Proficiency in the preparation and presentation of cold plates, an essential beginning to formal meals in China, is a hallmark of that country’s best chefs. In 1993, Chang won the gold medal in cold dishes in a competition the foreign ministry in Beijing hosted every four years, considered the food equivalent of the Olympics in China. Entrants had to prepare 10 dishes (three cold meat dishes, three cold vegetable dishes, a soup, two pastry dishes and a dessert) in 10 hours for a table of 10 judges. One of the cold dishes had to be done as an art display. Chang’s display mimicked shan shui, a style of brush and ink landscape painting.
In 1997, Chang got a job as a chef at the Taiwan Hotel. His cooking prowess garnered attention during his three-year tenure, and a government official who dined regularly at the hotel encouraged Chang to apply to take the exam to become an embassy chef. Chang’s score qualified him for the most prestigious assignment: the embassy in Washington, D.C., which also recruited Lisa as a pastry chef. They arrived in 2001 for a two-year stint. Lydia stayed with her grandmother and joined them a year later. Just before their time at the embassy was up, the family casually went for a walk one morning and never returned, leaving behind their passports and most of their belongings. They wound up in Northern Virginia, and Peter started working at a restaurant called China Star in Fairfax.
Government officials would no doubt be unhappy, and they could make life difficult for their families in China. Chang and his wife had no papers to allow them to live or work in the U.S., so they’d always have to be looking over their shoulders. They also had no Social Security numbers. (In 2010, Peter and Lisa Chang went to Los Angeles to consult with experts about their legal status, Lydia says. Under the terms of a negotiated status, they can legally live and work in the United States, but if they leave the country, they can’t return. The couple’s business dealings must be in the name of business partners or Lydia, who obtained a green card in 2014 and can apply for U.S. citizenship in 2019, which she plans to do.)
But Peter and Lisa believed the benefits of leaving the embassy outweighed the risks. “They wanted me to have a better education and a better life,” says Lydia, who graduated from W.T. Woodson High School in Fairfax in 2006. She received an associate degree from Northern Virginia Community College in 2008, a bachelor’s degree in business management from Kingston University London in 2012 and a master’s degree in international business from King’s College London a year later. (The Chinese government issued Lydia travel documents that allowed her to return to China in 2008, where she applied for a Chinese passport and was granted one.)
“We saw opportunity,” adds her mother. “We were both trained chefs and there was no real Chinese food in the D.C. region. Only food in buffets and takeout. We saw a market for our food.”
In Q, the Changs also saw an opportunity to break Chinese cooking in America out of its strip mall confines and put it on the pedestal it deserved with uncompromised and authentic cooking. They came around to the idea of opening a flagship after hosting a series of dinners for friends and regular customers, all of whom raved about dishes such as beef tenderloin with jalapeño peppers, wood ear mushrooms, Chinese chives, steamed prawns with Thai red chilies and tofu, and crispy whole red snapper with sweet and sour sauce, a more refined version of a tilapia dish found at many Peter Chang locations.
And then it clicked for Chang. Making this move—going into a fancy 8,000-square-foot space, having a large and expensive cadre of managers and cooks, including chefs who are experts in Peking duck and dim sum preparation, investing in high-end equipment—was something he had to do all the way. In November, he and Lisa rented an apartment in Bethesda six blocks from Q.
“Maybe there are other Chinese chefs out there starting out like I did,” Chang says. “They just need to make a living. They don’t have the luxury to show Americans what real Chinese food is, so they have to make General Tso’s chicken. I’m finally in a position to do more, and if I don’t do it, no one else will.”
Sammi Li sees something else behind this commitment. “Peter spent so much of his life running and hiding and trying to find a safe place for his family. He always wanted a place to settle down. Q gives him that. He’s putting all he has into this place for that reason, and to show all that he has learned. This is the culmination of 30 years of experience.”
The new menu features 40 items, 25 of which he has never served to the public. Trademark dishes such as scallion bubble pancake, dry fried eggplant, crunchy cilantro fish rolls and cumin lamb chops remain, as do classics such as Chang’s superlative version of kung pao chicken, and his hot and numbing fish in clay pot with the telltale Sichuan “ma la” combination of Sichuan peppercorns and fiery dried tianjin chili peppers. A menu section titled “Ultimate Spicy Challenge” includes four- and five-pepper spicy dishes whose heat he will not adjust.
“Bringing Chinese fine dining into the United States is my mission,” Chang explains. “We are bringing up every level and spending a lot of money on it. If we didn’t do this, Americans would never understand our authentic cooking and all the skills and techniques it requires. That’s not fair to our cuisine and our chefs.”
Q, Chang has decided, will be his masterpiece. The question is, will Americans get it?
