Ask those in the know about Chinese cuisine’s future and they point to an unlikely spot — Providence’s Federal Hill neighborhood.

Sophia Ling Cuyegkeng’s upscale MuMu Cuisine, 220 Atwells Ave., with its emphasis on tradition and fine dining is widely considered to represent the next wave of Chinese food in America.

Cuyegkeng was born in Taiwan and owns some 10 restaurants, from New York and New Jersey to Taipei, Shanghai, Tokyo and Hong Kong. Her son Henry Mu opened up Lot 401 in Providence and she moved here because she wanted to expand the local palate for Chinese food.

“We think of fast food as the fashion for Chinese food,” she said adding, “That’s not what we do here.”

As with French cooking, the techniques and the sauces elevate dishes.

“We probably have 14 to 16 different sauces,” she said. “We match each dish with a different sauce.”

They are her recipes and her ingredients and include a light but hot sauce served on fish or her XO sauce, based with garlic and ginger, that pairs with shrimp and scallop.

Beijing-style dining includes lots of small snacks and those are her appetizers which include dumplings but in different shapes and flavors.

More fine dining and gourmet food is also identified as the next wave by John Eng-Wong the Brown researcher studying the globalization of Chinese food.

“Singapore is one of the epicenters of new Chinese food, and a place where new cooks are in training, for example the cook for Hakkasan an upscale London restaurant is Singaporean,” he said. “But economic growth in China has enabled a renaissance of Chinese cuisine. Though I’ve not eaten in more than a few places, there is marvelous food and new directions.”

This direction is also visible in Hong Kong and in Taiwan, he said.

When the “Eating Chinese” event ends this weekend it’s not the end of the dialogue, Eng-Wong said. A second conference is set for October with events including a cooking demonstration by a chef and instructor visiting from Singapore, Eng-Wong said.

Charles Chin, owner of Lincoln’s Asia Grille, just returned from a trip to Malaysia (where his wife Ceci is from) and Singapore. He sees a fusion of Asian dining on the horizon with vegetables from Malaysia, Indian spices and Chinese bean spices and their methods converging eventually in American restaurant kitchens. He also noted that with so much American business being done in China, people return to the United States looking for the food they had while in Asia.

He also said the refined dining of Singapore will have an impact on the cuisine, and perhaps the price.

“People have a perception about Chinese food being affordable,” he said.

No matter how bad the economy might have gotten, pizza shops and Chinese restaurants continued to thrive in America because of their affordability, Chin said.

That pricing concept may well be challenged as the next wave of cuisine is served up across America.