RENTON, Wash. — If Kat Lieu looks right at home in her Renton kitchen, it may be because she's been cooking since she was a kid.
"My love of cooking came from me having to cook as a child,” said Lieu. “My mom was working; my dad was working and she'll have fish ready for me to steam or chicken for me to roast. So I've been cooking since I was around 11."
It was those childhood memories and meals that became the base of her latest cookbook, "Modern Asian Kitchen."
"It's my second cookbook. It is the sister cookbook to 'Modern Asian Baking,'" said Lieu. "This one has 80-plus recipes all about cooking the Asian way, but in a modern type of spin."
Those spins include her take on traditional dishes from places like China, Vietnam, Japan and more.
"One of my missions is to build that love for Asian cuisine. And this is not like the Bible of Asian cuisine, it's more of a third culture, kid stories and recipes and giving tribute to the Asian diaspora," Lieu explained. "It's not exactly the same taste as you would find in Hong Kong, and Guangdong, and in Taiwan, but as close as we can get it to be easy, fast and delicious."
Though cooking is her passion, it wasn't always Lieu's career. But a pivot during the pandemic led her on a path to follow her dreams.
"I'm a Doctor of Physical Therapy for over 13 years. But that's something that my parents kind of chose for me. They wanted me to be a doctor," said Lieu. “I hope I'm helping pave a path for little girls and boys who actually look like me whose parents probably feel like you should go into computer science, or you should go into being a doctor or in finance. I want them to know that even someone who looks like me can be on TV, can write a book and be on the bookshelves. Representation matters."
From cooking for her family as a child - to making meals for a family of her own, Kat Lieu hopes her cookbook "Modern Asian Kitchen," will give readers a shortcut to this much-beloved cuisine.
"I'm just a normal, busy mom who works from home who has to cook and care for her family. And this is exactly what my book represents," Lieu said.
Modern Asian Kitchen will be out on April 9.
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