Thanks for being interested in what I do beyond VWK. Blogging is fun and engaging but I also write for print, collaborate with others on digital projects, teach, and consult. It’s all part of a multifaceted career in food. This page offers an overview of cookbooks that I’ve written and a number of digital projects that I conceived. Use the links below for details on each, including information on how to buy them.
My debut cookbook Into the Vietnamese Kitchen was published by Ten Speed Press in October 2006. It was a dream come true, a landmark publication with over 175 recipes. The work is the first comprehensive full-color cookbook devoted to Vietnamese food in the English language.
In 2007, the book was a rare triple-nominee for cookbook awards – it was among the select finalists for a James Beard Foundation award (best Asian cookbook) and two International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP) awards (best first book and best international book). That level of recognition was a major feather in my cap. More importantly, I thrilled that my first-born cookbook is put to good use by a lot of cooks.
Not wanting to be a one-book wonder, my second book focused on one of my all-time favorite foods. Asian Dumplings was published in August 2009 and cooks immediately took to making dumpling from scratch. Asian Dumplings was an award finalist in the IACP cookbook competition. It was also selected as one of the best/favorite books by National Public Radio, Cooking Light, and CHOW.com.
In 2012, Cooking Light magazine included Into the Vietnamese Kitchen and Asian Dumplings among their picks for the best 100 cookbooks of the past 25 years. I was the only author to have two cookbooks in the list. (Woot!)
Demystifying Asian foodways is central to my work. To that end, I wrote Asian Tofu to present it from the delicious perspective of the people who know it best. Ten Speed Press released the work in February 2012 as a traditional print book, regular ebook (a digital version of the printed book), and an enhanced ebook. It was deemed a “game changer” and Martha Stewart Living magazine did an exclusive on it.
Asian Tofu was a finalist for an IACP cookbook award in the single subject category. In February 2013, we released an eBooklet for DIY tofu making called Making Soy Milk and Tofu at Home.
I've been interested in digital publications and apps (ebooks) for years, and been collaborating with publishers to experiment on developing potent ebooks. In Spring of 2011, Asian Dumplings was released as an enhanced ebook with instructional videos to guide cooks through the various shapes. It was one of the first of its kind to show the potential of ecookbooks. Learn more from this page.
The Asian Market Shopper iPhone app was released by Chronicle Books in May 2011. The multimedia app is a handy tool for understanding how to buy Asian ingredients -- what to look for, how to pronounce things, preferred brands.
Reinforcing these print and digital projects is my collaboration with Craftsy to teach online cooking classes. My first class, “Favorite Asian Dumplings from Scratch,” launched October 31, 2013. We’re working on another class that will launch in January.
What’s next? A fun small-format book — The Banh Mi Handbook comes out July 2014. Ten Speed Press is publishing. We’ve done the photo shoot and are polishing copy and design.
