A 21-Year-Old Chef Runs This Mobile Temple to Chinese BBQ

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Food

A 21-Year-Old Chef Runs This Mobile Temple to Chinese BBQ

Luther Bob Chen opened his food truck at 21 years old for one reason only: to showcase the intensely spiced flavors of Chinese skewers grilled over an open fire.
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All photos by Javier Cabral

At 20 years old, Luther Bob Chen was already bored of working for other chefs.

After dropping out of the Culinary Institute of America and staging at Benu in San Francisco and the five-star Georgian Room in Sea Island, Georgia, Chen knew very well what opening and running a restaurant meant: dealing with investors, worrying about payroll for employees, and not having 100-percent control of his menu.

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These issues made him wary enough about the whole process to rethink his career path.

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Chen and his food truck

So Chen took off to China and Taiwan, where his parents are from. As he devoured skewer after skewer of grilled meat in the streets of Changsha, Xiamen, and Wuhan, the idea hit him: refined Chinese street food. Fast-forward a year, and he is now helming a mobile temple to Chinese barbecue called Shao Kao BBQ.

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Grilled eggplant Fried lotus root stuffed with ground pork

On a recent Friday afternoon during lunch service, Chen and his crew (consisting of another CIA alumnus and a childhood friend) are busy at work, inserting thermometers into each meat skewer and brushing them with a garlic-infused oil. "I sous-vide the pork belly in 14 different Chinese spices for 48 hours before they go on the grill," Chen tells me as the line outside of customers gets longer by the minute. He has a different spice blend—each one made up of more than 20 spices—for pork, beef, chicken, seafood, and vegetables.

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Grilled oysters

"My goal as a chef is to elevate and bring forth Chinese street cuisine to the Western world in a very approachable and familiar way. It's a proven concept in China, yet no one has capitalized on this in the US," Chen says. As he speaks, he quickly shucks a live diver scallop, which he then grills and tops with yuzu hollandaise and yuzu kosho. "I can get ridiculously obsessed with the quality of my ingredients and with the boldness of my seasonings," he adds, sprinkling a thick layer of roughly ground powder on a butterflied chicken wing on a stick.

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It turns out that Chen's obsession with high-quality (read: pricey) ingredients is the main reason why he chose the food truck route instead of opening up a brick-and-mortar establishment. "It is low-risk, manageable, and cheaper than opening up a restaurant. You also have the opportunity to own 100 percent of your business," he explains to me as the line of customers starts to die down. "A lot of the kitchens I've experienced have such a grueling, unforgiving, and scarring environment. It drives a lot of people [who are] passionate about food out of the professional world. I didn't want to work in those kinds of kitchens, but I still wanted to be a chef, so I did it my own way."

Chen's parents, who are both doctors, were supportive of his passion from the get-go. "My parents told me that whatever I do, just do it really well. They supported me since I was a teenager." They sent him off the CIA and helped him with the cost of his food truck.

The money Chen saved from leaving the CIA early was allocated into the truck and has allowed him to splurge on other items such as beautiful Japanese sakura (Japanese cherry blossom wood) that goes for $13 a pound. According to Chen, this type of wood "imparts a slightly nutty, smoky flavor." This attention to small details gives Chen's food an unforgettable character.

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Grilled scallop with foraged greens

Though he's only been in business for three months, Chen is learning the basic ins and outs of operating his own business by consulting both the internet and other professionals, and every day is still a learning experience. When asked about what the future holds, Chen responds: "My plans for the future are uncertain, but what I do know is that my goal is to celebrate, elevate, and proudly allow my ethnicity to speak in the food I make."

Based on the happy customers—a few who are already regulars—I am sure Chen's journey is just beginning.