Din Tai Fung's co-CEOs talk legacy, TikTok virality, and the art of making Americans fall in love with dumplings
For Aaron and Albert Yang, hot soup dumplings are their legacy.
The two brothers are the grandsons of the founder of Din Tai Fung, the world's most recognizable dumpling chain. Now, they're the co-CEOs of the chain's North American business and the third generation to helm the family business.
Din Tai Fung — or DTF, as its followers have affectionately nicknamed it — has humble origins as a small oil shop in Taiwan. The brothers' grandfather, Yang Bing-Yi, moved from mainland China to Taiwan in the 1940s and worked in a local oil company.
Yang later transitioned to selling xiao long bao, or steamed pork soup dumplings. Din Tai Fung is known for those dumplings to this day — as well as for its precision. Each xiao long bao weighs exactly 21 grams and is pleated exactly 18 times before it's closed.
The chain has become a global dumpling superpower, with more than 173 outlets in 13 countries, including Singapore, the UK, and Australia. There are 21 Din Tai Fung outlets in the US and Canada, including new stores in Manhattan and California's Disneyland.
And for the Yangs, the dumpling business is serious business: Every Din Tai Fung outlet in North America churns out over 10,000 xiao long baos every day, the chain told BI.
A duty to carry on the family business
Growing up, the brothers helped out after school in their parents' first US Din Tai Fung in Los Angeles. Aaron described the outlet as "very mom-and-pop."
"Our parents are immigrants to this country, and English wasn't their first language," said Aaron, 33. "I have a lot of memories of them struggling with things that come with running a business in a foreign country."
Aaron said they both went to Cornell University to pursue hospitality degrees so they could take the business pressure off their parents.
"It definitely felt like a duty growing up," he added.
They would also go to Taiwan every summer to visit their grandfather.
"When he first started the restaurant in 1972, he lived above the restaurant with his family, so he would basically go downstairs for work," Aaron said.
"Even as he got older, he lived literally across the street from the restaurant so he could see the restaurant, the first original location, from his window. He always wanted to keep an eye on it, even when he was retired and his kids had taken over," he added.
Like their grandfather, both men think that being a good leader requires working on the front lines.
"We had a meeting about how we can improve our dish washing station, and if I didn't go to Vancouver and stand there in the dish washing station, I'd have no idea," Albert, 32, said.
Albert also does product tastings every Wednesday.
"There's some exciting stuff, like new menu items. But some stuff isn't exciting. Like realizing, 'We need backup string beans' or 'backup, backup string beans,'" he said.
Americans love chicken, and that's a problem for Din Tai Fung
These days, DTF offers casual dining. Some of its restaurants are simple in decor; others are more elaborately furnished, with red chandeliers and dark wooden accents.
In its Manhattan store, a steamer of 10 xiao long baos costs $18.50. Other popular dishes, like the string beans with garlic and the cucumber salad, cost $17 and $9, respectively.
When I asked what their biggest challenge is in terms of consumer tastes in the US, their answer was immediate.
"The No. 1 protein in the US is chicken. I think a lot of our American diners might be surprised if they find out that Taiwan doesn't even sell chicken fried rice," Albert said with a laugh.
Taiwanese customers, he said, have a pork-heavy palate.
"There are a lot more dietary restrictions in the US, which make the dining culture a little bit different compared to the original stores in Taiwan," Albert said.
"In the years that I've been here, we did chicken wontons, and now the chicken xiao long baos too. "We added a beef item, and also vegan wontons," he added.
The TikTok effect
While Din Tai Fung doesn't have an official TikTok, videos of customers dining on its crunchy cucumber salad and biting into its oozing chocolate dumplings have regularly gone viral on the platform.
Other popular customer videos highlight chefs rolling out dumpling dough in open-plan kitchens and diners digging into wooden dumpling trays.
The cucumber salad, served in a neatly stacked pyramid of cucumber slices drenched in sauce, has even spawned a legion of TikTok videos devoted to copying the recipe.
"We've been lucky with TikTok, we don't have our own TikTok account," Albert said.
"I think our level of execution provided us some opportunity to get lucky on TikTok, and we really blew up on it. But it was all organic," he said.
The CEOs said Americans, particularly younger customers, love Din Tai Fung's chocolate xiao long baos.
While the brothers, who are based in California, have tailored the menu to suit Western palates, they say there's a limit.
"We'll get the occasional comment of, 'Why don't you guys do like a cheeseburger soup dumpling or something?'" Aaron said.
"I'm sure we would sell a lot of, I don't know, cheeseburger, dumplings, or Chinese chicken salad, or orange chicken items that Americans are used to seeing and eating," Albert added.
But he said Americans, particularly those in major metropolitan cities, were craving authentic experiences, and so sticking to original recipes was important for them.
"We just pride ourselves on trying to carry on this tradition and just staying true to our roots," Albert said.
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