-Beep, beep.
Today, I'm in the middle
of New York City's Chinatown
in one of the largest
restaurants in the country,
and I'm learning how to make
and serve dim sum.
Enjoy your meal.
Thank you.
What is that,
a fan around your neck?
-I know you work really hard.
Let me put on high fan for you.
-Yeah, high fan.
Oh, goodness.
-And it gives some light.
-Yo, hey.
♪ What you know about that ♪
♪♪
-We're on Elizabeth Street
in Chinatown,
which is by far
one of my favorite neighborhoods
in New York.
I'm standing in front
of Jing Fong,
which is an 800-seat
dim sum restaurant.
It's one of the largest
restaurants in North America,
and I'm about to learn
the art of dumpling making.
♪♪
I can't really think of
too many restaurants
that have escalators
in New York.
This is like an escalator
at Grand Central.
♪♪
This is huge.
I don't know if I've ever seen
a dining room
this big in New York City.
Thank you for having me.
So what's you're role here?
-I do a little bit
of everything.
I help with mostly
the back-of-house,
operation kind of stuff.
-It gets crazy out here?
-Yeah, it can get
a little crazy.
-What is Jing Fong
in your words?
How would you describe it?
-Well, my grandfather
started it in 1978.
I think it's
a traditional Cantonese,
Hong Kong-style banquet hall.
-This is literally one of
the biggest restaurants
in the country.
What are some of
the metrics here?
-Well, first off,
we probably have
150 to 180 employees
at any given time.
The entire restaurant
is about,
like, 25,000,
26,000 square feet.
The dining room itself is, like,
15,000 square feet-ish.
-I look for
1,500-square-feet places.
-On a busy Sunday,
we'll probably get
over 3,000 customers.
-That's insane.
-Yeah.
You know,
we do tremendous volume,
so, like, everything here
is basically done by hand.
♪♪
-How many different types
of dim sum?
-On the menu,
they can probably make,
like, 200 different items,
but at any given time
on the dining room,
you'll probably see, like, 100.
On, like, the weekends,
you might see, like, 150.
We do all the dim sum
on this side.
We probably have, like,
20 dim sum staff.
So they're making barbecue
roast pork buns right now.
-What do they do?
They get stacked in these --
in these trays?
-Yeah, so these guys
make the dumplings.
Those guys in the back steam it.
There's multiple stations,
right,
just like any other restaurant.
-Right.
-You got the steamers,
the fryers.
You have the guys in the back
cooking the filling.
-And then these guys
are the ones that are
actually forming the dumplings.
-Yeah.
-These guys here look like
they're seasoned pros.
-Frank.
-Nice to meet you.
Thank you for having me.
-This is dim sum chef Jin.
-Nice to meet you, Chef Jin.
-Yeah.
-He's going to teach you
some things,
and here is an apron for you.
-I get the apron, too?
-Yeah.
-How long have you
been working here?
-What makes a good dumpling?
-Use your wrist. All right?
-Yeah, good.
-Okay. Thank you.
And then...
Mm-hmm.
And you turn it with your hand,
so it's even.
♪♪
Wow.
He's so quick.
It feels very much
like a pizza dough.
Right, right, right.
More gentle.
-Yeah.
-All right.
So where are the pizza ovens?
[ Laughs ]
Oh, you have a deck oven
over there?
All right, I'm starting
to feel like home now.
Which ones are
we making right now?
Mm-hmm.
Mine aren't looking
as good as this.
-Ah. Ah.
Ah.
That one wasn't as good.
Okay.
My dumplings are not looking
nearly as pretty
as these guys' dumpling.
It's like that muscle memory
that's very reminiscent
of making pizza.
Once you get it down
after you make a lot,
you get to do it quicker
and quicker and quicker,
and you get really good
like he is.
-Yeah, good.
Good, good.
-All right.
Right about now, you can start
to feel the sweat,
like, really dripping down,
you know,
but this is when
you get into your groove.
You're working.
You're not thinking about that.
You're just doing
what you got to do.
-Yeah.
-We cannot jam him up.
Now I'm a man on a mission.
I want to get this right.
From a scale from one to 10,
what would you say
my first round is?
Oh, man! Thank you.
Thank you.
I'll take that.
How long does it take
to master
making a dumpling like this?
You're a dumpling master, huh?
So if I wasn't here,
and you were just doing them,
what does it look like?
Right there.
Wow.
Look at that.
Look at that.
This guy right here,
he has many years of experience
doing dumplings.
He started in the '90s,
and he does somewhere like
two million dumplings a year.
Now that I learned a little bit
about the technique
of making the dumplings,
do you think I'll be able to see
how they're steamed?
-Yeah.
-All right. Beautiful.
