“It was founded by my mother in 1959. At that time, it was a wooden shed. We rebuilt it and it was inaugurated on 10 October 2018,” Alex Lee recalled.
Helen Lee had originally come from Guiyang City in Guizhou Province. Her family left China for Taipei and there, she met William LEE Hai Tien, who is from Tianjin in Hebei Province. They got married and moved to Yokohama in 1951, settling in that city’s famous Chinese enclave.
The couple, prominent members of the Chinese community in Yokohama, were good friends of Chang Dai Chien (1899 – 1983), also written as Zhang Daqian. Such is the painter’s talent and versatility Zhang is often referred to as the ‘Chinese Picasso’.
Helen Lee decided on Sichuan cuisine because William Lee was a good friend of a famous Sichuan chef named CHEN Jian Min who had come to Japan and opened a restaurant. Chen suggested to open a Sichuan restaurant and offered to help find a chef. At the time, Yokohama Chinatown had Cantonese, Beijing and Shanghainese restaurants but not Sichuan.
It is a testament to the foresight and business acumen of Helen Lee that Chungking Szechwan has become one of the most respected culinary names in Japan, with a total of eleven restaurants and six delicatessens in Yokohama, Tokyo, Nagoya and Okayama. Alex and elder brother Teddy Lee are also owners of Rose Hotel, situated a few buildings across the restaurant in Yokohama Chinatown.
164 Yamashitacho • Naka Ward
