R.I.P. Charles Phan

Friday, January 24, 2025


By Ed Anderson - https://sobewff.org/personality/charles-phan/, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=115860405

From the wikis:

Charles Phan ( Toàn Phan; July 30, 1962 – January 20, 2025) was a Vietnamese-born American chef, cookbook author, and restaurateur. He was the executive chef and founder of "The Slanted Door" restaurant in San Francisco, California and The Slanted Door Group of restaurants. He published two cookbooks about Vietnamese cuisine.

Phan grew up in Da LatSouth Vietnam (now Vietnam) after his parents fled China in the 1960s.[1] His surname is of Vietnamese origin and pronounced “fän”. His given name is Toàn but that later changed to Charles when he came to the U.S.[2] In Vietnam, his father, Quyen Phan, and uncle opened a small grocery store where Phan and his five siblings helped with the family business. This would eventually become the inspiration for his San Francisco restaurant, Wo Hing General Store (2011–2013).[3]

In April 1975, just before Saigon fell to the Vietcong, 13 year old Phan and his family of 8 fled with 400 other people aboard a cargo ship. The ship eventually arrived to Guam where they lived for 18 months.[4] There, Phan's family was sponsored by an American couple who supported them with housing. While helping his aunt to cook and watching Jacques Pépin's television show, Phan became interested in cooking.[5]

After living on Guam for 18 months, the family immigrated again and settled in San Francisco, California.[4][6] He was raised in the Chinatown neighborhood and attended Mission High School, graduating in 1982. He was admitted to the University of California, Berkeley’s Department of Architecture but dropped out his third year to protest a steep tuition increase.[2] After leaving college early, Phan worked in software sales and other various jobs while he was developing the concept for his first restaurant, The Slanted Door.[2]

I particularly liked this from the NY Times article:

Mr. Phan made it his mission to spread some kindness in an industry that didn’t always offer him any.

“I have been stepped on and humiliated so badly that I once punched in the locker door,” he told The San Jose Mercury News in 2003. “I don’t condone the behavior of yelling chefs who don’t respect people. That cycle has to be stopped. People can’t be mistreated. That’s what makes food taste bad.”