MINNEAPOLIS— After learning to cook Szechuan-style in New York, Jessie Wong really wanted to have her own restaurant.
“I grew up in China. When I was little, I helped my parents cook dumplings. I made Shandong-style dumplings,” said Jessie Wong, owner of Jun. “I worked with my parents and then went to New York for a few days. I worked with a chef from Chengdu for many years who practiced Szechuan. After trying Szechuan food, I fell in love, I really wanted to make my own restaurant.
When she emigrated in 2001, she found life in America a bit tough.
‘I came here for a year and was really struggling [as a] Single mom, you know,” Wong said. ‘I wanted that too [to go] back to China at that time.”
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But with her son at school and her job here, she realized she had to stay.
She opened her first restaurant, Szechuan, in Roseville. She says it was stressful at the time, she had a young son to carry on her back and often worked until 1am
“I’m a single mother. My son was only 1 year old. I carried him on my back,” Wong said.
But she also received a lot of help from her eldest son, who was 18 at the time.
Wong says Szechuan often got customers from Minneapolis’ North Loop, and they often asked her to open a restaurant in Minneapolis. So she did.
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Jun opened on Washington Avenue in 2017. Wong’s inspiration behind the restaurant name goes back to her heritage.
“Jun is my Chinese name,” she said. ‘In Chinese it means ‘king’. Yes, I want this one, like it’s going to be my own name. This is my long life, you know? This is my dream restaurant. I would like to put my personal name on that.
Wong says Jun is more like Szechuan fusion, although the restaurant has many authentic dishes.
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“Jun does [a] fusion restaurant. One hundred percent Szechuan food, not everyone likes it, so we have to compromise. For example, Szechuan chong qing spicy chicken,” she said.
The biggest? She reduced the number of peppercorns used in some recipes. Wong also made many of the sauces himself.
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“I just created [them]. Like the Szechuan dumpling sauce and the dan dan noodle sauce that I made,” Wong said.
Wong says she is proud of what she has achieved.
“Yes, of course I’m happy. I’m proud, proud of what I did. Since I couldn’t speak English twenty years ago, I’m proud of what I did. I never give up,” she said.
