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The other factor is the shift in demographics.

Old style Chinese food ‘shifu’ are getting.. well, old. Their kids aren’t taking over the family business. Their kids are all professionals, fed and educated by the power of the wok.

We see this everywhere there is a significant Chinese food scene.

Younger Chinese restauranteurs know they often can’t compete with the ‘masters’ on Chinese food classics. So they do something else. We see this in Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, all Chinese cities. Probably Vancouver and Toronto and LA as well.

Who wants to do the 18 hour soup and arduous overnight prep that so much traditional Chinese food demands?

We’re seeing a shift in global Chinese food palate, where before it was Cantonese dominant, but now it is Sichuan.

I don’t have more thoughts on this other than to note that it is happening. San Francisco may be one of the last bastions of old style Cantonese cooking. Even in Singapore, and Malaysia, where the Chinese population has very southern Chinese taste buds, our new restaurants are increasingly not southern, and our old style foods are still there. But their practitioners are dying.