Award-winning San Francisco chef Charles Phan, a trailblazer whose modern interpretations of Vietnamese cuisine captivated the Bay Area, died Monday of cardiac arrest. He was 62.
When his famed Slanted Door first opened in 1994 in San Francisco’s Mission district, his Shaking Beef and Cellophane Noodles with Crab were among the most talked-about dishes in San Francisco — and Shaking Beef remains a standard not only on his menus but at Vietnamese restaurants throughout the Bay Area.
Too popular to keep up with reservations, the restaurant moved to a South of Market location in 2002 and then to the city’s Ferry Building in 2004.
In 2014, the James Beard Foundation bestowed Outstanding Restaurant of the Year honors on the Slanted Door.
Phan expanded the concept to the East Bay in 2019 with an upscale outpost at San Ramon’s City Center Bishop Ranch and to Napa. The Ferry Building location, which has been closed since 2000, had been scheduled to reopen in the spring of this year.
A statement issued Tuesday by the Slanted Door Group said, “The restaurants will continue to operate under the leadership of our management team as we navigate this transition.”
Phan was a refugee who escaped Vietnam with his family before the fall of Saigon. They lived in Guam, then resettled in San Francisco.
This is a developing story. Come back for updates.