1 . When I was young, I dreamed of becoming a chef. My dad often fought with my mom over the food when he disliked the taste of my mom’s cooking.     1     My dad, however, had a different opinion, insisting that I was too young to learn cooking.     2     I watched and studied how he prepared the ingredients, cut meat and vegetables into pieces, and mixed them all together.

When I was 18, my dad finally allowed me to start cooking. Many people started with a simple fried egg or other fried food.     3     The years of watching my dad cooking made it easier for me to cook more complex foods like roast beef, sautéed (炒) vegetables, and even a cake.

I never needed to use recipe books. I had learned by careful observation for many years, so it was easy to even make my own unique dishes.    4    After several years of experience in the kitchen, I can now make almost every food that tastes familiar and give it a nice new twist of my own style.

    5     Even though today I am just a learning observer lacking relevant knowledge, someday I will become the master of every field I set foot in. I will cook my life according to my heart’s desire and dream.

5 . It’s been 20 years since a cookbook changed my life. Before reading every page in Nigella Lawson’s Feast, I didn’t give much thought lo what I ate. Cooking was a boring task I wasn’t particularly good at. Moreover, fear of calories and not being able to fit into my jeans left little room for enjoying things like “chocolate cake”. Nigella, the author of Nigella Lawson’s Feast transformed my relationship with food, changing it from a source of panic to one of limitless pleasure. Leafing through the pages of Feast, I began to think of the women who shaped my cooking. They not only influenced me strongly with their words, recipes and passion for the art of eating, but they also left their mark on the culinary (烹饪的) world.

Take Eugénie Brazier, for example, who grew up with barely enough to eat yet with plenty of determination to achieve great things. After years of hard work on farms and later as a humble cook, she used the little savings she had to open La Mère Brazier, a restaurant that would attract the likes of celebrities. A second location followed, and in 1933, she became the first chef ever to hold six Michelin stars simultaneously (同时地). Known as the mother of modern French cooking, Brazier’s simple yet elegant food changed the way Britain ate.

What Brazier did for the UK, the passionate Julia Child did for America. At a time when TV dinners and tinned foods were gaining popularity, she inspired home cooks to try elegant recipes, teaching them about the use of quality ingredients in an approachable way.

While Julia Child tempted us with her recipes, it was the American author Fisher who enlightened us with her fine cooking prose (散文). In her brilliant essays, she praised the pleasures of the table and explored connections between food and culture. One of my favorite books is Love in a Dish, a charming collection of culinary experiences that transport you to French villages and even describe how the love of food can potentially save a marriage!

7 . As a little girl, I’d sit in the kitchen and watch my mother cook, but I didn’t really get into cooking. When I graduated from college and moved lo Washington DC, I left all of my friends behind. There were no new roommates. I was on my own and felt lonely. Home-cooked meals were my best attempt at changing my condition.

So, I started calling my mom and asking for the recipes (食谱) for my favorite dishes. It turned out that my mom didn’t have any recipes. She couldn’t give me a single measurement (计量) for any dish. She grew up in the kitchen with her mom too, and my grandma shared her knowledge through oral (口头的) tradition. Then it was my turn. My mom taught me how to “measure with my heart” when cooking. I learned to cook by tasting and feeling my food. And my food was pretty good. Soon enough, everyone was asking me for the recipes. That was why Bun Bo Bae, my cooking blog, came into being in 2019.

Bun Bo Bae was a space for me to put what I learned into writing. I didn’t want all of the secret knowledge behind dishes like my mom’s noodles and my dad’s tomato soup to disappear if the oral tradition ended one day. I wanted to write down every piece of advice I was given in detail.

These days, I experiment more. I’m not as strict with myself about recreating the dishes exactly as I remember about eating them. I use seasonal food materials when I can’t find some items. My food blog and flower count grew, and so did my confidence in the kitchen.

Bun Bo Bae also increased my confidence at work and gave me a space to write about what I love. It has connected me to countless new Internet friends.

Most importantly, writing for Bun Bo Bae has taught me that celebrating my culture doesn’t have to be about perfectly recreating my parents’ tradition. It’s about mixing what I’ve been taught with my own experiences, and cooking up something entirely new.

8 . It was just after 17:00 on a mid-September evening at a historical Church in Harlem, New York City. Mostly the low-income black neighborhood sat at dining tables. In front of them was a menu listing three courses, which they only saw on TV. Each dish was prepared with “leftover” ingredients(食材), offered free of charge and placed alongside a blue card that read “you are loved” in hand-written script.

This-is-one of 14 community centers created around the world in cities like Milan, Paris, Mérida, Lima, Sydney and now New York through three-Michelin starred chef Massimo Bottura’s Food for Soul project. He started the project in 2016 with his wife, Lara Gilmore, to help fight the global problem of food waste-by using ingredients that might otherwise be thrown away by suppliers and to give socially and economically vulnerable people access to high quality meals.

Partnering with architects, artists and community leaders, the project is transforming spaces, which are not fully taken advantage of, such as churches and even a historical home into intentionally designed cultural centers equipped with kitchens, dining rooms and other facilities that help create a sense of well-being, connection and inclusion.

When I asked Bottura why he created such thoughtful. meals within beautifully appointed spaces for the low-income, he told me that everyone deserves respect and beauty-and of course, healthy food. “They come in and are completely lost because they’re not used to coming into beautiful places, like this. But once they’re here, they realize that this place is their place. It’s not my place,” he said.

Bottura’s philosophy is one that comes from the heart. T-shirts worm by volunteers at his community centers say “cooking is an act of love”, and he approaches the food served there with as much care as he does at his restaurants — “probably even more”, he said since the diners are extremely stressed and need healthy food to feel better. Bottura insists that it’s important to change the language around the food served in his community centers.