James Daniel Bowien (born 1982) is a chef and restaurateur. He is the founder and owner of Mission Chinese Food in New York City and Brooklyn and co-founder of Mission Chinese Food in San Francisco, California.[1] Bowien is a James Beard Award winner, and the main subject of season six of the food and travel show The Mind of a Chef.[2]
Bowien, born in South Korea, was adopted at a young age by a family in Oklahoma.[3][4] Growing up as one of the only Korean Americans in school left him without a clear sense of identity, and his roots in Asian culture fostered a need to do something respectable.[5] He had various jobs, including as a dishwasher in a Vietnamese restaurant,[4] and at age 19 he moved to San Francisco.[4]
After a spell in culinary school Bowien worked at several restaurants in the San Francisco Bay Area, including the Italian restaurant Farina.[6] Through his work there he was sent to the 2008 Pesto World Championships in Genoa, Italy, where he won first place.[7]
Bowien partnered with Anthony Myint on a series of food truck pop-ups including Mission Street Food and Mission Burger, and with the owners of a Chinese restaurant called Lung Shan on Mission Street, started Mission Chinese Food as the first restaurant-within-a-restaurant pop-up.[6] It was named the second Best New Restaurant in America by Bon Appetit Magazine and fourth Best New Restaurant in America by GQ Magazine.[8][9] Bowien was nominated the 2011 Rising Star Chef by the San Francisco Chronicle, and in 2012 he was a James Beard Award Finalist.[10][11] He was included in Food and Wine Magazine's 40 Big Thinkers under 40, and San Francisco Chronicle’s Bay Area 30 under 30.[12][13]
After leaving San Francisco in 2012 Bowien opened a standalone Mission Chinese Food in New York City's Lower East Side.[14] In 2013, he opened a Mexican restaurant, Mission Cantina, in New York.[15] Mission Cantina was closed 3 years later.[16] In May 2013, Bowien was awarded the prestigious "Rising Star Chef" by the James Beard Foundation for his work in the Mission Chinese Food in San Francisco and New York City.[17][18]
In 2014 Bowien moved Mission Chinese Food to New York's Chinatown.[19] In 2017, Bowien was chosen to be the main subject of the sixth season of the food and travel show The Mind of a Chef. It premiered on November 14, 2017, on Facebook Watch.[2] In 2018, Bowien opened a new Mission Chinese Food location in Bushwick, Brooklyn in front of the independent music venue Elsewhere.[20] In September, 2020, Bowien announced permanent closure of the Mission outpost on East Broadway in Chinatown, due to the hardships COVID-19 had on the hospitality industry.[21] While the Mission Chinese Food in Chinatown had closed permanently by the end of September 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Bushwick location remained open.[22] In 2022, he closed all of his New York City locations permanently.[23]
Bowien is recognized for his impact on the democratization of fine dining.[24] Bowien is known as a populist, making food that is accessible to everyone.[25] His work in the kitchen is notable, according to GQ, for pioneering the elevation of Chinese food and breaking down barriers in an industry known for its strict Eurocentric hierarchy.[4]
