Recipes Remastered
Nothing greasy, fresh ingredients and layers of flavor –– this is modern Chinese food.
Ching's Web-Only Guide to Chinese Cooking
No chef deserves to be in the kitchen of a Chinese restaurant without knowing these terms.
Chinese Kitchen Weapons
When it comes to Chinese cooking, you need some good essential tools.
Episodes
See Episode GuideKorea House
Ching is heading to Silicon Valley to help a restaurant owner keep her establishment afloat. Hye Kim is the owner of Korea House, a restaurant specializing in a Korean all-you-can-eat buffet. With big IT companies and college campuses nearby it should be filled to the rafters with hungry office workers but it's failing to attract customers. With high food costs the buffets are expensive to maintain and Hye is hemorrhaging money. She's also borrowed thousands from her family and friends who are bankrolling her restaurant. Hye has little previous restaurant experience, finds it hard to be authoritative without shouting and as a result struggles to earn the respect of her staff. With bankruptcy looming, can Ching help this failing restaurant before it's forced to shutter?
Joey Thai
Ching's dishing out culinary therapy at a Thai restaurant in New Jersey. After their first restaurant in Manhattan failed, ex-husband and wife team Joey and Jumi had hoped for better luck opening a business in Montclair. Sadly after only a year they've found themselves struggling to make more than $100 a day. Now the stresses of operating a failing restaurant are taking their toll. To save money Jumi has a full time day job and rushes to the restaurant at night to make deliveries. Joey runs the business like a dictatorship doing everything from cooking to serving, with a temper so unpredictable that no one wants to work with him. With such stressed out owners at the helm, can Ching turn this restaurant around? Or is a change of ownership what is really needed?
Fusion Fire
Ching-He Huang's next restaurant seems like a lost cause from the get go, with no signage and difficult to find with GPS. Frank and Vivian Dominick gave up their careers to run Fusion Fire. Several years ago Frank's head sushi chef quit, taking three other staff employees with him. Frank immediately jumped into the role of head chef and added to their menu, but more choices has meant more confusion and fewer customers.
Assembly
With their profit margins in the red, Assembly Steakhouse had to lay off 90% of their staff. Now, owner Jack Koumbis is pushing his three children to help him run the business. But, his leadership techniques are questionable, and temperatures are flaring at home and in the kitchen. So, it's up to Ching-He Huang to help this family stick together, while updating their restaurant, before everything goes up in flames.
Satay
Ching-He Huang takes off for Austin to revive a 26-year-old Thai restaurant that is stuck in the 1980s. With tired Thai cuisine on the menu, Ching must convince stubborn owner Foo that updating her food won't drive away customers but give the restaurant a whole new life.
Red Panda Asian Bistro
Ching-He Huang brings her culinary magic to a restaurant in Queens, N.Y., that's on the verge of extinction. Roger, Sam and Paulina opened Red Panda a year ago and have tried everything to attract customers to their restaurant. After failing to wow with their food they've hosted weekend entertainment including magic shows and karaoke to draw in the crowds, all to no avail.
JC Chinese Restaurant
Ching-He Huang's on her way to Southern Philadelphia to help Joe and Renae DeCristo. These Italian American siblings are the owner and manager of JC Chinese restaurant, a business opened by their late father in the 1950s. Like the decor, Joe and Renae's food is stuck in a time warp and their customers have stopped coming. To save their business Ching needs them to modernize their dated decor and their menu but she is met with resistance at every turn from Joe.
Chal Chilli
Ching-He Huang's hailing a yellow taxi, headed to New York's Murray Hill -- or Curry Hill as it's affectionately known. She's tasked with helping to save a Pakistani mother and daughter's failing restaurant. It was mom Alia's dream to open up her Indian Thai fusion restaurant one year ago, but the restaurant is not attracting customers and has terrible online reviews. Ching has to convince Alia and daughter Ayesha that the only way to increase business is to completely overhaul their take out business.
Shiki Wok
In Bloomfield, N.J., Ching-He Huang faces one of her toughest challenges yet at a traditional Chinese restaurant that hasn't been touched in over 20 years. Ching helps owner Ming bring his old and tired dishes from outdated to modern Chinese American with a twist.
