One was working as an accredited C.P.A. Another had just completed the requirements for a pre-med degree at the University of Chicago. Yet another, a junior employee at Morgan Stanley, walked down 75 flights in the World Trade Center’s South Tower and back into the family food business on Sept. 11, 2001.

一位是获得资格认证的注册会计师。另一位刚完成芝加哥大学(University of Chicago)医学预科学位的要求。还有一位是摩根士丹利(Morgan Stanley)的初级职员——2001年9月11日那天，他在世贸中心(World Trade Center)南楼向下走了75段楼梯，回到自己的家族食品生意。

These New Yorkers — Thomas Chen, Jonathan Wu and Wilson Tang — are among a few dozen Chinese-Americans who have recently surfaced as influential chefs, determined to begin a new culinary conversation with the food of their ancestors. Independently, they arrived at the same goal: to invent a kind of Chinese-American food that is modern, creative and delicious instead of sweet, sticky and bland.

这三个纽约人分别是托马斯·陈(Thomas Chen)、乔纳森·吴(Jonathan Wu)和威尔逊·唐(Wilson Tang)，他们属于最近冒出来的几十位具有影响力的华裔美国大厨之列。他们下定决心与祖先的美食进行新的对话。他们各自独立实现了相同的目标：创造一种现代、有创意、美味的美式中餐，而不是甜、黏、乏味的食物。

But they took similar routes to get there. Despite their advanced academic degrees, these chefs started over as culinary students — usually against their families’ wishes.

不过，他们所走过的路却很相似。尽管他们都有很高的学位，但是这些大厨都重新开始学习烹饪——一般这都违背了家人的愿望。

“No Chinese parent sends their child off to college hoping they’ll work in a kitchen,” said Mr. Chen, 31, whose parents owned a restaurant in Mount Vernon, N.Y., while he was growing up. “That’s what you go to college to escape from.”

“没有哪个中国父母送孩子上大学是希望他们将来在厨房工作，”31岁的陈说。陈在纽约州芒特弗农市长大，他的父母在那里拥有一家餐馆。“上大学就是为了避免去厨房工作。”

They worked their way up in high-end global kitchens like Noma, Guy Savoy, Eleven Madison Park and Jean-Georges. And then, having defied their parents, they defied their culinary training as well. They left the luxurious places where they had mastered foie gras and morels to open storefront restaurants where they can mess around with pork belly and pomelo, steamed eggs and sawtooth herb.

他们曾在全球高端餐馆里步步进阶，比如诺马(Noma)、盖伊· 萨沃伊(Guy Savoy)、麦迪逊公园11号(Eleven Madison Park)和让-乔治(Jean-Georges)等餐厅。之后，他们不仅违背父母的意愿，也违背了自己接受的烹饪培训。他们离开这些教会自己制作鹅肝酱和羊肚菌的奢华餐厅，开设店面餐厅，在这里他们可以用五花肉和柚子、蒸水蛋和齿叶菜随意烹饪。

In addition to exploring a vast pantry of new ingredients (osmanthus, pandan, celtuce and wood ginger), they are facing a daunting new arsenal of Chinese cooking techniques, entirely different from the skills they’ve been schooled in.

除了探索各种新食材（木犀属植物、露兜科科植物、莴苣和木姜），他们还要面对令人望而生畏的各种中式新烹饪法，这些方法完全不同于他们学过的技巧。

“It’s not just recipes that are different,” Mr. Chen said. “It’s basics like how to hold a knife, how to trim an onion, how to boil vegetables.”

陈说：“不只是菜谱不同。很多基本的东西也都不同，比如怎么拿刀，怎么切洋葱，怎么煮蔬菜。”

The phenomenon is certainly not confined to New York City, although several of its exemplary restaurants are clustered in Lower Manhattan: Mr. Wu’s Fung Tu, Mr. Chen’s Tuome, and Yunnan BBQ from Doron Wong, 39, and Erika Chou, 31.

这种现象当然不仅出现在纽约市，但是几个典范餐厅都聚集在下曼哈顿：吴的风土餐厅(Fung Tu)，陈的Tuome餐厅，39岁的多伦·王(Doron Wong)和31岁的埃丽卡·周(Erika Chou)开设的云南烧烤店(Yunnan BBQ)。

It is also not new. Pioneers like Susanna Foo and Ming Tsai long ago opened ambitious, creative Chinese restaurants that paved the way. More recently Anita Lo, of Annisa in the West Village, has been the spirit guide for many young chefs; her stubborn conviction that Chinese food can flow seamlessly into Western fine dining smoothed the path for this next generation.

