Dining
BY KAREN CHANEY
Jeng Chi carries on family tradition in Richardson Francisco “Chico” Teng, a third generation restaurateur, said when his mom, Mei Teng moved to Texas from China, following a stint in Taiwan and Brazil due to political unrest, she started working in an Asian supermarket in Richardson. Eventually, she o ered to make and sell steamed buns at the store. “I remember in high school we’d make steamed buns on the weekends and she sold them at the supermarket,” Chico said. Eventually, Chico’s father, Yuan Teng joined the family in Texas and together they decided to open a dough-centric Chinese restaurant versus a rice-ori- ented restaurant since those already existed in the community. The backstory Chico’s grandfather opened many businesses in China, including a restaurant he named Jeng Chi.
In 1990, the Tengs opened Jeng Chi in DFW China Town in Richardson. The business tripled in size during the rst two decades in operation. During that time, Chico graduated from Univer- sity of North Texas with a graphic design degree, worked a corporate job for a while then decided that lifestyle wasn’t for him. He returned to the family business where he became a manager then, to increase his skillset, he trained as a baker at a large culinary establishment in Taiwan. While there he learned how to elevate Chinese cuisine. “Somehow the Chinese cuisine kind of stepped itself down to the point that it became a bu et in America,” Chico said. “In Taiwan it is not that way. The food progressed into this modern thing. So my purpose here was to create this idea of traditional food, but meeting today’s needs.” In 2013, Chico and his wife, Janelle Teng, who had extensive hospitality experience, took over ownership of the family restaurant which was being relocated to a much larger space within DFW China Town. “He asked me to marry him in October 2012, we were married in March 2013 and opened the [new
location] in April,” Janelle said. “[The Jeng family] took a huge leap of faith in their son’s choice of a spouse. They didn’t really know me.” On the menu Chico said he and his mother created recipes for all the menu items. “Our kitchen is most well known for our dump- lings,” Janelle said. Dumpling options, which are all hand-rolled, include juicy, steamed, boiled and pot stickers. “When we say we make everything from scratch, we really mean from scratch,” Chico said. Quote of note When Chico walks through the restaurant, which will celebrate its 35th year anniversary in May, he nds audible joy in the journey. “When the restaurant is going well, it’s about the roar— that’s the exciting thing. It’s actually people enjoying themselves,” Chico said. “You provide something that is really good, and then that thing churns and creates something beautiful.”
Chico and Janelle Teng took over ownership of Jeng Chi in 2013.
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400 N. Greenville Ave., Ste. 11, Richardson www.jengchirestaurant.com
Small juicy dumplings ($14) are Jeng Chi’s signature soup dumplings which are lled with pork, ginger, green onion and seasoning.
PHOTOS BY KAREN CHANEY COMMUNITY IMPACT
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