Inside the Kitchen: Seven Questions with Mei Lin

I’ll say Hainan chicken and rice. When it's done right, it's literally perfect. There’s a place in Vancouver called HK Barbecue Master and they do an incredible soy sauce chicken with ginger, scallion over rice—and that’s amazing.

For me, my favorite food moments were the ones that I'd spend with my grandpa. He was the one who really got me into cooking, or got me interested in food. I remember as a kid, him taking me to go grocery shopping and kind of capturing all the different smells in the grocery store—seeing live crab, eating things like plantains for the first time. Obviously, me thinking they’re bananas when they are plantains. Those were my fondest food memories. It was an Asian grocery store in Michigan called Viet Wah. I think it was Southfield, Michigan, because there weren't really many Asian grocery stores in Dearborn. We had to travel, maybe a 30-minute drive away from Dearborn. And my parents still shop there to this day.

Fine dining means exceptional service and amazingly served food in a fancier setting.

Never say never. I like to focus on one for a while before kind of venturing out and doing another. I love the restaurant industry so much, and I love being in a restaurant. I just love the hustle and bustle of an active service. And so I'll never say no to opening up another restaurant, but I don't know when that's going to happen—so just kind of focus on this one for now.

The one restaurant I have on my bucket list right now is Etxebarri. I've always been inspired by the food that he makes. It's very, very simple, but done to perfection. Cooking over the fire, as well, is something that I love doing. I've never done it in a restaurant, per se, but I just love the flavor that it exudes and so I really want to experience Etxebarri in that sense.

Just being unapologetic about the food that you put forth. It's pretty much my view in general. I don't like to sacrifice on quality. I always like to put that in the forefront. We're using the best ingredients possible, putting out the best food we can.

I love soup. I think more so now, as I've gotten older, I want a really great bowl of soup. I want to curl up on the couch, in the corner of the couch, and just eat a bowl of soup—whether it be a brothy soup, or a stew, or congee, anything along those lines.