这也不是什么新鲜事。苏珊娜·胡(Susanna Foo)和蔡明（音译）等先驱很久以前就开设了充满雄心和创意的中餐厅，为他们奠定了基础。更近一些时候，西村Annisa餐厅的老板安妮塔·卢(Anita Lo)是很多年轻大厨的精神导师。她坚信，中餐能够完美地融入西方高级餐厅，这为下一代大厨铺平了道路。

They include Justin Yu and Karen Man at Oxheart in Houston, Shirley Chung at Twenty Eight in Irvine, Calif., Brandon Jew of the eagerly awaited Mister Jiu’s in San Francisco, and Sheridan Su of Fat Choy in Las Vegas. In New York, Mission Chinese Food and RedFarm both have a similar spirit and exciting food.

他们包括休斯敦Oxheart餐厅的贾斯廷·于(Justin Yu)和卡伦·万(Karen Man)，加利福尼亚州欧文市Twenty Eight餐厅的雪莉·庄(Shirley Chung)，旧金山备受期待的Mister Jiu’s餐厅的布兰登·仇(Brandon Jew)，以及拉斯维加斯Fat Choy餐厅的谢里登·苏(Sheridan Su)。纽约的龙山小馆(Mission Chinese Food)和RedFarm也拥有类似的精神和令人兴奋的食物。

There is also a junior class of specialists, like Hannah and Marian Cheng of Mimi Cheng’s Dumplings in the East Village, where the dumplings are made from sustainable meat and served with farm-to-table vegetable sides from their Taiwanese mother’s recipes; the Boba Guys, who use organic milk and house-made syrup in their bubble tea; and Debbie Mullin of Wei Kitchen in Seattle, who makes small-batch shallot and chile oils.

还有一批初级专家，比如东村Mimi Cheng’s Dumplings餐厅的汉娜和玛丽安·郑(Hannah and Marian Cheng)，那里的饺子是用可持续性的肉类做成的，从农场到餐桌的蔬菜配菜是按照她们台湾妈妈的食谱做成的；Boba Guys餐厅用有机牛奶和自制糖浆制作珍珠奶茶；西雅图Wei Kitchen餐厅的黛比·马林(Debbie Mullin)制作小批量葱椒油。

Mr. Su is a refugee from fine-dining kitchens on the Las Vegas Strip who started a solo career making bao in a corner of a strip-mall hair salon. His newest venture, Flock & Fowl, is devoted to the classic southern Chinese dish called Hainanese chicken rice, but with upgraded ingredients and innovations like congee topped with fried (free-range) chicken, a poached (organic) egg and (house-made) pickles.

苏离开拉斯维加斯大道(Las Vegas Strip)的高级餐厅，在一个小型购物中心美发店的一角做包子，独自开启自己的事业。他新开的Flock & Fowl餐厅专做中国南方的经典美食海南鸡饭，不过他升级了原料，进行了一些创新，比如在粥的上面放炸鸡（自由放养的鸡）、（有机）荷包蛋和（自制）泡菜。

Most of these chefs have never been to China and have no Chinese culinary training, so they are learning as they go, synthesizing the values of the kitchens they know (organic, seasonal, soigné) with Chinese elements they do not. “No one would give me even the lowest kitchen job in Beijing,” said Cara Stadler, 28, who grew up in Massachusetts and moved to China with substantial experience in the kitchens of the chefs Guy Savoy and Gordon Ramsay. Instead, she started the city’s first underground supper club. “Going to the markets every day forced me to really learn about Chinese produce,” she said.

这些厨师大多从未去过中国，没有接受过任何中式烹饪培训，所以他们边做边学，把他们已知的厨房价值观（有机，遵循季节，设计精美）与他们不知道的中国元素结合起来。28岁的卡拉·斯塔德勒(Cara Stadler)在马萨诸塞州长大，在大厨盖伊· 萨沃伊和戈登·拉姆赛(Gordon Ramsay)的厨房里积累了丰富的经验，之后她搬到中国。她说：“在北京，估计没人会给我一份厨房里的工作，哪怕是最低档的工作。”不过，她开创了北京的第一家地下晚餐俱乐部。她说：“每天去菜市场迫使我真的了解了中国的农产品。”

Ms. Stadler is now the chef and owner of Tao Yuan in Brunswick, Me., where the shellfish are plentiful and exquisite. Next week, for the Lunar New Year, she will be making plump scallop won tons — and then drying the bivalves’ side muscles to simmer into a homemade XO sauce, a fiery, funky, hugely popular condiment from Hong Kong.

斯塔德勒现在是缅因州不伦瑞克桃园餐厅(Tao Yuan)的大厨兼老板。那里的贝类丰富而精致。下周，为了迎接春节，她将制作丰满的扇贝馄饨，然后把这个双壳类动物的肉放入自制的XO酱中慢炖。XO酱是香港的一种刺激、奇特、很受欢迎的调味品。

Chinese ingredients by themselves are a vast field of study — dried mushrooms, cured meats, salted fish and bean pastes are only the beginning. Most of these chefs grew up without them: Instead, they ate a combination of American snacks, global fast food and the kind of meals a Chinese mother living in Dayton, Ohio, or Avon, Conn., might produce on a Tuesday night in the 1980s: beef stir-fried with romaine lettuce (in the absence of gai lan or bok choy) or fried rice studded with pepperoni instead of sweet lap cheong.

