Actress Ming-Na Wen, a Mt. Lebanon High School and Carnegie Mellon University grad, wasn\u2019t sure she could or should write a cookbook, even though fans showed interest in her writing one.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would post photos of me on Instagram with the meals I\u2019ve made, and they all wanted a recipe,\u201d Wen recalled in a Zoom interview late last month. \u201cI\u2019m like, we don\u2019t have recipes; we just cook, you know.\u201d<\/p>\n
Beyond that, Wen, who grew up around and later worked in her parents\u2019 Chinatown Inn in Downtown Pittsburgh, didn\u2019t feel qualified to write a cookbook.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople with cookbooks have to have legitimate credentials,\u201d she recalled thinking. \u201cI\u2019m not a real chef.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then her literary agent told her many celebrities publish cookbooks and they don\u2019t actually cook.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo me, that is such a crime,\u201d Wen said. \u201cNot naming names, but it blew my mind. Growing up in Pittsburgh, you have to be authentic. You need to be honest and forthright. At that point, I was like, OK, then I definitely have the credentials.\u201d<\/p>\n
Three years later, Wen\u2019s \u201cHave You Eaten Yet? Family Recipes from a Restaurant Daughter\u201d<\/a> ($35, Simon Element) arrives in bookstores Oct. 6.<\/p>\n \u201cHave You Eaten Yet?\u201d includes a mix of recipes, from Chinese dishes like those served at Chinatown Inn (egg rolls, wonton soup) to American classics (chicken parmesan, pesto salmon). Wen wanted her cookbook to reflect her own journey as an Asian American.<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t want it to be specifically just a Chinese cookbook,\u201d Wen said. \u201cI wanted it to be the true Asian American experience, so there are a lot of other wonderful dishes in there. I would try something (at a restaurant) and love it and recreate it in my own kitchen to serve to my family. There\u2019s a lot of love in the cookbook.\u201d<\/p>\n And a lot of personal history, too.<\/p>\n Before she gets to the recipes, \u201cHave You Eaten Yet?\u201d includes around 30 pages of autobiography, details of Wen\u2019s life experiences, from her birth in Macau, a Portuguese colony at the time, to a move to Hong Kong, her parents\u2019 divorce and her mother\u2019s new relationship with an American, Soo Lim Yee, who would become Wen\u2019s stepfather on paper but whom she related to as her father (\u201cBaba,\u201d dad in Chinese) in her head and in her heart.<\/p>\n Wen describes her initial reaction at age 7 when her mother woke her and told her she was moving to New York City in the United States. Attending a Catholic school, Wen\u2019s only frame of reference for foreign lands was through Bible stories.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t want to live in the desert!\u201d Wen cried.<\/p>\n After three years in New York, the family moved to Pittsburgh, initially living above Yee\u2019s Chinatown Inn before settling in Mt. Lebanon during her middle school years, which she describes as \u201ca tough transition.\u201d<\/p>\n While the recipe portion of the book presented its own challenges, so did the autobiographical elements.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Chinese, we\u2019re raised to keep your private stories to yourselves,\u201d Wen said. \u201cFor me to open up a little bit more in this cookbook was a departure from my upbringing, to the point where my mother didn\u2019t want her name in the book. I was like, \u2018Mom, I\u2019m not gonna reveal all these scandalous stories about our family,\u2019 not that we have many, but it\u2019s that level of privacy. We associate our dignity and our self-preservation and worth in that privacy. We take it seriously. So even telling small stories \u2014 about my feelings, having a stepfather growing up \u2014 is sort of taboo.\u201d<\/p>\n In addition to her background as a \u201crestaurant daughter,\u201d Wen made a conscious choice in her acting career to take Los Angeles-based series regular roles so she could be home for dinner with her husband, Eric, and two children (now almost 21 and 26) as much as possible. (Only \u201cStargate: Universe\u201d took her outside of Southern California for two seasons to film in Vancouver, Canada.)<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I started on \u2018ER,\u2019 it was such a well-oiled machine that a lot of times I\u2019d have the morning shift and we\u2019d block shoot all our scenes, and then I\u2019m home by 3 or 4 in the afternoon,\u201d Wen said. \u201cFor me, food is not just nourishment; it\u2019s really a time to be able to bond and share stories and create memories with your family and your friends, so that was very important to me to maintain.