Today we’d like to introduce you to Katie Chin.
Katie, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
My late mother Leeann Chin immigrated from China to Minnesota in 1956, working as a seamstress making 50 cents an hour. She had always loved to cook and one day threw a luncheon for her sewing clients in the early 70s. They were blown away by her dishes, authentic Chinese cuisine they had never tasted before as chow suey and chow mein were really the only things available to Minnesotans at the time.
One thing led to another and they encouraged her to teach classes and cater. A socialite friend of hers arranged for the owner of the Minnesota Twins and Sean Connery to invest in her first restaurant. It was an instant hit. She ended up selling her company to General Mills at one point only to buy it back and grow the chain into a $50 million company. She never even went to high school.
This is where I come in.
About 15 years ago, I was in living in Los Angeles working as a film and television marketing executive and I had completely forgotten how to cook (I could still make 5,000 shrimp toast, no problem, but a dinner party was a whole other thing). My favorite thing to make for dinner was reservations. I was so busy trying to make my mother proud by succeeding in my marketing career, I had actually done the opposite by forgetting how to cook.
I decided to have some clients over for dinner and had a panic attack because I didn’t know what I was doing. I called my mother for advice but instead of giving me advice she jumped on a plane with frozen lemon chicken on dry ice. Once she arrived on my doorstep, she cooked the entire dinner and kept up the illusion that I had cooked the whole thing by myself. That’s just the kind of mom she was. During that trip, my mother opened my refrigerator to find only champagne and yogurt. She was mortified and set out to teach me how to cook again.
Through a series of dinner parties for my friends, my passion for Asian cooking was reignited. Our friends said, “You really make Asian cooking look easy like I could do it myself.” Feeling inspired and back in touch with my culinary roots, I quit my job and my mother and I co-authored a Chinese cookbook together, Everyday Chinese Cooking. From there, we started a Pan-Asian catering business called Double Happiness Catering.
In between our catering gigs, we were lucky enough to travel to China together to co-host a Food Network Special called “My Country My Kitchen” and to New York for our numerous appearances together on The Today Show. The next natural step was to do a cooking show so we co-hosted the national PBS cooking series, “Double Happiness,” which was a mother-daughter Chinese cooking show shot in Hawaii.
My mother was the toughest boss I’ve ever had (and believe me, I had some tough ones working in Hollywood all those years). She set the same standards for me as she did for herself and I never felt like I was living up to her expectations, “Your eggrolls are not wrapped firmly enough,” “You should make double the pleats on that shu mei.” One time on our cooking show I said, “If you don’t have Asian hot sauce, you could use Mexican hot sauce instead, right mom?” Her deadpan response on camera was, “no.” I recognize now that she just wanted me to be the best I could be.
With my mother as commander-in-chief, and I as her willing apprentice, our pan-Asian catering business took off and we were soon doing star-studded parties and high fashion events. She realized I would never be able to handle the cooking alone if she was always there to lead me, so she announced one day out of the blue that she was going to Europe for three months with a friend. I was left to my own devices and a deep fryer and was forced to figure things out on my own. That summer, I finally sprouted my culinary wings and flew from her bird’s nest soup.
I retired from catering when I became pregnant with our own Double Happiness, twins Dylan and Becca, and focused my energy on my blog and cookbooks — 300 Best Rice Cooker Recipes, Everyday Thai Cooking and Everyday Chinese Cookbook: 101 Delicious Recipes from My Mother’s Kitchen.
When the twins grew out of their toddler phase, I launched a new catering business called Wok Star Catering specializing in all styles of Asian cuisine.
My mother, unfortunately, passed away 8 years ago. I’m so honored to carry her torch by making Asian cuisine accessible and relatable for real people, on real schedules and real budgets through my blog and cookbooks. I try to provide shortcuts and substitutions to make you feel as empowered as possible to cook Asian food along with practical ways to purchase the ingredients you’ll need. I personally test all of my recipes (with the help of my twins) to make sure they’re easy to follow with delicious and authentic results.
Since my mother passed away, I’ve been on many extraordinary culinary adventures on my own such as cooking at The White House in 2013 for the Annual Easter Egg Roll to serving as a guest judge on Iron Chef America and competing on Cutthroat Kitchen and Beat Bobby Flay. I also appeared on The Today Show and The Real on Fox on behalf of my latest cookbook “Everyday Chinese Cookbook: 101 Recipes from my Mother’s Kitchen” which honors my late mom.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
It was challenging, going from being a studio executive to catering and handling all of the aspects that come with that including lugging leaking trash up staircases. Once I even got attacked by cows that ate all my food when I was catering for a magazine shoot. Lol! It’s also an adjustment to go from a weekly paycheck and benefits to being an entrepreneur but it’s all been worth it.
Please tell us about Wok Star Catering.
My catering business is called, Wok Star Catering and we specialize in gourmet Asian cuisine and can handle all aspects of event coordination. I most proud of the quality and uniqueness of our cuisine. What sets us apart from others is our diverse menu of Asian dishes which are known for being fresh, flavorful and clean. I also have a gourmet fortune cookie business called Fortune Cookie Divas with my partner Ann Koh. We specialize in glamorous fortune cookies with custom messages and gourmet flavors and luxe sprinkles. We can even feature company logos or other graphics onto the cookies themselves!
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
I would have asked for more help in the beginning and found a mentor right away.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.wokstarcatering.com and www.fortunecookiedivas.com
- Phone: 213-926-6083
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/chefkatiechin
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/chefkatiechin
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/chefkatiechin
Image Credit:
Matthew Jonas
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