NewzJust like her mother, Ming-Na Wen will show you she cares through the love language of food.“Whenever anyone comes to the house, it’s always, ‘Have you eaten yet?’” Wen told The Associated Press. “So that was how I came up with the title, because I wanted that as a greeting for my fans.”Wen, who found fame in the 1993 film adaptation of Amy Tan's novel “The Joy Luck Club” and went on to star in “Mulan,” is wading into the cookbook market. Family Recipes From a Restaurant Daughter,” out Tuesday, is sprinkled with Chinese and Western recipes and first-person anecdotes.The recipes parallel Wen's evolution from immigrant kid helping out at her parents' restaurant to working actor cooking for her own children.For generations of Asian Americans, Wen became an icon for validating the bicultural experience as June in “The Joy Luck Club.” The first big studio feature with an all-Asian cast was praised for depicting Chinese characters and Chinese food in a non-demeaning way.Despite being more prevalent now than ever, Chinese cuisine is still at times stereotyped or devalued.
Wen might be an ideal ambassador to share experiences of growing up eating Chinese and American food.“I didn’t want it to just be about Chinese food,” said Wen, 62. “I wanted it to be about the Asian American experience.”The cookbook is a way to honor her familyThe idea for a cookbook began with Wen's Instagram cooking videos, posted from her Los Angeles home. Fans urged “The Mandalorian” star to write a cookbook, but she didn't feel qualified — until she learned there are “many celebrities who would write a book who didn't cook, which to me was such a no-no.”“It took a couple of years before my literary agent came up with this wonderful idea that we write the cookbook as my journey through food,” Wen said.She ended up whittling a list of a hundred recipes down to 70.
Among those that made the cut are Popo's (Cantonese for grandmother) Wontons, and Chestnut Chicken, both reminiscent of her childhood in Hong Kong.She also wanted to honor her stepfather, or “Chef Baba (Cantonese for father),” who taught her to cook Western dishes he had learned cooking in the army. He could pivot from making clam chowder to winter melon soup.At age 7, Wen rode in an airplane for the first time when her stepfather sponsored her, her mother and brother to come to the U.S. “Whenever anyone comes to the house, it’s always, ‘Have you eaten yet?’” Wen told The Associated Press.
The recipes parallel Wen’s evolution from immigrant kid helping out at her parents’ restaurant to working actor cooking for her own children. For generations of Asian Americans, Wen became an icon for validating the bicultural experience as June in “The Joy Luck Club.” The first big studio feature with an all-Asian cast was praised for depicting Chinese characters and Chinese food in a non-demeaning way. Despite being more prevalent now than ever, Chinese cuisine is still at times stereotyped or devalued.
“I didn’t want it to just be about Chinese food,” said Wen, 62. She ended up whittling a list of a hundred recipes down to 70. She also wanted to honor her stepfather, or “Chef Baba (Cantonese for father),” who taught her to cook Western dishes he had learned cooking in the army.
He could pivot from making clam chowder to winter melon soup. At age 7, Wen rode in an airplane for the first time when her stepfather sponsored her, her mother and brother to come to the U.S.
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