Sheng’s Steam House offers authentic Chinese cuisine at Boiler Bistro

Sheng Yu cooks stir-fry in a wok for a lunch box meal. The kitchen is at the Boiler Bistro in Marriott Hall. (Purdue University photo/Kelsey Schnieders Lefever) Download image

Healthy, locally sourced, authentic Chinese cuisine is what's on the menu at the new Sheng's Steam House.

Pioneered by alumnus Sheng Yu, the steam house is an addition to the School of Hospitality and Tourism Management’s Boiler Bistro. It provides added food choices, includes ingredients sourced from the Purdue Student Farm and introduces HTM students to another dimension of real-life food service and management experience.

Sheng’s Steam House is located in Boiler Bistro in the Atrium of Marriott Hall. Hours at the Boiler Bistro are 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Monday-Friday.

Sheng’s Steam House features a lunch box containing a starch, vegetable, and protein. The menu will rotate based on seasonal availability to make use of fresh ingredients. The current lunch box offering can be found here.

Sheng Yu, the chef behind Sheng’s Steam House, was inspired to create the steam house to offer healthier dishes sourced locally. He is from eastern coastal China and studied under Chef Ambarish Lulay, clinical professional instructor in HTM. Yu graduated from Purdue in December.

“Lafayette has some decent Asian restaurants, but when it comes to Chinese cuisine, the flavor is dominated by Sichuan flavor, a flavor profile featuring emphasis on spiciness and fat,” Yu says. “It is not what I grew up eating, which was a cleaner and simpler flavor with less frying and more moisture cooking.”

This inspired Yu to bring about the concept of the steam house. Most of the dishes Sheng’s Steam House offers are baked, stir-fried, steamed or braised to minimize cooking fat while maintaining the taste of the original ingredients.

In addition, Sheng’s Steam House will offer HTM students a unique restaurant management experience. “Students in lab will be exposed to a lot of Asian-style cooking technique, as well as managing skills about how to run an operation that features a smaller, rotating menu,” Yu says. “They will also have a chance to experience how farming and the food industry are related and how to present a meal from farm to fork.”

More details for Sheng’s Steam House and Boiler Bistro can be found on Purdue HTM’s Facebook and Instagram pages.

Writer: Kelsey Schnieders Lefever, kschnied@purdue.edu