The Brothers Sun Food Stylists Made 1,200 Churros for the Netflix Show: 'None Went to Waste!' (Exclusive)

Stars Michelle Yeoh, Justin Chien and Sam Song Li take part in the big fried dough debate

Sun brothers stars Michelle Yeoh, Justin Chien and Sam Song Li engage in the ultimate fried dough debate.

In the Netflix series, Bruce Sun (Chien) heads to Southern California to protect his mother (Yeoh) and younger brother Charles (Li) from rival Taiwanese gangsters. Once there, Bruce—who is as skilled at baking as he is at killing—discovers churros. He immediately falls in love with the sugar-dusted dessert and becomes obsessed with recreating it.

Churros unlock a key memory for brothers who haven’t seen each other in 20 years. “It’s like sugar with cinnamon youtiao“, Bruce informs Charles, referring to the common Chinese fried dough pastry of a similar shape that they loved as children.

Some historians believe that youtiao it even inspired churros when the trade routes between Asia and Europe opened centuries ago.

Michelle Yeoh as Mama Sun, Sam Song Li as Bruce Sun, Justin Chien as Charles Sun in “The Brothers Sun”.

Courtesy of Netflix

PEOPLE caught up with Yeoh, Chien and Li at Sun brothers event at the 626 Market in LA County’s San Gabriel Valley, which is the Asian-American enclave where the series was filmed. They talked about all things fried dough and whether they were #TeamYoutiao or #TeamChurro.

“Youtiao!” Yeoh declared, revealing that she likes hers best with congee (Chinese porridge). “I don’t dare try churros,” added the Oscar winner.

“Do you want me to tell the truth?” Chien teased him. “I’ll choose a churro, with a little chocolate. I didn’t have it at the premiere and I really wanted them.”

However, when Chien has youtiao, prefers the salty version. “I love mine youtiao with a little soy sauce,” he says.

“You weirdo,” chimed in his colleague Li, who like Yeoh is #TeamYoutiao. “You must be sweet!”

“You have to take sweet soy milk,” Li continued. “I always add a little sugar to soy milk. I want to you you soaked in sweet soy milk.”

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“Condensed milk!” his mother suggested on the screen.

“I haven’t tried it, but I should,” Li replied. “I have a huge sweet tooth.”

The production team at Sun brothers they were clearly #TeamChurro. More than 1,200 treats were made for the show, food stylist Melissa McSorley tells PEOPLE exclusively.

“Some of it was my own trial and error as I gave them samples [director] Kevin [Tancharoen] and [executive producer] Byron [Wu] for their approval, many were for the background in the school campus scenes, and then of course the heroes you saw on camera,” explains McSorley.

Justin Chien, Michelle Yeoh and Sam Song Li at the premiere of “The Brothers Sun”.

Charley Gallay/Getty

McSorley also describes the meticulous planning that went into Bruce’s discovery and eventual mastery of the churros.

“His recipe perfection expired during the season,” she explained. “From his love at first bite of churros (this was a store-bought brand, the frozen stuff) there have been five versions of churros. For Charles’ first attempt at making churros, I used a larger than normal star tip and bent the prongs back so that the churros would came out patchy and wavy, complete with a left-handed squeeze (I’m right-handed). Then, over the next few versions of it, we progressed to making them more and more perfect.”

Even if they didn’t look perfect, they were delicious.

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“All versions were edible, just ask the prop crew and the crew who made sure none went to waste!” McSorley revealed.

All episodes Sun brothers currently streaming on Netflix.

Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education