#ChineseFoodiesofIG: Grace Young

Grace Young

This is part of an ongoing series of interviews I’m doing with my favourite Chinese foodies that I follow on Instagram. Come and follow the #ChineseFoodiesofIG hashtag on Instagram and leave a comment showing your support for these talented folk!

Where are you from? Where are you really from?

I live in New York City but I was born and raised in San Francisco.

What does home taste like?

When I think of the taste of home, I always think of my parents' cooking. They were exceptional cooks. I grew up eating very simple but classic Cantonese dishes, from steamed egg custard to stir-fried clams with black bean sauce.

Share a food memory:

When I was a child, whenever we would dine in San Francisco’s Chinatown, my father would stroll into the restaurant kitchen and discuss with the chef what was best to eat that day. Baba never ordered from the menu. He knew all the chefs in Chinatown and only wanted what was freshest and in season. Baba also insisted on sitting at the table closest to the kitchen door because he wanted the least amount of time to elapse between a stir-fry coming out of the wok, onto the platter, and into our mouths. It was imperative for Baba that we experience wok hei, the breath of a wok. 

Favourite Chinatown establishments:

I have always preferred home cooking to restaurant food but since the start of the pandemic I’ve been acutely aware that Chinese restaurants were struggling to survive and desperately needed our support. In January of 2020, NYC’s Chinatown, like Chinatowns across the country, was shunned due to xenophobic rhetoric that blamed the Chinese for Covid-19. Many restaurants saw their businesses drop as much as 80%. Within a few months we lost legacy restaurants (69 Bayard 65 years; Hop Shing over 50 years; Hoy Wong 42 years) that were anchors for the community. I realized without our support we could lose the remaining legacy restaurants. These are the old school Cantonese eateries which are our last link to immigrant cooking. They date as far back as 1938: Wo Hop upstairs and downstairs; Hop Lee; Hop Kee; and Mee Sum Cafe. As the violence against the AAPI community continues many restaurants have lost patronage from locals who are afraid to come out and eat especially at night. I probably have eaten more takeout in the last two years than I’ve eaten my entire life and will continue doing so. I urge everyone to show your support for Chinese and AAPI mom and pop restaurants wherever you live.

The secret to Chinese cooking is:

Using fresh, high quality ingredients and mastering the iron wok.

Who’s your Chinese food legend?

Florence Lin who wrote five cookbooks and was one of the principal consultants for Time-Life’s groundbreaking Cooking of China volume in its Foods of the World series. For over 25 years Florence taught thousands of students including Julia Child at the Chinese Cooking School at China Institute in New York City. She was a true culinary maverick who paved the way for a new generation of Asian food writers and teachers. My work would not be possible without Florence.

A Chinese recipe everyone should learn:

Sandpot Stir-Fried Stir-Fried Chicken with Mushrooms (Wat Gai Fan). This is Cantonese comfort food and is the ultimate one pot meal. The chicken is stir-fried with mushrooms and ginger until it’s three quarters done. Fine julienned ham is added. The rice is made in a sandpot and before it’s totally cooked the chicken mixture is spread over the rice, covered and allowed to sit a few minutes until the chicken is just cooked through. The chicken is juicy and succulent because the heat of the rice is so gentle and the rice is extra sublime, absorbing the delicious sauce from the chicken.

Dream dinner party guests:

I would love to cook for my friends and family who are no longer with us. To be together again would be so sweet.

Last meal on earth:

My father’s stir-fried butterfly fish and bean sprouts —this dish is all about stir-fry mastery and infusing the food with wok hei, the breath of a wok.

What does Chinese food mean to you?

n 1996 I began recording my family’s recipes in what became my first cookbook, The Wisdom of the Chinese Kitchen. Through the recording of recipes and stories my family’s legacy was passed on to me. All of my books have been about preserving Chinese culinary culture. The Breath of a Wok is about honoring the traditions and rituals of wok cooking and Stir-Frying to the Sky’s Edge is about paying homage to a cooking technique that traveled the globe and enabled the Chinese diaspora to survive. 

At the start of the pandemic, as I saw Chinatown businesses struggling to survive, my work shifted to doing what I can to help the community. Grub Street called me the “accidental voice of Chinatown.” My advocacy for Chinatown is a different way of preserving Chinese culinary culture.

In 2020 I began a partnership with the James Beard Foundation to #SaveChineseRestaurants. Recently we created a new Instagram campaign #LoveAAPI with Poster House museum. Sadly the violence against the AAPI community continues. The idea behind the campaign is to fight hate by showing love to AAPI businesses across the country. Without our support we could lose historic Chinatowns and other AAPI enclaves. Please join the campaign by posting a video or photo of your favorite AAPI owned restaurant or store and tell us why it’s meaningful to you. Encourage your followers to do the same and add the hashtag #LoveAAPI.