Before Anthony Bourdain’s A Cook’s Tour there was Chinese Restaurants. The food/travel show’s creator returns to the theme in a new book

In 2000, Hong Kong-born Cheuk Kwan began filming a documentary series about family-run Chinese restaurants around the world

His realistic style was echoed in Bourdain’s later food-travel shows. In a new book, Have You Eaten Yet?, he tells the restaurants’ stories in more depth

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Before Anthony Bourdain, there was a similar style food show, Chinese Restaurants. Filmmaker Cheuk Kwan (pictured) has released a book based on the show. Photo: Cedric Sam

Published: 7:45pm, 26 May 2022

Before Anthony Bourdain, there was Cheuk Kwan. In 2000, the Hong Kong-born, Canadian filmmaker began his documentary series Chinese Restaurants about family-run Chinese restaurants in far-flung places around the world.

The first episode centred on a small cafe in a tiny town in Canada’s Saskatchewan province operated by an immigrant who arrived using a fake identity. Kwan toured countries including Brazil, Israel, Mauritius, Norway and Cuba and unearthed some equally fascinating tales.

Over 15 episodes, he explored the drama and heartache of braving a new world as an émigré through each restaurant’s (often mediocre) fried rice and chop suey.

“Yeah, I started it a year before Bourdain did his first series [A Cook’s Tour]. I wasn’t that familiar with his shows but when I finally saw them, I couldn’t help but notice the similarity of how we tell the story, and the format,” Kwan says.

Chow Fong and Noisy Jim at the New Outlook Cafe in Saskatchewan, Canada, in a still from the first episode of Chinese Restaurants.

Not that he thinks Bourdain copied him, but Kwan’s immersive, verité style was ahead of its time. There is a similar elegance to the way he examines the food and explores how Chinese settlements transcend their ethnic and cultural boundaries, while weaving together the personal and political.