Right on top.
You have to put the crown
on top, so 4 to 5 minutes.
We can fit at least
eight of those bamboo
containers into a steamer,
so we can do numbers here
of these dumplings.
We can really do a lot.
I'm getting the sign that
these dumplings are ready.
Okay.
Cheers.
-Yeah, cheers.
-Yeah. [ Laughs ]
Mmm.
This is extremely flavorful.
That was good.
I tried mine.
I'm going to try one of his now,
see what the difference is.
Mm-hmm.
It's totally different.
It was filled properly.
The ratio was right.
You could taste the filling,
and you could taste the dough.
I think that's
the ideal dumpling
that he was talking about.
-Dim sum is not just dumplings.
You also order fried rice,
noodles with it.
-So dim sum is not just, like,
the carts being pushed around.
It's more of a meal period...
-Yeah.
-...or a style of eating.
-Yeah, that's how
I think about it.
-What is the actual means
of "dim sum"?
-"Dim" is basically
like a touch.
-Uh-huh.
-And "sum" is like the heart.
The literal translation is,
like, "touch the heart."
-"Touch the heart" right.
Right, right, right, right.
Warm the heart, touch the heart.
-Yeah.
-I got my eye on one of these
little coconut rabbits
over here.
♪♪
Mmm.
Coconutty, cold, sweet,
everything you want
in a little fake rabbit.
[ Both chuckle ]
I think it's almost time for me
to get my hands dirty.
-We could do that.
Let's go.
♪♪
So the way that these
banquet kitchens work is,
when an order comes in,
these guys over here,
they chop all the stuff up,
and these guys on
the other side of the line,
they cook it.
-So these are like
the expediters standing here,
and then food comes back
to the middle on carts,
and then goes right out.
Ah, smart.
I'm about to work the wok
with the head chef
over here on the banquet side.
What are we going
to make here today?
-How long have you been working
in this restaurant?
Okay, so a little bit of oil.
Then the sprouts.
Onions.
♪♪
Just --
He's a master with the wok.
Little bit of sugar.
You can't get flavor out
of a dish like this
without cooking it
in a wok like this,
just the seasoning
on the wok alone.
That was unreal.
That whole meal must have been
cooked in 3 minutes.
I'm going to try to jump in.
Let's see what we got.
The temperature on this thing
is like a fucking jet engine.
A lot can go wrong when
you're cooking with this thing.
All right. We ready, Chef?
-Yep.
-Okay.
So we're going to let this meat
cook a little bit.
The wok is heavy.
The oil is hot.
It splashes up on you.
Okay.
A little bit of water?
-No.
-No, just turn this back up.
You can see how powerful
this thing is.
Like I said,
it looks like a jet engine.
Now that we have that in,
a little bit of sugar?
-Yeah.
[ Chuckles ]
This is the part that's not
so easy as it looks.
I don't got that lefty forearm
strength like I should.
♪♪
It's heavy.
The wok is heavy.
You can tell
after years of practice,
he has built up the strength
in both arms to kind of work it
and lift up the wok
at the same time.
I got to switch back to my right
hand for me
to lift this thing up
and get a little bit of a flip.
♪♪
You got to work quick,
or else you'll burn the shit
out of everything in this thing.
Then we turn down the heat,
and we --
I think we might have
made it out all right.
I got to get that wrist action.
Thank you, Chef.
How did I do, good?
-Yeah, good.
-I see your arms are very
strong to pick up that wok.
♪♪
A little bit burnt?
-Yeah.
♪♪
-It might look similar,
but it's night and day.
His has a more refined taste
to it.
All the flavors kind of
really come together,
really excellent.
That was a fun experience.
In culinary school, I had
a short time to work on a wok.
Being here on the line
in a real Chinese kitchen
and understanding how these guys
have to make
so many different dishes
and kind of keep up
with the pace,
it's a whole different
ball game.
On a busy night
when these guys have
a wedding going on
or a big banquet,
he'll make 800 of these dishes.
It's a different league,
and it shows a lot of respect
that I have for guys like this.
Thank you very much, Chef.
-Thank you.
-I appreciate you,
let you get back to work.
♪♪
I learned how to make dumplings.
I learned how to use the wok
with a master.
Now, how does that food
get to the customer?
So we have some
shrimp noodle rolls.
We're about to roll these
into the dumbwaiter,
send it upstairs, and then
the front-of-the-house staff
is going to bring it out
to all the customers.
This is the way the food
gets from the kitchen
here to the dining room.
Perfect fit.
Put this in and press two.
Oh, one more?
-[ Speaking Chinese ]
-Thank you.
She's the boss
of the elevator system.
She knows which one is open,
which one is working.