Golden China
Ching's heading east, to a struggling restaurant in Canton, Massachusetts. Golden China's been in the Chen family since the 1970s, and since then neither menu nor decor have changed. Once Golden China was considered Canton's answer to Boston's "Cheers" bar, a popular Chinese sports-bar themed restaurant. Now it's hit hard times and the bar can no longer turn a profit. Will Ching be able to help the Chen family continue their legacy? Or will their restaurant remain empty despite Ching's best attempts to drag their dated Americanized Chinese menu and décor into the 21st century?
Naked Chorizo
Food trucks are the latest foodie fad, a whopping $800 million industry in the US. But one truck in San Francisco is suffering from an identity crisis and has called in Ching to help. Zenia Llamas was inspired to make her own "naked chorizo" - the spicy Spanish sausage served without the usual casing. A food truck showcasing Zenia's chorizo-based Spanish-Filipino dishes was the logical next step. But that's when things started to veer off course. Customers, confused by the name and branding, assume that Naked Chorizo is a Mexican food truck. Their reluctance to try the fusion fare has resulted in the food truck's profits coming to a skidding halt. Zenia, however is a strong-minded firebrand who refuses to change the name of her business. Can Ching put this food truck back on the right track or will she be on a collision course with Zenia from the start?
Assembly
With their profit margins in the red, Assembly Steakhouse had to lay off 90% of their staff. Now, owner Jack Koumbis is pushing his three children to help him run the business. But, his leadership techniques are questionable, and temperatures are flaring at home and in the kitchen. So, it's up to Ching-He Huang to help this family stick together, while updating their restaurant, before everything goes up in flames.
Thai Rock
Ching's heading to iconic Rockaway Beach in New York to help a waterfront restaurant that's already survived despite the odds. Two years ago, ex-Wall Street worker Robert and his Thai wife Metta's beachfront restaurant Thai Rock was decimated by Hurricane Sandy. The clean up operation left them with debts totaling $1.5 million. Before Sandy hit, Robert had sunk everything he owned into Thai Rock. He's invested his life savings - not once but twice, into fixing up this restaurant. Two years on and the surrounding neighborhood hasn't fully recovered from the devastation. With people still struggling to cover the cost of home restoration, paying to eat out is considered a luxury not many can afford. Helping a struggling restaurant survive within the recovering Rockaway community sounds like mission impossible. Has Ching finally bitten off more than she can chew?
Shogun Palace
Shogun Palace in Flushing, N.Y., boasts a whopping 23,000 square foot dining room and banquet hall, all of it empty. To save the business, owner David Wong and Chef William Chen enlist Ching-He Huang's help to transform their over-the-top banquet style menu to modern Japanese. In the process, David and William bid farewell to some seriously fishy decor in the dining room.
Crimson
In Dallas, Ching-He Huang arrives to help two former best friends, Selena and Hanna, mend their friendship and their failing business. After a falling out led these two friends of 20 years to stop talking and stop making a profit, Ching shows them how to fix their Vietnamese cuisine while hashing out their personal issues in the process.
Kirakuya Sake
New York City's Koreatown is the location for Ching-He Huang's next struggling restaurant. Run by fun-loving owner May, Kirakuya Sake used to be the place to drink and party for NYC's Korean and Japanese communities. Business has declined as fewer customers come in to eat, drink or socialize with May. Is it too late for Ching to rein in May's party-girl ways and get her more focused on her food than on having fun?
Thai Rock
Ching's heading to iconic Rockaway Beach in New York to help a waterfront restaurant that's already survived despite the odds. Two years ago, ex-Wall Street worker Robert and his Thai wife Metta's beachfront restaurant Thai Rock was decimated by Hurricane Sandy. The clean up operation left them with debts totaling $1.5 million. Before Sandy hit, Robert had sunk everything he owned into Thai Rock. He's invested his life savings - not once but twice, into fixing up this restaurant. Two years on and the surrounding neighborhood hasn't fully recovered from the devastation. With people still struggling to cover the cost of home restoration, paying to eat out is considered a luxury not many can afford. Helping a struggling restaurant survive within the recovering Rockaway community sounds like mission impossible. Has Ching finally bitten off more than she can chew?
Tenshi Sushi
Ching-He Huang travels to Houston to help battling siblings Nina and Ung get their fledgling Sushi restaurant back on track. Instead of fighting against their Laotian roots -- and each other -- Ching shows them how to bring their heritage to the forefront and create a successful spin on traditional Southeast Asian cuisine.
Web Exclusives
How to Cook Rice
Would you believe some Chinese chefs can't even cook rice properly? Ching's rules will help you cook it perfectly every time.
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