Chewing It Over: Writing & Cooking Towards an Asian-American Diaspora
- Reserve
- Details
Four celebrated culinary authors dig into writing about food and culture in the Asian diaspora at Mulberry Street Library.
Cuisine—the writing, cooking, and eating of it—ties to history and to the forward-facing, a never-finished act of creating cultural and individual identity. In a discussion moderated by author and Haymarket Books Writing Freedom Fellow Jill Damatac (Dirty Kitchen), a trio of celebrated writers consider: What have they learned about themselves as AAPI food writers? What do they hope readers take away? What have readers taught them? From an enormous variety of cultures, how do they find solidarity and identity as AAPI, a term constantly shaped by the world around us?
Three authors, whose food-focused books span different AAPI cultures and different points in time — Museum of Food and Drink founding director Peter J. Kim, NYU Food Studies professor Dr. Krishnendu Ray, and three-time James Beard Award winner Grace Young gather to discuss how their writing shapes the idea of “Asian American,” an ever-shifting term as migration patterns change and diasporas find their own definition.
To join the event in person | Please register for an In-Person Ticket. Doors will open 30 minutes before the program begins. For free events, we generally overbook to ensure a full house. Priority will be given to those who have registered in advance, but registration does not guarantee admission.
To join the event online | Please register for an Online Ticket. A livestream of this event will be available on the NYPL event page. To receive an email reminder shortly in advance of the event, please be sure to register! If you encounter any issues, please join us on NYPL's YouTube channel.
ABOUT THE PANELISTS
Moderator Jill Damatac is the author of Dirty Kitchen, a Filipino American food memoir of 22 years undocumented in the United States, published by One Signal/Simon & Schuster in 2025. She is a 2026 Writing Freedom Fellow with Haymarket Books and the Mellon Foundation. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, TIME Magazine, The Nation, among others. She teaches creative nonfiction at the University of Cambridge and, in 2027, will be teaching a course on immigrant narrative writing at Harvard Medical School’s MS in Media, Medicine, and Health. She lives in NYC with her shih tzu, Gus, whose favorite treats are Filipino pork adobo and comte cheese.
Grace Young is a cookbook author and Chinatown activist who became known as the “accidental voice for Chinatown” during the pandemic, when she began advocating for America’s Chinatowns. She is the author of The Wisdom of the Chinese Kitchen, The Breath of a Wok, winner of the Jane Grigson Award, and Stir-Frying to the Sky’s Edge, winner of a James Beard Best International Cookbook Award. Dubbed the “stir-fry guru” by The New York Times, Grace received the James Beard Humanitarian of the Year Award for her advocacy to preserve and protect America’s Chinatowns. She partners with the James Beard Foundation on the #SupportChinatowns campaign.
Dr. Krishnendu Ray is a Professor and former Chair of the Department of Nutrition and Food Studies at NYU and Director of the Doctoral Program. He is the author of The Migrant’s Table and The Ethnic Restaurateur and co-editor of Curried Cultures: Globalization, Food and South Asia (2012) and Practicing Food Studies (2024). He has taught for a decade at the Slow Food University in Bra-Pollenzo, Italy. He is a past President of The Association for the Study of Food and Society and previously edited the Food Studies journal Gastronomica from 2021-2024. He is a James Beard Foundation judge on food journalism.
Peter J. Kim is the author of Instant Ramen Kitchen, a guide to creative improvisation using instant ramen. He is the founder of The Infinite Table, an immersive experience blending food, storytelling, and 360° video, and was the founding director of the Museum of Food and Drink (MOFAD), shaping it into a groundbreaking institution that explores the intersection of cuisine, history, science, and culture. He was the former head of Creator Partnerships at Pinterest, where he led culinary and lifestyle content initiatives for over 450 million users. He also hosted and created Counterjam, Food52’s acclaimed food and music podcast. Peter has been featured in The New York Times, New Yorker, NPR, CBS, NBC, The Wall Street Journal, and more.
GET THE BOOKS
Borrow: Find titles by the featured authors in the catalog below.
Don't have a library card? Get one here!
ACCESSIBILITY NOTES
In-Person
- You can request a free ASL (American Sign Language) interpretation or CART (Communication Access Real-Time Translation) captioning service by emailing your request at least two weeks in advance of the event: email [email protected].
- This venue is fully accessible to wheelchairs.
Livestream
- Captions will be provided.
- You can request a free ASL (American Sign Language) interpretation by emailing your request at least two weeks in advance of the event: email [email protected].
CONNECT WITH US
Sign up for our e-newsletters to stay up to date on upcoming events and Library offerings.
For questions and inquiries, please email [email protected]
Please submit all press inquiries at least 48 hours before the event: email [email protected].
New York, NY 10012