Susur Lee

1. You’re about to debut your first New York restaurant, Shang. How does the experience differ from opening up north?
The difference is the staff. You get things done way quicker here. I think there’s more labor here and that’s one thing I recognize. People are very hungry about wanting to know and wanting to learn. They also have a way of being blunt and straight up with what they like. Those things are right up my alley.

2. Has anything else surprised you about the city?
I had a conversation with my friends about how it’s such a long stretch between uptown and downtown. I said, “Do uptown people go downtown and do downtown people go uptown?” I live in Toronto, which is such a small city, so we don’t really have uptown. We have downtown, but it’s like five minutes away. So this mentality surprised me, that people are dividing their lifestyle.

3. What is a signature dish that you’re bringing with you?
It’s a vegetarian dish called Singapore coleslaw. It has 19 different parts—nuts, seeds, all kinds of vegetables, crispy noodles.… If you eat that salad, it’s like a meal in itself. There’s lots of texture and when you close your eyes you can hear the sound of the crunchiness and freshness. I have adapted it to the ingredients in North America, and to the beauty that Westerners see in Asian cooking.