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Arielle Haspel, a Manhattan health coach with a sleek social media presence, wanted to open the kind of Chinese restaurant, she said, where she and her food-sensitive clients could eat. One where the lo mein wouldn\u2019t make people feel \u201cbloated and icky\u201d the next day, or one where the food wasn\u2019t \u201ctoo oily\u201d or salty, as she wrote in an Instagram post a few weeks ago.<\/p>\n
She chose a name for her new restaurant, Lucky Lee\u2019s, that sounded stereotypically Chinese, even though she and her husband, Lee, are not Asian. She decorated the restaurant with bamboo and jade touches, and designed her logo with a chopstick-inspired font.<\/p>\n
And then, quite predictably, she was flamed on the internet for it.<\/p>\n
The uproar over Lucky Lee\u2019s, which opened on Monday, has become the latest front in the debate over cultural appropriation and cultural arrogance, following controversies involving, among many others, Dolce & Gabbana and Miley Cyrus. <\/p>\n
In an interview on Thursday, Ms. Haspel said that she had good intentions, and that she was shocked when she was portrayed by critics on social media as the latest in a string of white restaurateurs who have promoted their Asian cuisine by labeling it as superior to food made by actual Asians.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are so sorry,\u201d Ms. Haspel said. \u201cWe were never trying to do something against the Chinese community. We thought we were complementing an incredibly important cuisine, in a way that would cater to people that had certain dietary requirements.\u201d<\/p>\n
Within a day of Lucky Lee\u2019s opening in the Union Square area, Asian-Americans castigated her on social media. Yelp temporarily disabled its listing because of an \u201cunusual activity alert.\u201d And a stream of food writers posted about how Ms. Haspel\u2019s decision to brand her Chinese food as \u201cclean\u201d was dredging up stereotypes that were hurtful to Chinese-Americans, not to mention tone-deaf.<\/p>\n
\u201cOhhhh I CANNOT with Lucky Lee\u2019s, this new \u2018clean Chinese restaurant\u2019 that some white wellness blogger just opened in New York,\u201d MacKenzie Fegan, a food writer, said on Twitter. \u201cHer blog talks about how \u2018Chinese food is usually doused in brown sauces\u2019 and makes your eyes puffy. Lady, what? #luckylees\u201d<\/p>\n
This week, Ms. Haspel, 36, deleted Instagram posts that could be seen as culturally insensitive, such as the one about feeling icky after eating lo mein. She decided against using a decal that said \u201cWok in, Take Out\u201d that she planned to put on the window. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe have been listening and learning, and we have been making changes and we will continue,\u201d she said. \u201cShame on us for not being smarter about cultural sensitivities.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ms. Haspel\u2019s blog, and her food videos, promote something she calls \u201cclean eating,\u201d which to her, means things like: eating organic, avoiding additives and using olive oil instead of canola. <\/p>\n
\u201cClean eating\u201d is not related to a particular type of cuisine. Instead, she explained in one online video, it is \u201call about finding a healthier alternative to your favorite indulgent food.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cI love health-ifying bad food so you can treat yourself, guilt-free,\u201d she said in another cooking video.<\/p>\n
She tried to explain her \u201cclean food\u201d concept in an Instagram post earlier this week, but it didn\u2019t stop the onslaught of criticism. Her detractors said not understanding she was being offensive was not a good excuse. They said that when she decided to open a Chinese restaurant, she had a responsibility to learn more about the culture of the food she was appropriating. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhere she is coming from is a very dark place, and it\u2019s a very sensitive place in the hearts of Chinese people,\u201d said Chris Cheung, the owner of East Wind Snack Shop, an acclaimed dumpling restaurant in Brooklyn. Particularly insulting, he said, was the connotation in her marketing that other Chinese food was unhealthy or unclean, which is a stereotype that Chinese restaurateurs have been fighting for decades. <\/p>\n
\u201cShe mentions that every time she goes to eat Chinese food, she\u2019s bloated,\u201d he said. \u201cWell, I don\u2019t know where she is going to eat Chinese food, but that doesn\u2019t happen to me or anyone else who I know when they eat it.\u201d <\/p>\n
Doron Wong, chef and partner of Northern Tiger, a Chinese restaurant in the financial district, said: \u201cI think she didn\u2019t do her research and was kind of stereotyping everybody, which I found a little bit unfair, but at the same time, very entertaining. I see it as she was trying to come in at a different angle.\u201d <\/p>\n
He added that a new generation of Chinese-American chefs were already using ingredients that were gluten-free, organic and non-GMO, which she probably should have known. \u201cWe are very aware of what we are putting into other people\u2019s bodies,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Ms. Haspel is the latest white chef to be accused in recent months of appropriating Asian cultural tropes in insensitive ways.<\/p>\n
In November, Andrew Zimmern, a Travel Channel food host, opened a restaurant near Minneapolis called Lucky Cricket, which he said in an interview would save Midwesterners from having to eat Chinese food he described with an expletive; he later apologized. In London, restaurateur Gordon Ramsay will soon be opening an \u201cauthentic Asian eating house\u201d called Lucky Cat.<\/p>\n
\u201cLucky is becoming code for something awful,\u201d Cathy Erway, a food writer of Taiwanese heritage, said in a tweet.<\/p>\n
In the interview, Ms. Haspel defended her concept and menu, while acknowledging some errors in presenting them. She said her decision to brand her lo mein \u201cHi-Lo Mein,\u201d was just meant to be \u201ccute,\u201d not to denote its superior quality. The d\u00e9cor, she said, was inspired by the 1930s textile designs of her grandmother, and was authentic to her own Jewish-American family traditions.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, Lucky Lee\u2019s, on University Place between 10th and 11th Streets, was busy. The patrons were a mix of people curious about the controversy, supporters of Ms. Haspel and others who had just walked in and had no idea about the backlash. <\/p>\n
The menu is filled with health-oriented takes on Chinese-American classics, such as baked General Tso\u2019s chicken that comes with kale salad, coconut steamed rice and saut\u00e9ed string beans. The style is fast casual, with counter ordering, and prices for most items range between $11 and $18. <\/p>\n
\u201cOur entire menu is gluten-free, dairy-free, wheat-free, corn-free, peanut-, cashew- and pistachio-free,\u201d the menu states. \u201cWe use non-GMO oil, and never refined sugar, MSG or food coloring.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe seek to be able to offer food that some people are not able to eat otherwise,\u201d Ms. Haspel said.<\/p>\n
Jing Sun, who is Chinese-American, came with two friends from a technology firm in SoHo to check out the food. They enjoyed it, particularly the kale salad and charred broccoli. \u201cI support the concept,\u201d Ms. Sun said. \u201cI think it\u2019s pretty regrettable the way she communicated about it, though.\u201d<\/p>\n
She added: \u201cI don\u2019t think that the stakes should be high enough for the restaurant to fail. But I hope she learns something about the history and cultural context she\u2019s working in as a result of the backlash.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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