A newly opened American-Chinese restaurant in Manhattan is catching major flak for its choice to market its menu as a “clean” alternative to authentic Chinese food.
There is no shortage of Chinese restaurants, in many varieties, owned and operated by Chinese Americans, in New York City. There is also nothing wrong with adding another restaurant to that mix. But many folks seem to feel the way Lucky Lee’s is going about it is deeply disrespectful.
Arielle Haspel, a health coach and wellness-focused cook, announced the plans to open her new restaurant on her blog earlier this year. “Lucky you, lucky me and lucky Lee (my husband), we will be wokking up the yummiest menu,” wrote Haspel in January.
While wellness and clean eating are a part of Haspel’s “Be Well with Arielle” brand, the marketing of her new restaurant as “clean Chinese cuisine” has been interpreted by some as implying that Chinese cuisine is normally unclean.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BsW5USOneQ6/
In the comments on Lucky Lee’s Instagram, people tore into her representation and remakes of Chinese cuisine. “This picture is already unseasoned i can’t even imagine the food. shame on you for your modern day colonization,” wrote one user. Another user bemoaned Haspel using “historically racist myths (such as MSG causing migraines)” to advertise her restaurant. “You can open a restaurant without shaming the traditional cuisine you are biting from,” said another. Negative health myths were so prevalent around Chinese cooking in the 1960s that people labeled some symptoms the “Chinese Restaurant Syndrome.”
Food writer Cathy Erway commented on Twitter that the name “Lucky” has become “code for something awful,” citing other restaurants with the word in their names that are owned by white celebrities purporting to serve Chinese food.
Lucky has become code for something awful.
— Cathy Erway 陳凱琳 (@cathyerway) April 9, 2019
Lucky Cricket: Andrew Zimmern’s new Chinese restaurant (dragged by @hooleil)
Lucky Cat: Gordon Ramsay’s upcoming “authentic Asian” restaurant, with no Asian chef
Lucky Lee’s: nutritionist Arielle Haspel’s “clean” Chinese restaurant https://t.co/McAqc6BTAu
Sharon Su on Twitter shared a poignant criticism of Lucky Lee’s: It appears to be marketing Chinese food as specifically for white consumption. It’s something Haspel does not by highlighting the traditional Chinese cooking found in Chinese-American homes, but by condemning the Chinese food she has known, which is likely highly Americanized.
https://twitter.com/doodlyroses/status/1115423719738855425
In response to criticism, Lucky Lee’s appears to have gone mostly quiet on social media. The original account which called out the restaurant is gone, but comments and reviews continue to flow in, admonishing the messaging.
The Daily Dot has reached out to Haspel for comment and will update this story with her response.
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