Yang Bing-yi, Founder of Dumpling Empire Din Tai Fung, Dies at 96

HONG KONG — Yang Bing-yi, the founder of Din Tai Fung, the Taiwanese restaurant chain whose signature soup dumplings have attracted crowds around the world, and which became one of the rare Asian restaurants to win a Michelin star, has died at 96.

The company announced his death in a statement on Saturday. It did not say when or where he died.

Mr. Yang and his wife, Lai Pen-mei, opened their first modest storefront in 1958, laying the foundation for what would become a franchise that their children and grandchildren have expanded to more than 170 locations across Taiwan, mainland China and 13 other countries, including the United States, Japan, Australia and the United Arab Emirates, with a menu that includes such specialties as wontons in red chili oil, shredded tofu and seaweed salad, and steamed truffle-and-pork dumplings.

A Hong Kong branch has been awarded a Michelin star five times, most recently in 2022.

“What’s significant about Din Tai Fung is that really it was the first food brand out of Taiwan that introduced both Chinese and Taiwanese cookery to the world,” Clarissa Wei, a food writer in Taipei and the author of the forthcoming cookbook “Made in Taiwan,” said in a phone interview.

And although it did not invent the soup dumpling, or xiao long bao — delicate dumplings ingeniously loaded with succulent, soupy fillings — Din Tai Fung introduced it to a global audience at a time when few people outside China knew what it was.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/29/world/asia/yang-bing-yi-dead.html