Katie Chin’s Global Family Cookbook Launch
Note: Thank you to Tuttle Publishing for providing a copy to review. All opinions are my own.
Several years ago, I wrote a review on my blog for a book called Katie Chin’s Everyday Chinese Cookbook. My mom read the blog post and then called, saying, “Did you know we’re related to Katie Chin?” What a wonderful surprise! After Katie Chin and I discovered our common roots, we met in person at her Macy’s cooking demo event in New York City. It was serendipitous that our family lines reunited through our careers.
In addition to our familial background, Chef Katie and I have other things in common. We both cherish our families and embrace multiculturalism. So when she released her most recent book, Katie Chin’s Global Family Cookbook, collaborating with her was a natural fit.
For children, one of the best ways to introduce them to other cultures is through food. Opening their palates to new and different cuisines can help diversify their awareness of others outside of their communities. It’s a (delicious) step towards raising global citizens with a multicultural mindset.
Celebrating Family and Global Cuisine
Chef Katie learned to cook alongside her late mother, renowned restauranteur Leeann Chin. Today, it’s an experience she shares with her daughter. Her love of cooking with family shines in Katie Chin’s Global Family Cookbook.
The professional chef, TV personality, and working mom of three kids taps into her culinary and life experiences to create approachable, family-friendly, internationally-inspired dishes for the home cook. Through the book’s 170 recipes, she hopes to inspire families to have fun in the kitchen together.
A section in the cookbook called “Family Dinners Four Ways” includes fun themes such as “Taco My Tuesdays” and “Doesn’t Have to Be Just Another Meatless Monday.” The variety of offerings is sure to please every family member.
Throughout the book, Chef Katie featuers recipes with sophisticated flavors that both kids and adults will love, such as:
- Pizza Wontons
- African Eggs Poached in Tomato Sauce
- Easy Beef Pho Soup
- Spanish Chicken and Rice
- Drunken Pork Zucchini Noodles
- Teriyaki Surf & Turf Kabobs
- Middle Eastern Roasted Cauliflower “Steak”
- Easy Weeknight Pad Thai
- Mexican Chimichurri Chicken Burgers
- Chicken Tikka Masala Pizza
- Crispy Korean Chicken Sliders
The cookbook also features a section called “Multi-cultural Celebrations” with menus to celebrate culture through food. These include:
- Chinese New Year’s Dinner—featuring TV personality Jeannie Mai (The Real), with recipes provided by her mom, Mama Mai.
- Greek Easter Dinner—with recipes provided by TV personality and lifestyle expert Debbie Matenopoulos (The Home & Family Show).
- Cinco de Mayo Celebrations—with recipes provided by cookbook author and celebrity chef Jeffrey Saad.
- Hanukkah Dinner—with recipes provided by Faye Levy, a prolific cookbook author and lead cooking columnist for the Jerusalem Post.
For vegetarians, vegans, and those with food allergies, Chef Katie includes sidebars in the book that explain how her recipes can be adapted. She also provides suggestions on how to add interesting new flavors to kids’ lunches.
Gorgeous photos capture the vibrant colors of the meals, offering tantalizing glimpses into the creations readers can create in their own kitchens. The aromas and flavors seemingly rise from the pages and no doubt into the imaginations of home cooks.
Easy Weeknight Pad Thai Virtual Foodie Xperience
To celebrate the launch of her new cookbook, Chef Katie held a media invite-only Pad Thai virtual cooking class event. The event was hosted by HUNGRY Xperience who partnered with the National Pediatric Cancer Foundation (where Chef Katie is the Culinary Ambassador) to honor National Cancer Survivor Month.
As a participant of the event, I received a curated, custom-made gift box with all the ingredients needed to make Chef Katie’s Easy Weeknight Pad Thai dish. It’s a popular recipe that was also featured in Maria Shriver’s Sunday Paper.
For the virtual event, Chef Katie showed participants step-by-step instructions on how to make this delicious meal. Throughout the lively session, Chef Katie offered her favorite tips and tricks and wove in personal stories behind her book’s recipes and traditions.
One inspiring personal story was of her mother, Leeann Chin, who worked as a seamstress making only $0.50 per hour while raising her children in Minnesota. Leeann Chin catered small parties, and a local socialite was so impressed with Chin’s Chinese cuisine that she introduced her to actor Sean Connery. Connery and actor Robert Redford were early backers of Chin’s first restaurants which were named after her. Over time, Chin’s restaurants became a mainstay of Chinese cuisine in the midwest, and she published numerous cookbooks.
Leeann brought her daughter Katie into her culinary world. Together they appeared on cooking shows and helped bring Chinese cuisine into homes across America. Chef Katie carries the torch for her late mom and has established her own identity in the culinary world. Her knowledge and professionalism showed as she effortlessly guided participants in the virtual Pad Thai event.
We made sauce from scratch, cooked rice noodles, added embellishments, and finished the dish with peanuts and hot chili sauce. The thought of making Pad Thai used to seem so daunting to me, but with Chef Katie’s instructions and encouragement, I realized it was quite easy. Moving forward, I now have the confidence to recreate this dish on my own.
Where to Purchase the Cookbook
Katie Chin’s Global Family Cookbook is a great way to experience global cuisines from the comfort of your own kitchen. Purchase Katie Chin’s Global Family Cookbook at TuttlePublishing.com and Amazon (Hardcover, Kindle).
Enter the Katie Chin’s Global Family Cookbook Giveaway [CLOSED]
One lucky reader will win a hardcover copy of Katie Chin’s Global Family Cookbook. Please enter via the entry form below. The giveaway is open to entrants aged 18+ years old with a U.S. mailing address. Good luck!
About the Author
Katie Chin is a caterer, award-winning cookbook author, television chef, and food blogger who grew up working in the kitchens of her late mother, Leeann Chin’s award-winning Minneapolis-area restaurants. Katie co-hosted the national PBS cooking series Double Happiness in conjunction with her mother, and together they wrote Everyday Chinese Cooking (Clarkson Potter, 2000).
On her own, Katie wrote 300 Best Rice Cooker Recipes and the award-winning bestsellers Everyday Thai Cooking and Katie Chin’s Everyday Chinese Cookbook. Katie is recognized as a pan-Asian cooking expert and has been featured in many food and lifestyle magazines and has made numerous appearances on national television and as a guest judge on Food Network’s Iron Chef America. She appeared as a chef contestant on Cutthroat Kitchen and Beat Bobby Flay.
Katie divides her time running her businesses, posting recipes to her blog, shooting cooking videos for her YouTube channel, throwing karaoke dinner parties, and caring for her teenage stepdaughter Kyla and twins, Dylan and Becca. Recently, Katie and her kids teamed up for the online series Cooped Up Cooking With Katie—meant to inspire people stuck at home during COVID-19 to get creative in the kitchen. Katie lives in Encino, California with her family.
www.chefkatiechin.com
www.wokstarcatering.com
www.fortunecookiedivas.com
Facebook Fan Page: Chef Katie Chin
Twitter & Instagram: @chefkatiechin
