Orientalism

by Karen Leibowitz

In the two years that Mission Street Food shared space with Lung Shan Restaurant, four Chinese men passed through the kitchen as cooks for the restaurant’s regular menu. We never knew their given names—we just referred to each of them as shifu. The French word chef literally means “chief” or “boss”; similarly, the Cantonese word shifu can be applied to kung fu experts, cabbies, and other masters of their own domains. It’s the normal way of addressing a head cook.