kinda like a pie dough.

It should be kind of mealy and lumpy.

The dough is pretty much there.

You kinda wanna work it on top of itself and just knead it.

It shouldn't feel tacky.

It should kind of feel like pizza dough.

I moved to New York, and we were opening Mission Chinese.

Every night we would run out, and people would get extremely angry because we'd be out of dumplings.

So I figured, well, other restaurants do amuse-bouches, so why don't we do an amuse?

Let's just send like a nice little gift to the table.

And I was like, "Why don't we send dumplings?"

And I'll actually let this rest more while I make the filling.

So the filling, like we're thinking about how do we give away 400 dumplings a night for free, and not have anybody complain or send it back.

Not everyone eats meat, so we couldn't do a pork or a lamb dumpling.

Plus it wasn't really cost effective.

So we wanted to make it vegetarian.

Let's do a turmeric tapioca dumpling.

I wanted to have like a little bit more structure, so I did actually ended up adding scrambled eggs.

The thing that I think makes it for me is there's a bunch of cilantro in it.

We can assemble now.

I like to cut little pieces out.

Let's kind roll it out a little bit.

(high energy music) What you wanna see is this, you basically wanna flatten it out.

You want the belly of the dumpling to be thicker than the outside.

My number one mistake when rolling these things out, the middle of it would actually be very thin, then I would fold the dumpling and it would tear.

So if you do it by machine, that's different.

Not that it's bad, it's just different.

There's something about getting a skin that's been rolled by hand, and just also this dough specifically, it's not like a store-bought wonton, it's just so much different.

And then we'll take a little bit of egg wash and then go around the outside.

(high energy music continues) We're gonna put this in the pan first.

This is a slurry, oil, water, and flour.

Put these guys down just like that.

And then I'm gonna add a little bit of water now.

So this is gonna boil in here, and then it's gonna reduce, and then all the water's gonna cook off, and the dumplings will be done and the bottom will be crispy, is the idea.

Dumplings are always best when they're served with a little bit of acid of some sort.

So I like to take a little bit of homemade pepper jelly.

And growing up in Oklahoma, I had a lot of pepper jelly.

That was one of the things I really loved.

(food sizzling) (dishes clattering) I think failure always leads to some sort of like evolution or progression.

The first failure with this was the fact that I just wanted to be a hot shot and try to make dumplings for everybody every night.

It was fun, I mean, but like who am I bragging to?

No one cared, like I wasn't like impressing anybody, and no one, none of the cooks were going home or going to the bar after work and being like, "Damn, Danny's like an amazing guy.

He's an amazing cook.

He just knocked out 1,500 dumplings in four hours."

It's like no one cared.

So I got to the point where I was like, "Why do I care so much about this?"

I mean, if you're not happy, you're not gonna make delicious food.

(diners chattering) (diners continue chattering) (minor key music) Failure is an opportunity.

It's not such an unpleasant thing, once you think about it, because you get stronger from failure.

You learn from your mistakes.

You don't get stronger from everyone telling you how great you are all the time.

It's all about not being so scared of what's going to happen when you make mistakes.

That's the secret to success, I think.

To really appreciate success, you have to really appreciate failure.

(animation whooshing) (quirky music) (quirky music continues) (quirky music continues) (soft music box music) (graphics clicking)