中国食材本身就是一个庞大的研究领域——干菇、腌肉、腌鱼和豆瓣酱只是入门级食材。这些大厨大多在成长的过程中没见过这些东西。他们吃的是美国小吃、全球快餐，以及住在俄亥俄州代顿市或康涅狄格州埃文市的中国妈妈在20世纪80年代周二晚上做的那种饭菜：生菜（因为没有芥兰或白菜）炒牛肉或意大利辣香肠（而非甜腊肠）炒饭。

“Every Chinese family I knew had Dinty Moore beef stew in the pantry,” said Mr. Tang, 37, whose family owned real estate and Chinese bakeries in New York City, including the classic Nom Wah Tea Parlor, which he now runs. “You throw that in the wok with some soy sauce and chile bean paste, fresh rice from the rice cooker, it’s not bad.”

“我认识的每个中国家庭都做过丁蒂·摩尔(Dinty Moore)炖牛肉，”37岁的唐说。他的家人在纽约市拥有房地产和中式糕点房，包括经典的南华茶室(Nom Wah Tea Parlor)，这家店现在由他经营。“你把那些东西放入锅里，加入酱油、辣豆瓣酱以及用电饭锅刚做好的米饭，吃起来也不错。”

That kind of crude fusion doesn’t satisfy them anymore. From cookbooks and childhood memories, and through trial and error, they are feeling their way into one of the world’s most complex, ancient and demanding culinary traditions. So they are making their own five-spice powder, hand-cutting noodles and home-brewing basics like pickled mustard greens, chile bean paste and fermented black beans.

不过，那种粗糙的大杂烩已无法满足他们。他们从烹饪书、童年的记忆以及试验和错误中摸索着进入世界上最为复杂、古老和高要求的烹饪传统。所以，他们自己做五香粉、刀削面，以及腌芥菜、辣豆瓣酱和豆豉等基本配料。

And they are hoping to find “essentiality” — the important modern value idea of making fine, fresh ingredients taste like themselves.

他们希望找到“精髓”——那就是制作具有食材本身新鲜味道的精美食物，这是重要的现代厨房价值观。

“Honestly, I thought that was a Japanese thing,” said Mr. Wu, of Fung Tu, who spent years working in the kitchen at Per Se. “I didn’t realize that Chinese food had that, only because I’d never had that kind of Chinese food.”

“坦白地说，我曾经以为那是日本料理的理念，”风土餐厅的吴说。他在Per Se餐厅的厨房工作了很多年。“我之前之所以不知道中餐也有这种理念是因为我从没吃过那种中餐。”

Mr. Wong, the chef at Yunnan BBQ, who grew up near Boston and trained in Hong Kong, where his family emigrated from, said: “Most Americans, including me at some point, have just never had Chinese food. When I went there and saw things like cornmeal wrapped in a banana leaf, or wood-roasted chicken wings, I thought, ‘Am I really that ignorant about my own food?’”

云南烤肉馆的大厨多伦·王在波士顿附近长大，在香港接受过培训。他家就是从香港移民到美国的。他说：“大部分美国人，包括曾经的我，从未吃过中餐。我到那里看到燕麦香蕉卷或碳烤鸡翅时心想：‘我对自己的食物了解这么少?’”

The answer was probably yes. Chinese-American food — mostly Cantonese banquet dishes adjusted for long-outgrown American tastes — is so ingrained here that even Chinese-Americans have come to believe that it is closely related to “real” Chinese food, when in truth it is a very, very distant cousin.

答案很可能是，的确如此。美式中餐大多是经过改良的广东宴会菜，以适应长期占主导地位的美国口味。它在美国根深蒂固，甚至连华裔美国人也开始以为，这与“真正的”中餐密切相连，但实际上它只是中餐的远房亲戚。

But that is starting to change as different cuisines and cooks arrive here from China, as more Americans travel to China, and as haute cuisine there bounces back from a long dormancy. Traditional (and modern) Chinese restaurants are thriving as the growing middle class and the new availability of ingredients from around the world have generated new demand.

