Charles Phan, Famed San Francisco Chef of Slanted Door, Dies at 62

Charles Phan, a chef whose love of meals led to opening the favored Slanted Door eating places and showcasing trendy Vietnamese delicacies all through the Bay Space and past, died on Monday, January 20. He was 62.

The trigger was cardiac arrest, his representatives confirmed through e-mail. Phan was hospitalized final week following a medical emergency that resulted in a mind harm, the San Francisco Commonplace reported over the weekend.

“Whereas this was sudden and stunning to many people, we’ll endure because the Slanted Door has for nearly 30 years,” the Phan household and the Slanted Door Group stated in a press release. “The eating places will proceed to function underneath the management of our administration workforce as we navigate this transition.”

Phan was born in Da Lat, Vietnam, and on the age of 13, he and his household fled the nation, ultimately settling down in San Francisco. He discovered to prepare dinner Vietnamese meals from his aunt and mom, making meals for his 5 siblings and picked up different cooking methods by watching tv.

Phan held an early curiosity in structure, attending the College of California, Berkeley, in pursuit of an structure diploma, however he finally left this system. Later he pursued cooking, opening the primary iteration of Slanted Door in 1995. Phan, a self-taught chef, used recent and native elements in his meals and introduced trendy Vietnamese delicacies to a nationwide viewers. He was embraced for dishes like cellophane noodles with Dungeness crab and clay pot rooster. The Slanted Door moved to 100 Brannan Avenue earlier than touchdown within the storied Ferry Constructing in 2004, in a new restaurant area designed by frequent Phan collaborators Lundberg Design. That flagship restaurant quickly closed in 2020, together with different eating places in the course of the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, and whereas Phan stated he at all times deliberate to reopen, he ultimately introduced it could shut completely in Might 2024. Three months later, he shortly adopted that announcement with information that he would reopen San Francisco’s solely Slanted Door in its authentic location at 584 Valencia Avenue in 2025.

Within the intervening years, Phan expanded the footprint of the Slanted Door, opening places in San Ramon, Napa, and Beaune, France. He additionally opened Chuck’s Takeaway within the Mission in 2022, an informal sandwich counter serving banh mi and egg salad sandwiches. Phan additionally opened and closed a couple of different ventures throughout his time, together with the short-lived restaurant the Coachman and his in style whisky-focused bar Onerous Water, which was evicted from its waterfront area in 2022. Phan’s UC Berkeley restaurant Rice and Bones, positioned in Wurster Corridor, opened in 2017 however ultimately closed its doorways in 2023.

Phan wrote two cookbooks: Vietnamese House Cooking, which highlights Vietnamese cooking methods and gained an award from the Worldwide Affiliation of Culinary Professionals in 2013, and The Slanted Door, which contains a choice of recipes from his in style restaurant.

Phan acquired the James Beard Award for Finest Chef: California in 2004 and was inducted into the James Beard Basis’s Who’s Who of Meals in America in 2011. The James Beard Basis additional acknowledged the Slanted Door as an Excellent Restaurant in America in 2014.

An Instagram publish on the Slanted Door’s social media referred to as Phan “our beloved chief, visionary, and pal” and “one of the vital beneficiant people.” The publish requested privateness for the household to grieve, writing, “For now, let’s honor Charles’ extraordinary life and legacy by preserving his spirit alive in the way in which we savor and share meals with each other — at all times household fashion.”

Phan is survived by his spouse and three youngsters.

Patricia Chang

Eater SF will proceed to replace this story as extra info turns into obtainable.