This chapter covers the Asian-cuisine wins that don’t fit cleanly into the Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese, or Thai chapters — the Chinese, the Pan-Asian, the dishes whose lineage crosses borders.
Bobby’s losses to Chinese cuisine in particular are pantry losses. Chinkiang black vinegar is not rice vinegar. Doubanjiang is not gochujang. Shaoxing wine is not sherry. Chefs who beat Bobby in this chapter often arrived with the actual ingredients, in the actual proportions.
Bobby’s pantry is a Western pantry. Every cuisine in this section has a pantry, and the wins here are wins by chefs who brought theirs.