\u201d<\/p>\n That same perspective also helped inform the book\u2019s title.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve really been into C-dramas recently,\u201d Wen said, referring to Chinese dramas available on streaming services. \u201cEvery moment that people get together or meet up, the very first question they ask is, \u2018Have you eaten yet?\u2019 I realized, my mother did that. [Parents in China] don\u2019t say, \u2018I love you\u2019 a lot. I do \u2014 I smother my children with hugs and \u2018love yous\u2019 \u2014 but growing up, if I had friends come over, my mom wouldn\u2019t even bother asking what their names were. She would just ask, \u2018Have you eaten yet?\u2019 That was her way of welcoming them into the home and showing that she cares. That\u2019s the love language I grew up with.\u201d<\/p>\n Wen said she initially found it daunting to come up with the 65 to 70 recipes her publisher requested, but once she started writing them up, the greater challenge was narrowing the recipes down to 70.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was literally recreating every recipe that\u2019s in the book,\u201d Wen said of her research process. \u201cI measured and remeasured. I had a ghostwriter to help me shape everything, but she was really just the taste tester that would take my recipe and make sure that it was all good because every so often I\u2019d put, like, \u2018two tablespoons of salt,\u2019 and she\u2019d say, \u2018Ming, do you mean two teaspoons of salt?\u2019 I\u2019d be like, \u2018Yes, yes, yes. It\u2019s only two teaspoons.\u2019 She was able to help guide me, but everything that\u2019s in that book is love, sweat and tears.\u201d<\/p>\n That proved especially true of recreating Chinatown Inn recipes.<\/p>\n \u201cThey cook in huge batches,\u201d Wen said, \u201cI would ask my brother or my mom, \u2018What\u2019s in the egg rolls?\u2019 They\u2019re like, \u2018Well, it\u2019s this and this and this and this and this.\u2019 I\u2019m like, \u2018Well, how much of it?\u2019 and they\u2019re like, \u2018We don\u2019t know.\u2019<\/p>\n In addition to promoting her cookbook on a multi-city book tour<\/a> and posting videos to her cookbook\u2019s YouTube channel<\/a>, Wen plays the Greek goddess Hera in the third season of Disney Channel\u2019s \u201cPercy Jackson and the Olympians\u201d (Nov. 20), but there are currently no \u201cStar Wars\u201d projects in the works that would bring back Wen\u2019s Fennec Shand<\/a>, seen in \u201cThe Mandalorian\u201d and \u201cThe Book of Boba Fett.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI will keep haunting (Mt. Lebanon native and Lucasfilm co-president) Dave Filoni until he brings a very beloved character back that he helped to create,\u201d Wen said, laughing.<\/p>\n Despite a 2024 report<\/a> that a sequel to Wen\u2019s 1993 film \u201cThe Joy Luck Club\u201d was in development, it sounds like those efforts stalled.<\/p>\n \u201cAs of now, no (plans),\u201d Wen said. \u201cAnything and everything is possible, and there\u2019s always room for development, but I think the ladies and I \u2014 my wonderful co-stars Tamlyn Tomita, Lauren Tom and, of course, Rosalind Chao \u2014 we really want to honor Amy Tan\u2019s book with all the nuances and all the importance that that film represented for Asian Americans and for the immigrant story of these characters. Unless something just as wonderful is presented, we just don\u2019t want to tarnish the legacy of that film. We\u2019re not easy sellouts!\u201d<\/p>\n Wen recently appeared at the Toronto International Film Festival in support of the indie movie \u201cWhatcha Want,\u201d<\/a> directed by Mina Shum and starring Isabell Wei (\u201cBridgerton\u201d).<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m interested in doing some of these indie films,\u201d Wen said. \u201cThat\u2019s an area that I haven\u2019t really focused on. At this stage in my career, it\u2019s nice to support a lot of the younger Asian American or just Asian artists out there. There are so many of them \u2013 directors, producers \u2014 and it\u2019s an exciting new arena I\u2019m getting into.\u201d<\/p>\n Wen will be in Pittsburgh for a conversation about her book, moderated by author\/corporate consultant Jim Rooney, son of the late Steelers owner Dan Rooney, at 7 p.m. Oct. 8 at Third Presbyterian Church, 5701 Fifth Ave., in Shadyside. (Details and ticket options, which can include a copy of the cookbook, are available at simonandschuster.com\/p\/have-you-eaten-yet-tour<\/a>.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Actress Ming-Na Wen, a Mt. 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