A Richmond chef is back in his hometown heading up a steakhouse after cooking at top restaurants around the world.
Now, at age 30, James Yang is the head chef at House of Dawn, which rebranded as a steakhouse in December.
Yang studied at Le Cordon Bleu in Ottawa straight out of high school and has since worked globally from the world's first ranked restaurant Noma in Copenhagen, Denmark, and at L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon in Shanghai to cooking at Wolfgang’s Steakhouse in New York and working as a sous chef at Peter Luger Steak house, also in New York.
During his culinary journey, Yang became interested in how steakhouses work, describing himself as a "nerd about steak."
To gain more insight into steaks, Yang worked at a slaughterhouse in Kansas City, Mo., and a butcher shop in New York during the pandemic.
Yang believes that a good steakhouse goes beyond the kitchen; it is about learning how cattle are raised, what they are fed and what the process is from farm to table.
He is now bringing this knowledge to Richmond's House of Dawn Steakhouse and its customers, showing that fine steakhouses don't have to be in downtown Vancouver.
“I want to build a steakhouse that’s different than other steakhouses. One with some delicate dishes to accompany the steaks served and provide the best pair for the main key components.”
Chef's both parents are chefs
Yang was born in Zhengzhou, China, and immigrated with his parents to Richmond in 2008 when he was 13 years old.
"I have a strong Chinese culture and background... but Canada is where I built my career and goal in life," he said.
Both of Yang's parents are chefs by trade, but his interest in the culinary industry really grew during his culinary arts class at Richmond Secondary.
At the time, his teacher suggested he pursue the school's trades in training program with Vancouver Community College.
However, disagreement arose between Yang and his parents when this was brought up.
“When your parents work in the industry that you want to pursue, they know how hard it is, how tough, how tiring, and everything that (it) will cost you, so they don’t want you to suffer,” said Yang.
“But my parents forgot about one thing: passion can change everything.”
Special dry-aged process used at House of Dawn
House of Dawn serves up a curated selection of beef sourced from Canada, Australia and Japan, grilled over binchotan charcoal.
All their fresh-cut steaks are aged for a minimum of 30 days, with some unique steaks being chocolate and butter dry-aged -- a hybrid technique where steak is dry-aged for 28 days then encased in butter or dark chocolate to mimic a wet-age environment.
Yang wants his customers at House of Dawn Steakhouse to explore the types of steaks they prefer.
He told the Richmond News that instead of telling people what they might like, he wants customers to determine what type of steaks they want, whether it's a leaner cut of meat or how their steak is dry-aged.
“People pay for their meals, so the customer should always have their choice in picking their meal, not based on my recommendations, because mine might not be the best fit for them," said Yang.
“At the end of the day, you know what you want the most, not someone else.”
House of Dawn Steakhouse is located on Ackroyd Road just off No. 3 Road.
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