Kat Lieu Gives Asian Recipes a Modern Twist in “Modern Asian Kitchen”
With the launch of a new cookbook, Kat Lieu spoke with Mochi about her recipes, her cultural connection with food, and why she amplifies the Asian community.
Kat Lieu, founder of the Subtle Asian Baking Facebook group, never claims to be the expert on authentic Asian baking and cooking. However, what she does claim as her expertise is her own lived experience — the staple ingredient that she brings to her sophomore cookbook, “Modern Asian Kitchen,” which launches on April 9, 2024. But the book isn’t just about food; it honors cultural connection, community, and Asian representation — three things that Lieu always brings to the table.
Following “Modern Asian Baking at Home,” Lieu switched from baking to writing a book about cooking. While her new book references Asian cooking, Lieu clarifies that it is not intended to be a compendium of all Asian cuisines — or even exact replicas of dishes that you would find in a restaurant. Lieu, who describes herself as a “third-culture kid,” grew up eating a variety of dishes, namely Vietnamese and Chinese. As a result, “Modern Asian Kitchen” reflects cuisine familiar to other third-culture kids or those of the Asian diaspora.
“A lot of people would say [the recipes] are not authentic, but they’re authentic to my experience,” Lieu says. “They’re authentic to my culture and upbringing, what I’ve eaten. … The recipes are ones that, to me, have a story and are reflective of what we like to eat. They’re easy to make and are modern.”
Although baking remains Lieu’s first love and claim to fame, she admits that writing a cookbook was much easier than writing a baking book. Baking is about science; one miniscule mistake and the dough becomes too dense or crumbly, or the cake batter becomes too flat or viscous. Cooking is more forgiving. The phrase “to taste” is everyone’s saving grace, but having a recipe can be helpful, especially when many of us grew up with vague instructions like “add a bowl of flour,” or “add a few shakes of salt.”
Putting a Modern Twist on Asian Recipes
The beauty of Lieu’s “modern Asian” concept is that her recipes appeal to people who feel nostalgia around traditional dishes from their childhood, as well as those who lack ethnic culinary memories, but desire a connection with their heritage. Lieu presents familiar dishes in her cookbooks, but with enough of a modern twist for readers who don’t feel so traditional.
When Lieu moved from the East Coast to Renton, Washington, she celebrated Lunar New Year for the first time without her extended family. “We didn’t have New York City’s Chinatown [and] my mom wasn’t cooking, so I made new memories for my family,” Lieu says. “I made cupcakes with an Asian spin, macarons with an Asian spin. I made ‘nian gao’ [Chinese New Year cake], but with pandan, so that was something new for me.”
Lieu grew up in Brooklyn eating pho every weekend, which is a memory her son — who is growing up in Washington — will never share. He won’t know the specific flavors of the pho of his mom’s childhood or the experience of those restaurants, but he will grow up with the memory of eating homemade pho at home, with the flavors Lieu likes, which have become her son’s preferred flavors.
For readers who haven’t connected with their heritage or elders through food, but who desire to, Lieu recommends trying familiar recipes and tasting them with parents or grandparents. She says, “Ask them, ‘How does this taste to you? How does this compare to what you had? Does that taste like something from home?’ That way, you can connect to that memory. It doesn’t have to be your memory, right?”
Follow Lieu on social media and you’ll quickly learn that she is passionate about experimenting and being a “modern Asian” in the kitchen. For example, for her mom’s birthday, Lieu made a Rice Krispy treat with black sesame paste, miso, and haw flakes. Lieu’s mom doesn’t like Western cakes, but she loved this dessert that appealed to her Cantonese palate — balanced, crunchy, chewy, delicious, and not too sweet.
“It’s OK if [dishes] are not purely authentic, because nothing is authentic,” Lieu explains. “[Culture] is changing and evolving, [with] new memories and new experiences.”
Breaking the Bamboo and Glass Ceilings
Before writing cookbooks, Lieu was known for starting the Subtle Asian Baking Facebook community in 2020, shortly before the COVID-19 lockdown and spike in anti-Asian hate and violence. From the beginning, the group has been about amplifying Asian representation and supporting the Asian community, particularly during a period of fear and tragedy. The group — which now has 159,000 members — has raised $101,000 since 2020 to support AAPI organizations and communities, as well as for people in Ukraine and Palestine.
Although anti-Asian sentiment feels more subdued to Lieu, compared to the early years of the Subtle Asian Baking group, she still experiences microaggressions — subtleties like being told that Asian baking is still too niche to have its own Netflix show. She equates feedback that she has received to America Ferrera’s famous monologue from the “Barbie” film about the immense pressure women face to be extraordinary, yet somehow always get it wrong. Ferrera’s character says that women have to be thin, but can’t be too thin; or that women need to stay pretty for men, but not too pretty that we tempt them or threaten other women.
This same tension is what Lieu feels about Asian representation in her industry. She says, “Being Asian, you have to stand out, but you can’t be too outspoken. You have to raise money, but [your cause] can’t always be about Asian hate. You’re making Asian recipes — they’re not authentic enough, or they’re too Asian. It’s so hard for Asians to stand out that sometimes we’re not as united as we can be, to lift each other up.”
But Lieu is fighting this competitive and unsupportive mindset by investing in creatives who are pursuing their dreams, particularly second-career individuals like herself, who is a former physical therapist. Lieu spearheaded and funded the first Asian Creators Grant, offered through the Very Asian Foundation, for individuals who have recently pivoted their careers toward their creative passions. She also is on the committee for the second year of the grant. Recipients receive a microgrant plus mentorship, networking opportunities, and additional support to achieve their goals.
“It’s so hard to push past both the bamboo and glass ceiling,” Lieu says. “People who are up there sometimes forget the struggles and want to keep themselves up there. … I love all the Asians who are very prominent right now, but there are other people who can also be in the spotlight. But that’s not their fault. The fault is in white supremacy and who’s deciding on who gets to [be out there]; and why is there an Asian quota? We shouldn’t be pitting ourselves against each other.”
The Joy of Physical Cookbooks
Although recipes have flooded the internet, Lieu still favors tangible cookbooks for the ease of readability, lack of ads, but mostly for what cookbooks represent.
Through cookbooks, expert bakers and chefs accompany Lieu in her kitchen, sharing their tips and stories about the recipes — and Lieu does the same in her books. Each recipe is prefaced with a personal connection to the recipe, either from Lieu or another member of the Subtle Asian Baking community. (She even shares jokes: “Why are mushrooms always invited to the party? Because they’re such fun-gis!”) She drops names, but not the names you’d expect. She talks about everyday folks in her life — neighbors, family members, friends, other Subtle Asian Baking community members, which is her way of bringing others into the spotlight.
“I love having [the cookbook] oily and full of dough, that looks like a relic that belongs on your kitchen counter,” Lieu describes. “Cookbooks are timeless. … They’re just something that have been here since the beginning of time, and it’s not going to be something that changes. People love flipping through a book. I love writing them. I think they’re here to stay, and I am going to keep doing it.”
Follow Kat Lieu on Instagram at @katlieu and @subtleasian.baking or join the Subtle Asian Baking Facebook group. Her book “Modern Asian Kitchen,” published by Harvard Common Press, an imprint of Quarto Publishing Group, can be purchased online or at your local bookstore.
