Asian Farm to Table

A new generation of chefs and entrepreneurs is finally bringing the amazing cooking of the world's second-largest country to a broad American audience. Danielle interviews a former financier who offers a light, healthy take on Indian classics at his fast-casual start-up Inday; the adventurous restaurateurs behind Babu Ji, where meticulous preparations and a Bollywood vibe have led to breakout success; and a Silicon Valley engineer who got her start in the food business selling homemade chai by bicycle in the hills of San Francisco.

Danielle gets back to her roots in an episode devoted to the distinctive, rustic cuisine of Taiwan. With Cathy Erway, author of "Foods of Taiwan," she hits a Chinatown market and then makes the island's most famous dish, beef noodle soup. At Taiwan Bear House, started by homesick young expats, she tries a New York take on the box lunches known as biandang. And in California's Orange County, she pays a twilight visit to America's closest counterpart to a classic Taiwanese night market.

Asian cuisine is increasingly the engine driving the growth of the American food industry. Danielle talks to three Asian-American entrepreneurs about the secrets of their success: Tim Wildin, the young Chipotle executive whose Thai aunties' recipes contribute to the menu at Shophouse; Lynda Trang Dai, once known as the Vietnamese Madonna and now the queen of banh mi sandwiches in Orange County's Little Saigon; and Charles Phan, the ground-breaking chef whose Slanted Door was named best restaurant in the country by the James Beard Foundation.

This episode explores how cultures collide when trends meet traditions. Mister Softee taken over by the Chinese government; Brooklyn Brewery is using Japanese hops from Jeju Island; the Fung Bros visits a New Yorker who is reinventing the Shanghainese soup dumpling.

Today, what we watch can be just as appetizing as what we eat. From the Korean art of mukbang to viral sensations, artists both amateur and professional are using food as their medium of choice. Being a foodie today is just as likely to happen in a 24/7 Korean spa as it is in a restaurant.

It isn't just recipes that get imported and exported between the East and West, but also food practices. The farm to table movement is not at all uniquely American. We travel around China's Hangzhou region with Dai Jianjun of Dragon's Well Manor and to Sang Lee Farms in New York's North Fork to see how widespread this movement to keep things local really is.