From the star chef, founder, and co-owner of the wildly popular restaurant Mission Chinese Food, comes a riotous, unconventional cookbook packed with inventive recipes that embody his signature mash-up of “Chinese” food and American classics.

Born out of a food truck that roamed the late night streets of San Francisco’s Mission District, Mission Chinese Food started life as a pop-up, a rough-and-tumble joint that served radically reimagined “Chinese food” inside an old Americanized Chinese restaurant after hours. The incredible resourcefulness and unbridled inventiveness of Danny Bowien’s dishes has had hungry diners queuing up in both San Francisco and New York City, waiting hours to enjoy delights such as Sizzling Cumin Lamb Breast and Kung Pao Pastrami.

In The Mission Chinese Food Cookbook, this young culinary star chronicles his unconventional and meteoric rise in a “cookbook in conversations” that combines raucous storytelling with delicious recipes. In a series of roundtable discussions with essential crewmembers, he brings to life such highlights as the development and opening of the restaurant, an ill-fated trip to China, and the restaurant’s expansion to New York’s Lower East Side. These lively dialogues are accompanied by beautiful color photographs and mouthwatering recipes—from schmaltz fried rice to hot-and-sour soup dumplings to a “Chinese chicken salad” made with escarole and tea-smoked chicken.

Creative, addictive, and surprisingly simple, and borrowing from across the culinary spectrum, The Mission Chinese Food Cookbook’s recipes will delight Bowien’s fans and inspire home-cooks of all levels to rethink what’s possible in the kitchen, offering a passport to a wholly unique dining experience.