Quote Originally Posted by stile99 View Post
Convince me that someone of Chinese heritage who grew up eating Chinese food WOULDN'T be able to make good Japanese food.

I mean, if we're going to go down this road, then of course you're aware that "Mexican food" is nonsense, with at least five regions with distinct food styles. You even made reference to food having regions when you specified Sichuan food as opposed to Mandarin, or Hunan, or Cantonese, or others. Greek food, also mentioned, is also rather diverse.

For what it is worth, I don't disagree with the sentiment behind your question...when I walk into a Romanian restaurant and see Romanians in the dining room as well as the kitchen, I'm pretty confident they know what they're doing there. But the flip side isn't true, if I see Filipinos in the kitchen I don't assume they can't make the food.
I've just been burned too many times by a non-chinese cuisine restaurant run by Chinese and the flavors were just way off. (my reference being places I ate at on the west coast that were "natively run" to give it a term)

Thanks for getting the sentiment behind my post, though. I'm not trying to be unthankful for a variety of cuisine in the area, but it's like.. why wouldn't a restaurant owner play to his/her strengths? We all know the flavors of our mom's cooking better than anyone else's.. so why not serve what you know by experience?