Portrait of Jasper Chen
i. Biography
The Making
Xiaolongbao rewards control more than display. At XLB in Portland, the kitchen gave Jasper Chen a former chef role built around that discipline: wrapper handling, filling balance, retained heat, and the timing required for a soup dumpling to reach the table intact. The work sits in a demanding part of Chinese cooking, where a small parcel exposes errors quickly. Hand-shaped food sets a narrow but useful frame for record.
In Chen’s early profile, the emphasis is not a wide catalogue of influences but a concentrated craft: texture, precision, and the bite-scale construction of dumplings. At XLB, the specialty was xiaolongbao, and that association remains the clearest way to read the work.
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Signature
Signature dishes include pork and shrimp wontons and xiao long bao.
FAQ
Asked of Jasper
Where did Jasper Chen work before?
Earlier in their career, Jasper Chen worked at XLB.
What is Jasper Chen known for?
Xiaolongbao, or soup dumplings.
The Sunday email
Read about chefs like Jasper Chen in the Sunday email.
Every Sunday we send a lead story and up to four more about the chefs, winemakers, sommeliers and hoteliers behind the restaurants, bars, wineries and hotels we cover.
Recent stories
Free. One email a week, and you can unsubscribe from any issue.