Lecture, cooking demo and book signing
Presented by:
Grace Young,
Hailed as the “Poet Laureate of the Wok”

Podcast courtesy of WBEZ’s Chicago Amplified

Sadly, while the term “stir-fry” is part of the American culinary vocabulary, the stir-fry technique remains misunderstood. Stir-fried dishes are often poorly prepared in restaurants and misrepresented in magazines and cookbooks. Grace Young, crowned the “Poet Laureate of the Wok” by her peers, has devoted her career to demystifying the art of stir-frying. Join us as Grace shares the odyssey of her culinary detective hunt and the research that went into writing Stir-Frying to the Sky’s Edge. She’ll explain how for centuries stir-frying has sustained the Chinese diaspora, reinventing itself from one immigrant culture to the next all across the globe; and reveal how chop suey the faux stir-fry enabled the Chinese to overcome racism in America. Grace will also share some of the extraordinary cooking interviews she conducted with Chinese home cooks from around the world.

Grace travels with her own personal carbon-steel wok, braving airport security so that audiences can see the beauty of a well-seasoned wok and experience the superior taste of a wok-cooked stir-fry. She will demonstrate recipes from her new book explaining the secrets for stir-fry mastery in the home kitchen. Following her talk and food tasting, Grace will sign copies of Stir-Frying to the Sky’s Edge, which recently won a major award from the International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP).

Grace is also the author of The Breath of a Wok, and The Wisdom of the Chinese Kitchen, which both won the IACP’s Le Cordon Bleu International Cookbook Award. For many years, Grace was test kitchen director and director for food photography for Time-Life Books. Grace lives in New York City. Visit her website, www.graceyoung.com .

Grace will be assisted by Chef Rebecca Wheeler, who last year was awarded the Barbara Tropp Memorial Internship in Beijing, China, by Women Chefs and Restaurateurs. Chef “Becca” leads ethnic food tours in Chicago, and teaches cooking at Gallery 37 and The Wooden Spoon. Visit her website, www.rebeccawheeler.com .

Program hosted by Kendall College.