Best Asian Handpulled Noodles in NYC: Xi'an Famous Foods CEO Jason Wang on "Savor with Tiffany Pham"

Jason Wang, CEO of Xi'an Famous Foods, is a 2026 Savor Honoree for Excellence in Handpulled Noodles. For more, view here: savortheuniverse.comJason Wang was supposed to go corporate. Instead he drove back from the Midwest, moved his things out of the car in a day, and started working in his father's noodle stall the next morning.Twenty years on, Xi'an Famous Foods is a New York institution, and the spicy cumin lamb noodles are one of the city's signature dishes. But it began as a bubble tea shop in Flushing, because his father wasn't sure New Yorkers would want food this spicy and this heavy on cumin, and wanted a hedge. Within six months the food was outselling the tea.Tiffany Pham sits down with Jason over the dish that made him famous. They talk about his father, still the keeper of the recipe and the only person who makes the chili oil. About the thirty proprietary spices, some so obscure they don't have names. About the nights he drove his staff home to Flushing after thirteen-hour days, and the one where an employee started crying in his car and he realised he was just as tired. And about a young woman from Xi'an who came to New York alone at nineteen and ate the same bowl of beef noodle soup at his East Village store because it tasted like her parents' house.Asked whether he feels like he belongs here now, he says no, not entirely, and probably not for another ten or twenty years. Then he explains why that isn't a sad answer.Savor with Tiffany Pham, a Representation podcast production, is a companion to the television docuseries Savor with Tiffany Pham premiering in 2027. Cinematography by: Kym Pham.CHAPTERS00:00 Meeting Jason, and the dish that made them famous02:14 Inside the bowl: the noodles, the lamb, 30 spices04:01 The scar from a lamb skewer05:35 Why it went viral07:23 His father, keeper of the recipe09:21 "I always feel a bit of an imposter"10:21 Every complaint still goes to his phone13:23 A bubble tea shop in Flushing16:12 The Golden Shopping Mall stall17:27 Bourdain, 200717:42 Leaving corporate, driving back from the Midwest21:01 On belonging22:42 Legacy, 20 years in23:42 The hardest moments26:02 Driving his employees home29:18 How to savor it31:23 What he eats at home33:53 Rapid fire: pho, pizza, burgers, cakeABOUT XI'AN FAMOUS FOODSXi'an Famous Foods: xianfoods.com🎬 The Savor with Tiffany Pham docuseries premieres in 2027.🌐 savortheuniverse.comClick here to view the episode transcript.