She just directed me
to the right,
so we have
some siu mai right now.
There we go.
Second door and send it up.
♪♪
-Hi. How are you?
-Hello, Tony.
Nice to meet you.
-Nice to meet you.
-Thank you for having me today.
-You going to wear this uniform.
-Wow.
-Look at this.
-Very nice.
Very nice.
[ Laughs ]
-And also this is for
the hygiene of the hair.
-Of course.
Of course.
How do I look?
-Looking great.
-Looking great?
-Yeah. Right.
So we have
a lot of different item --
shrimp dumpling.
-And how do you say that?
-Har gow.
-Har gow.
-And also this is snow-pea leaf
crab meat dumpling,
crystal shrimp dumpling.
-Crystal shrimp dumpling,
and that has
the little peas inside.
-Exactly.
This is snow-pea leaf
one more time,
but not with crab meat --
with the shrimp in it.
I'm going to teach you.
Maybe you have a little skill
to sell your product.
Okay. Let's go.
-Let's go. Let's go.
I hope I have some skills.
So I'll follow you.
Can I offer you anything?
We have shrimp dumplings.
We have the snow pea
and crab dumplings,
the shrimp and pea dumplings,
and we also have the snow pea
and shrimp dumplings.
Shrimp dumplings, it is.
We'll do one snow pea
with the crab.
-And pour a little soy sauce.
-I'll put a little bit
of soy sauce in here.
-Okay.
This is the kind of sauce,
you know, from our chef
make a little secret in it.
Even me, I don't know
what is the secret inside,
but I would like the people,
you taste it,
and then you feel it.
You going to enjoy it, okay?
-This guy is good.
This guy is good.
-You have good memory.
The way I teach you,
right away
you change your pitch
when talking to someone.
-You're a good teacher.
Guys, how was everything?
Great.
Can I offer you any more?
You're all good today?
I hope you enjoyed your meal.
Let's sell some of this.
-Just relax.
You know, don't get nervous.
-Hey. How are you today?
-Good.
-Good. Can I offer you
some shrimp dumplings?
Yes, sir.
Enjoy your meal.
What's up, big guy?
Oh, yeah.
I feel like I'm getting
the hang of it now.
Can I offer you any dim sum?
They're okay.
One shrimp dumpling?
You got it.
Thanks, guys.
You're making me look good.
-Exactly.
-[ Laughs ]
Just some of the best dim sum
in America.
What can I get you today?
He's full? All right.
Enjoy the rest of your meal.
Hello. How are you?
Shrimp?
One shrimp.
Enjoy your meal.
My manager is going
to give me a raise.
-Yeah, he's smart, you know?
One way I teach him.
He remember everything.
I like that.
-That's it.
Who's our next victim?
[ Both laugh ]
-Satisfaction is
all yourself personally.
-Yeah?
-Yeah, very good.
-Thank you very much.
♪♪
Are a lot of, like,
your staff here from China?
-We don't really have any
American-born Chinese here.
-This is their job, obviously.
You know,
this is where they work.
This is their income.
Do they live
in the neighborhood, too?
-A lot of them live in
Brooklyn and Queens area.
-I bet you some people in that
kitchen live in my neighborhood.
I'm from Bensonhurst, and...
-Oh, yeah.
-...you know, my neighborhood
has seen --
It was Hasidic Jewish
when the Italians moved in,
and then it changed to kind of
Eastern European and Italian,
and now it's very Chinese.
The one thing
that I love about it
is, like, the Italians
always gardened a lot,
and the Chinese are also, like,
expert gardeners, you know?
In my grandmother's backyard,
a Chinese family,
I noticed that they were growing
all the Italian vegetables.
They got gootz,
the green zucchini,
And she brought us
over these three big zucchinis,
which my aunt was,
like, flipping out
because we didn't have
any growing at that point.
Both of my grandparents
have now passed away.
But our Chinese neighbors
are growing Italian vegetables
and then sharing them
back with us.
I thought that that was, like,
a really cool mix
of communities coming together.
To have a place like this
that represents Chinese culture,
dim sum culture so well,
it's so special that it's here.
♪♪
What I've been waiting to try
this whole time
is these delicious,
gelatinous chicken feet.
♪♪
There's a lot of parallels
between even what I do
and what's done here,
being in those hot kitchens
with the steam
kind of coming up
and the woks really hot
just like the pizza ovens.
This isn't a place
to just come and get fed.
It's a place to sit down
and engage in community culture,
and it's very familiar to me,
just like the pizzerias.
I got the opportunity today
to work with some great guys
in the kitchen,
work with some great people
in the front of the house,
and learn how an operation
like this actually works,
and I had a lot of fun
doing it.
♪♪
♪♪
