How Dumplings Became a Lifeline for These L.A. Chefs

有片刻，厨师Brandon Kida承认，当很高兴最终有一些“空闲时间绝对没有责任”。这是洛杉矶Covid-19大流行病的早期，Kida忙着跑步嗡嗡声，包括Hinoki和鸟在世纪的城市。他非常接近在好莱坞开设“加利福尼亚州的一个加利福尼亚”。然后一切刚刚停止了。

After some respite and reflection, Kida knew he had to start pinchinggyoza。

“I kind of fall back on childhood comforts," said Kida, a Japanese-American chef who grew up in L.A.’skoreatown.。“当事情变坏时，人们喜欢舒适的食物。vwin德赢ac米兰我的舒适食物是饺子。vwin德赢ac米兰我记得和妈妈一起坐在餐桌上，她会告诉我如何制作手工制作的饺子：如何制作填充，如何折叠饺子，如何烹饪饺子。“

So suddenly, this past April, a chef who had been cooking for CAA agents and Hollywood superstars at his glamorous Century City restaurant was staying up well past midnight rolling dumplings at home. At first, Kida and his wife, Rachel, delivered gyoza to friends in exchange for donations. Then they went public as去Gyoza.而且kida雇用了一些前雇员并将这一行动移到了Hinoki＆The Bird的情况如此之大。

“作为厨师，你必须保持坚强，”Kida说。“我不认为你有选择。无论是你，都是决定性的，或者你没有，你让你很多人失望。我有许多员工需要去上班。我需要做一些可以为他们带来收入的事情。“

Go Go Gyoza自成千上万的冷冻饺子以来，大部分都填充了Kida的Kurobuta猪肉，鸡肉或豆腐和蔬菜馅料。Kida现在在L.A.和Orange County周围的戒烟和交货订单之间每周销售靠近100岁的家庭饺子。

“我们的交付半径就像50英里，”Kida说。“只要我们收到收入，我会尽可能地承担尽可能多的工作。”

Go Go Gyoza与L.A.厨师合作，他们创造了仅限时间的饺子，这些特殊的Gyoza的收益将包括在内的慈善机构没有你和你在一起，它源于无证的餐厅工人。Kida说杰出厨师喜欢梅林,Neal Fraser,乔瑶， 和Tal Ronneninvolved has often been as easy as sending a single DM, and he’s loved seeing how dumplings can showcase a wide array of flavors. Lin, for example, made truffle cheeseburger gyoza while Ronnen made a vegan option with kabocha squash, scallions, and chili ponzu. Kida’s own gyoza riffs have included turkey-and-sage Thanksgiving dumplings that came with shiitake mushroom gravy and cranberry dipping sauce.

“我觉得更多的人触动了更多的人，与我曾经做过的所有精美的用餐，”Kida说，他以前在纽约队在Lutèce烹饪后在纽约队跑了厨房。“让我告诉你，做触及群众的食物是更多的令人欣慰的。”vwin德赢ac米兰

饺子已成为许多才华横溢的L.A.厨师的生命线。米盒子Leo and Lydia Lee, true mom-and-pop operators who had their first child in May, have been delivering handmade shrimp dumplings, cheese-filled char siu baos, and Cantonese barbecue all over Los Angeles and Orange County.饺子怪物，which offers nationwide shippingvia Goldbelly, has allowed chef Perry Cheung to keep his staff and even pay them occasional overtime as they make chicken-and-chive dumplings, spicy pork wontons, and vegan buns.

“There’s a lot of labor that goes into dumplings,” said Cheung, who keeps things efficient by buying ingredients like chicken that he can use at both Dumpling Monster and sister restaurantPhorage。“利润是今年的窗户，但关键的是要努力工作并保持业务运行。只要[员工]可以维持另一两天，我不介意在一天或两人丢失金钱。“

Fortunately, dumplings are generating enough revenue for Cheung to keep the lights on.

It’s a similar story forShirley Chungat Ms. Chi. “Without Goldbelly, there’s no way I can stay open,” Chung said. “That’s how I pay my rent.”

星期一和周二的时候，Chi女士关闭厨房的工作人员在有折叠饺子Goldbelly orders。A front-of-the-house employee packs boxes filled with wontons and jumbo cheeseburger potstickers. And Chung just added frozen dumplings to her take-out menu.

Chung’s Goldbelly items also include orange chicken meal kits, tea-smoked duck, scallion pancakes, and Taiwanese pork chops, but dumplings have been about two-thirds of the orders. During the busy holiday gifting season, Ms. Chi’s mail-order business has been averaging close to 150 orders overall a week.

And Miami chef Richard Hales, who had been scoping out L.A. locations for his West Coast expansion before the pandemic hit, has started selling smoked pork-cheek dumplings along with his社会烧烤胸部和牛排on Goldbelly。他计划在全国范围内发射菜肴Blackbrick，他的热门中国餐厅，很快。

显然是厨师在舒适食物上赌注的时候。vwin德赢ac米兰

上周，Kida推出了去鸟，which offers Japanese fried chicken and sides like mashed potatoes with curry gravy. Cheung, who’s been hosting Ryan Ososky’sDtown Pizzeria在West Hollywood Phorage的弹出窗口，周二一直在销售炸玉米饼，并引起了未来的弹出窗口。

“One takeaway from this is that everyone needs to try different things,” Cheung said.

Chung, meanwhile, has a mochi-donut delivery spinoff called Mo-Chi Donuts, and she’s working on mala fried chicken.

“我们现在幸存了，”她说。“我花了5％的日子受到沮丧，95％就像”醒来“，让我们继续推动并找到新的方式来制作这项工作。”

在大流行的早期，钟不确定她甚至会重新打开Chi女士。但是，她越来越多了五年的租约，并一直在告诉厨师朋友，她的Culver City Restaurant是一个可以测试新想法的地方。如果需要，为什么不在一个空间中做多件事？

智库是同样的想法。他将罗ve Go Go Gyoza and Go Go Bird to continue as virtual restaurants. The idea of having one concept in one space seems so 2019. Go Go Gyoza, for example, is bringing in people who would have never gone to Hinoki & The Bird.

“It gives you the ability to tie together many things,” Kida said. “It’s not just one restaurant with one identity. It can be a number of different identities. I think after this pandemic, you’re going to realize as a chef and as a restaurateur that you have to bring in a number of different revenue streams. You have to be open-minded and be able to roll with it.”