Jamie Malone and Tammy Wong Collab on La Chine Pop-Up

Introducing: La Chine!

The plot was hatched behind the scenes, while the art connoisseurs were contemplating priceless Chinese bronzes… Something very cool is happening, Minnesota. Remember the Mia show a while back, the one with the priceless Chinese bronzes, the installation by the Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon set designers, that whole luxurious, artful shebang? Well, two of Minnesota’s most important chefs were brought in to cook a sumptuous dinner for ticketed guests, and they got to talking. These two chefs happened to be: Jamie Malone, James Beard-nominated best chef, current proprietor of Paris Dining Club, and Tammy Wong, the Alice Waters of Chinese food in Minnesota.

They chatted, and realized they had many things in common: Great chefs who love fashion and flair, hospitality, and romance. When I wrote about Tammy Wong last summer, she took me on a tour of her whole building, and I got to see the very romantic, bohemian sort of private dining space upstairs at her Rainbow Chinese. It has lacquer screens, big windows, wide board floors, and a very interesting 1920s poster from Old Shanghai, that is, the era of Shanghai when it was a crossroads of the world, before communist China took over. Think movies like Orson Welles’s The Lady from Shanghai, and Ang Lee’s Lust/Caution. (Here’s a whole British Film Institute Old Shanghai film list, if you want to explore.)

If you know a lot about Shanghai, you know that the French Concession was the area of the city where the French set up shop, and that it’s still beautiful, and a very popular, and stylish, tourist destination, to this day.

And if you know that, then of course you know that French restaurants are found throughout Shanghai and China to this day, and of course there are Chinese restaurants in France, and a whole French-and-Chinese cross-pollination and dialogue with unique culinary elements has been happening forever, but usually without Minnesota entering the chat.

Until now!

La Chine, by Tammy Wong and Jamie Malone, is a pop-up dinner on November 12, combining two great chefs, their unique perspectives—and you? I love the idea of all of this. I love the chance to take style and collaboration to a place we’ve never experienced before.

I love the idea of Tammy Wong cooking without constantly worrying if her Minnesotan customers will get it, if they will understand her ambitions and abilities outside of the traditional conversation about Chinese restaurant “authenticity,” which just always allows the loudest voice in the room to bloviate about what they think the past was like. I love the idea of Jamie Malone activating the space above Rainbow into something new, luxurious, and fresh. I love the idea of two women chefs boldly going where no one here has gone before!

The tickets are up! I’m told if this first one is a success, there will be more. The dinner is at 5 p.m., tickets are $145 and include dinner, beverages, and gratuity. NA bevs are also available.