但是，随着不同的菜系和厨师从中国来到美国，随着更多的美国人到中国旅行，随着中国高级菜肴在长期休眠之后重振旗鼓，这种情况开始发生变化。由于中产阶级壮大，再加上美国开始供应世界各地的食材，促使顾客们产生了新要求，所以传统（和现代的）中餐馆开始兴旺起来。

Kian Lam Kho, 62, a software engineer turned chef who grew up in Singapore and lives in Harlem, is one of the few people equally at home in the American and Chinese culinary worlds. He returns to Asia frequently, snapping up old and new Chinese-language culinary textbooks as they come back into print. (Restaurants, culinary schools and cookbooks have been common in China since the Song dynasty, about 1000 A.D.) He used these texts to research his magisterial new book, “Phoenix Claws and Jade Trees,” which details not only the recipes and regions but also the underlying concepts that have been the building blocks of Chinese cooking — and of much East Asian cooking — for thousands of years.

62岁的候建兰（音译）曾是软件工程师，后来改做大厨。他在新加坡长大，现在住在哈莱姆区。他是少数几位对美国菜和中餐同样精通的专家之一。他经常回亚洲，抢购重新付印的繁体字和简体字烹饪书籍（从公元1000年左右的宋代起，餐馆、烹饪学校和食谱在中国变得常见起来）。他用这些资料来创作内容丰富的新书《凤爪和翡翠树》(Phoenix Claws and Jade Trees)，这本书不仅详细介绍各种菜谱和诞生地，而且讲解几千年来中餐烹饪（以及很多东亚烹饪）基础背后的概念。

He said the book was partly designed to teach English-speaking people of Chinese heritage like these chefs, who may have lost the language of China but not their loyalty to its food.

他说，这本书的一个目的是教导具有中国传统的讲英语的厨师（比如上述这些大厨），他们可能不会说中国话，但没有失去对中餐的忠诚。

“Unless they understand the original dishes, what they cook will never have a real relationship with Chinese food,” he said. When they braise the classic red-cooked pork in the oven instead of in a wok, he said, or if they sear the meat first, the way they are taught in Western cooking schools, it changes the flavor, the mouthfeel and how everything works together.

“除非他们理解这些正宗菜肴，否则他们做出来的食物永远与中餐没有真正的关系，”他说。如果他们在烤箱而非锅里面做经典的红烧肉，或者像在西餐学校里学的那样先煎肉，那么就改变了这道菜的味道、口感，以及所有食材相互作用的方式。

Using clam chowder as a reference point, he said, “Anyone can take clams, potatoes, salt pork and milk, and make some kind of dish.” But if the pork fat is not rendered, if the potatoes are left whole, if the cooking is too fast, it will not be chowder.

他还以蛤肉杂烩浓汤为例。他说，“谁都能用蛤蜊、土豆、腌猪肉和牛奶做出一道菜”，但是如果不把肥猪肉熬出油，如果土豆没切成块，如果煮的时间过短，那做出来的就不是蛤肉杂烩浓汤。

This new effort to synthesize Chinese and American cuisines takes more study and skill than squirting a few drizzles of soy and hoisin onto Western dishes like grilled steak or mashed potatoes. Those thoughtless mash-ups are why these Chinese-American chefs now shudder at the term “Asian fusion” and go to great lengths to define what they are doing differently. (They are definitely not tinkering with sushi or dabbling in pad Thai.)

要把中餐和美国菜结合起来，需要更多研究和技巧，不只是在烤牛排或土豆泥等西餐上滴几滴酱油和海鲜酱。正是这种轻率的结合令这些华裔美国大厨现在很害怕“亚洲融合菜”这个说法，不遗余力地想要重新定义他们所做的食物（他们肯定不会胡乱改动寿司和泰式炒河粉的做法）。

The term “Chinese-American food” has even worse connotations: heavy, sticky, deep-fried.

“美式中餐”这个概念的含义更糟糕：油腻、黏糊糊、油炸。

“We definitely need to figure out what to call it,” said Mr. Tang, who is a partner in Fung Tu.

“我们肯定需要想出怎么称呼它，”风土餐厅的合伙人唐说。

Modern American-Chinese? Chef-driven Chinese-American? “Elevated or upscale sounds too snooty, especially when we’re basically serving ribs and noodles and chicken wings,” he said.

现代美式中餐？以大厨为主导的美式中餐？“高级或高档听起来太自大，尤其是考虑到我们基本上就是做排骨、面条和鸡翅，”唐说。

Another challenge, Mr. Tang said, is to decide whether the cooks supporting them in the kitchen should be graduates of restaurants like Hakkasan, who would have the Chinese skills, or like Gramercy Tavern, who have the fine-dining finesse.

唐说，另一个难题是要想好帮厨是必须在Hakkasan等餐厅干过（这种厨师拥有中餐技巧）还是必须在Gramercy Tavern等餐厅干过（这种厨师拥有制作精致菜肴的技巧）。

“What we need is ABCs” — American-born Chinese — “who speak Chinese but also speak farm-to-table,” he said. “ And so far, there aren’t too many of us.”

“我们需要的是ABC（美国出生的华裔），他们会说中文，也谈论从农场到餐桌，”他说，“到目前为止，我们这样的人不太多。”