Today's New York Times has an excellent profile of Charles Phan, the Executive Chef of Slanted Door -- the well-loved Vietnamese restaurant that recently moved to its new location in the Ferry Building.
Among the interesting facts revealed in the article is that Mr. Phan did not go to cooking school. When Phan opened his restaurant in the Mission District in 1995 he had never even worked in a restaurant. According to the Times, "He was a home cook from a large family of home cooks, and his cooking today reflects that. It is home cooking finessed for a restaurant, not the other way around."
Phan was born in 1962 in the central highlands of South Vietnam and fled that country as it fell to the Vietcong in 1975. Phan's family eventually made its way to San Francisco.
Phan went to University of California, Berkeley, where he focused on architecture. After a short stint in in that field, he dabbled in clothing design. Then he decided to tackle a restaurant.
The Times continues:
"My first idea was to open a shop and make Vietnamese rice-style crepes," he said. "But then I thought to open a Western-style restaurant, one that looked good and treated people well. And I wanted to keep the menu small. I was inspired by the cafe at Chez Panisse, where they do a few items, but do them really well. I hadn't seen anyone do that with Asian food before."
The original Slanted Door, on Valencia Street in the Mission District, was built for $140,000, money raised by Mr. Phan and several relatives maxing out their credit cards.
"I figured that if we could pay the rent for a year, we could make it work," he said.
Work it did. We wish the Phan family continued success and look forward to making a pilgrimage to the Ferry Building to check our the new Slanted Door.
The Slanted Door has been selected as a Rugged Elegance "Place of Taste" San Francisco's Financial District.
-Tim
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