Lisa, Peter and Lydia Chang at their new restaurant. Photo by Michael Ventura
Though Chang is known for Sichuan cooking, he is from east of that province. He was born in 1963 in the small village of Siwang in Hubei province in east-central China. His father was a Chinese medicine doctor, an herbalist, who traveled on foot from village to village to treat patients, so he was rarely home. His mother worked the land. Peter was the oldest of three siblings.
“Growing up in that era, they were always hungry,” says Lydia, relaying the story her father is telling. “There was never enough food. Each household had to grow a certain amount of food and turn it over to the government in exchange for food stamps. My grandfather didn’t want his kids to be farmers, so he made them study. My grandmother did all the hard work, growing the crops, feeding the family. It fell to my father as the oldest child to take care of the younger siblings because his father was never home, so there was this strong bond between his mother and him, especially in the preparation of the food.”
For as long as he can remember, Chang says, his priority was to study hard so he could leave the village. It was the only way out.
For college entrance exams in China at the time, high school students had to estimate how well they thought they would do and apply to schools they thought they could get into. If they estimated too high, they’d have to wait a year to apply again. Chang underestimated his scores and wound up as a culinary major at what is now known as Wuhan Business College.
Cooking was not a revered profession in China, and Chang’s heart wasn’t in it at first. During the three-year curriculum (1981-1984) under the tutelage of master chef Zhiyuan Wang, Chang learned all about Chinese culinary history, the theory of regional Chinese cuisine, ingredients and cost analyses, restaurant service, cooking methodology and cutting skills. He practiced cutting on rolled-up newspapers, the only resource available to him that didn’t cost anything and didn’t waste food.
Chang graduated at the top of his class. The Hubei tourist bureau recruited the top students, and he nabbed a job working on a Yangtze River cruise ship, starting out as a prep cook and working under Hubei master chefs. It was during this 14-year stint on the ship that Chang was exposed to Sichuan cooking and became proficient at it. He also wrote articles on subjects like food history and technique; not for the money, he says, but to motivate him to stay on top of what was going on in the industry, and to share his knowledge.
Another one of his bosses on the ship was Hongying Zhang, now known as Lisa Chang, Peter’s wife.
“I had to train him,” Lisa remembers. “He had to bow to me. He was my apprentice, in charge of doing employee meals. But we wound up becoming a team.” Peter encouraged Lisa to pursue certification as a pastry chef, which she previously lacked the confidence to do. After she earned her certification, she was ranked among the top 10 pastry chefs in Hubei province and took second place in Hubei’s pastry competition, an unusual feat for anyone, but particularly for a woman at that time.
Peter and Lisa married in 1987 (the government had approved the paperwork the year before), and Lydia was born a year later.
