We recently had the chance to connect with C-Y Chia and have shared our conversation below.
Hi C-Y, thank you for taking the time to reflect back on your journey with us. I think our readers are in for a real treat. There is so much we can all learn from each other and so thank you again for opening up with us. Let’s get into it: What is a normal day like for you right now?
Mornings start with checking my schedule for a sense of my day. I’m a rigorous planner when it comes to my time, and I prefer to be able to orient my mindset toward the challenges ahead. Some mornings, my partner and I head to the farmers’ market. Even though we’re no longer shopping for a busy restaurant, we value the relationships we’ve built with our local producers, and staying attuned to what’s in season keeps us inspired.
The rest of the day, if not an “admin and emails” or recipe typing day, will be spent at the brick and mortar. Although we closed last year and are no longer taking catering requests -a big shift after having cooked for well over a hundred beautiful weddings and events over the years- we are still using the space to develop recipes for food consulting clients, and to produce large quantities of makrut peanuts for friendly businesses around the Bay Area. We also entirely tested and shot our upcoming cookbook there.
At night, I either look forward to going home and making dinner from lots of vegetables with my partner while our cats run around in hopes of fallen scraps, or stopping by one of our go-to bars to catch up with industry peers and friends.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I’m the co-founder of Lion Dance Cafe, a pop up-turned-restaurant-turned pop up based in Oakland, California. I started cooking professionally 15 years ago, and about 13 of those have been in the Bay Area. Over the years, my partner (Shane Stanbridge) and I have refined our culinary language and shared our stories through our dishes, marrying our shared ethics and enthusiasm for the abundance of locally grown produce with our combined Italian, Chinese and Singaporean sensibilities.
Our cuisine is characterized by its bold, layered flavors, freshness, and vibrancy, as well as our from-scratch approach – we make as much as possible ourselves, from rempahs (spice pastes), to ferments such as doubanjiang, to breads and pastas. Far from being limiting, our conscious decision to eschew meat and other animal products has allowed us to explore the incredibly vast palette of vegetables, legumes, grains, fruits, flowers, herbs, spices… and, with our sustainable-mindedness and commitment to radically genuine hospitality (the only approach that makes sense to us as queer chefs with our backgrounds), has earned us recognition from the James Beard Foundation, Michelin, and our crowd of regulars.
Our first, long-awaited cookbook, the Lion Dance Cafe Cookbook: Authentic, not Traditional”, is coming out in early 2026, after which we will be relocating to my native Singapore, bringing our unique perspectives, experience, and drive to highlight regional producers to its dynamic dining scene.
Okay, so here’s a deep one: What’s a moment that really shaped how you see the world?
Not the world, but a small yet determining piece.
A year or so after moving to the U.S, I waited in line at Out the Door, the takeout concept attached to the late chef Charles Phan’s Slanted Door in San Francisco’s Ferry Building. The place was packed.
As a young cook, I had been conditioned by the dominant narrative that you could only earn respect and charge what you were worth if you went into fine dining. Which, at the time still, was established as French cuisine – or at the very least, French techniques and Euro-centric coding. As I took a bite of flaky, creamy, savory daikon cake, I was hit with a wave of nostalgic warmth. It was overwhelming, and I was hit with how homesick I had really felt. And, how this was what I wanted to offer through my cooking -a taste of home away from home.
Even though it took a few years more for me to build the confidence to start putting these deeply personal flavors on the menu, a seed was planted.
If you could say one kind thing to your younger self, what would it be?
Accepting that my lifelong anger is one of my strongest assets has really helped me shift from feeling deeply flawed, powerlessly frustrated at everything I was enraged at and couldn’t change, to trusting my judgement and my ability to put my energy where I need it. It’s always been there for me, warning me when something isn’t right, pushing me forward like a motor when I need to act, reminding me that even when I’m in an unpleasant situation where my options seem limited or discouraging, I still have agency.
Next, maybe we can discuss some of your foundational philosophies and views? What truths are so foundational in your life that you rarely articulate them?
I believe in authenticity, consistency, and the importance of context.
One of my most frequently received questions is, when did I stop eating meat? My younger sibling and I were in our teens when they became aware of how cruelly animals are treated as part of the food production industry. They are the most empathetic person I know, and they had an intuitive understanding of the concept of sentience from a young age. Learning about these processes was a huge shock. They asked me why, if we don’t need to, do we do this to other beings? How can we accept this? At first, I made up excuses to try to make them feel better. Normalizing. “Maybe humans need to eat meat”. Some ridiculous analogy about the cycle of life and nature. But I did not know. I could not help them make sense of this. It was upsetting for us both. So I replied truthfully, and promised that until I have a better answer, I’ll stop eating meat with them. Shortly after, as we dove more into these systems of exploitation, we went vegan. It’s been many years. I still don’t have a better answer for them, and I’ve kept my word.
Since then, I’ve found that the people who are interested in facing challenges together rather than downplaying them to preserve a false sense of peace or comfort, those who I can count on to consistently apply their principles to the different aspects of their lives and decision-making, and those who care to account for the nuances of various contexts, and try to show up with kindness even (especially) when it’s messy rather than attempt to project perfection, are those that I want to associate with, learn from, and build with.
Thank you so much for all of your openness so far. Maybe we can close with a future oriented question. What will you regret not doing?
I was born in Singapore and raised there as a child, but there came a point when my mother decided to move back to her home country of France. I appreciate that she had her reasons, am glad that I got to spend a little more time with her parents than I otherwise would have, and recognize that, to us then-very-young children, nothing mattered more than being with her. Nevertheless, my sibling and I were effectively uprooted. We traveled back regularly at first, to visit our father, aunties, cousins and Ah Ma, but over time, the frequency decreased as circumstances evolved, and as we grew up.
I am who I am today because of my unique path in life, and I prefer to look to the opportunities that moving back to Singapore now, as an adult, may present, rather than lose myself in the “what ifs” of what I can no longer change. And at the same time, I will always wonder what my life would’ve been like had I stayed.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.liondancecafe.com
- Instagram: @liondancecafe
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/c-y-chia-b430882b4/
Image Credits
Shane Stanbridge for Lion Dance Cafe
Thomas Dang Vo
Evan J Bass
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