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Foreword

Leeann Chin was an extraordinary woman, and in the case of her daughter Katie, the apple certainly didn’t fall far from the tree. In the early nineties in Minneapolis, shortly after I had started teaching Indian cuisine at a local cooking school, I had the opportunity to attend a class on Chinese appetizers taught by a well-known restaurateur, Leeann Chin. I arrived early, so I was able to witness her efficient moves as she got a bamboo steamer basket ready on one burner and monitored the temperature of a pot of oil on another, all while simultaneously peeling and deveining shrimp for her cilantro-smothered shrimp dumplings. Assistants hovered around to help, but she was clearly in charge. Her passion for teaching came through during the next few hours, as she showed us how to pleat dumpling wrappers just so—her years of work as a seamstress clearly visible in the perfectly pleated pan-fried dumplings she produced. When one came to rest on my plate, it didn’t matter that I was a vegetarian. I inhaled the addictive succulence of that shrimp dumpling in one smooth mouthful.

I remember asking Leeann about the regional Chinese cooking that was reflective of her youthful days, and whether she missed it. “Yes,” she replied, looking up at me—but then she explained how she relived those days each time she taught Chinese cooking or made a meal for her family. Those meals, by the way, were nothing like the Chinese-American staples that had become synonymous with her battalion of restaurants. Her business acumen shone through as she admitted to serving Minnesotans foods that she knew would appeal to their palates. “Just a bit sweeter than I eat at home,” she clarified.

Years later, I was working with two master chefs from northern China who came to town to do a series of seminars on the noodle-pulling techniques for which they were well known. I took them to Leeann’s restaurant, where she was the perfect hostess. The chefs ate the same luncheon buffet that she had single-handedly introduced to hundreds of thousands over the years—nothing “special,” nothing different. Out of curiosity, I asked her why. She said they needed to see what was possible in America, and she wanted them to experience what a successful restaurant did to showcase the flavors of a cuisine that was thousands of years old. Leeann was unquestionably a pioneer, and I was fortunate to host an Emmy-winning documentary, Asian Flavors, which featured her life and influences in Chinese cooking over the years.

Fast-forward to several years later, when I had the opportunity to connect with Katie Chin. I fell in love with her—with her work, her business acumen, her teaching style—and no wonder: I know how proud she made Leeann. Katie’s books are works of passion that showcase her style in terms of accessibility and ease. Paging through this manuscript, I was touched by her poignant stories, laughed out loud when I read about Leeann’s candor, and marveled at their mutual passion for sharing the varied cuisine of China. I hope you not only cook from this book, but also curl up with it at night to enjoy the stories that Katie Chin so eloquently weaves throughout her easy recipes.

Raghavan Iyer author of 660 Curries and Indian Cooking Unfolded