Danny Bowien took to Twitter this morning to drop the new Mission Chinese Food menu, which coincides with the one-year anniversary of the NYC location. The menu includes dishes like lamb tongue and cuttlefish terrine, along with faces of his NYC chef inspirations matched up with the bodies of legendary players on the 1992 U.S.A. Basketball Olympic “Dream Team.”
Bowien is clearly gearing up for a night of epic partying, which—if tweets are to be trusted—might include singing Christina Aguilera with buddy Daniel Boulud. He’s also gearing up to head to Oklahoma City to support tornado victims. The man does it all.
We went ahead and matched the basketball player with the chefs they’ve been replaced with (it’s like a foodie version if the NBA Jam Big Head Mode feature). We can’t determine from the grainy Twit pic who is playing the role of Scottie Pippen, but we think we’ve got the rest cracked (thanks to a little help from friends). Drop us a note in the comments if you can figure out the Pippen mystery, or if you see any rhyme or reason to the connection between each chef and player. Daniel Boulud as Larry Bird makes sense because they’re both Legends, but what about the rest?
Magic Johnson = David Chang
Larry Bird = Daniel Boulud
Patrick Ewing = Andy Ricker (Pok Pok)
Charles Barkley = April Bloomfield (The Spotted Pig)
Chris Mullin = Mario Batali
Karl Malone = Wylie Dufresne (wd~50)
Christian Laettner = Frank Castronovo (Prime Meats)
David Robinson = Christina Tosi (Milk Bar)
Michael Jordan = Michael Jordan
Clyde Drexler = Frank Falcinelli (Prime Meats)
John Stockton = Angela Dimayuga, chef de cuisine at Mission Chinese NYC
Scottie Pippen = ?