I first met Chef Rachel Yang when we partnered for a winemaker dinner at her restaurant Joule in Seattle on November 6, 2016. Yang was running three restaurants she owned with her husband, Seif Chirchi, under the Relay Restaurant Group. At the time, Yang had two James Beard Award nominations for Best Chef Northwest in 2015 and 2016.

Meeting Rachel was a joy. She was thoughtful, methodical and passionate about pairing her food with my wines. I first met her lovely sommelier, Maggie Snyder, also a remarkable professional with stunning instinct and brilliant attention to detail when it comes to food and wine pairing. The resulting menu was magical.

Persimmon, fenugreek yogurt, coco nib dukkah
Scallop carpaccio, apple, fermented miso
Blanc de Cabernet Franc 2015

Shrimp + bacon agnolotti, brussel sprout, fermented black bean
Sunchoke, Chinese sausage, nuoc cham
Oregon “Tour Rain” Vin Rouge 2015

Steelhead, lemongrass, chili oil
White grits, delicata squash, spiced pistachio
“Loiregon Côt” Malbec 2014

Wagyu chuck short rib, sesame crust, blackened kimchi
Braised red cabbage, green curry, Asian pear
Oregon Cabernet Franc 2015

Fig newton, butterscotch mousse, star anise cookie, walnut

That dinner cemented a friendship that resulted in yet another extraordinary wine dinner a year later.

Chef Rachel collaborated with Jess Thompson to co-write a profound cookbook that beautifully weaves in the genius behind four restaurants, a marriage, a family and a rich heritage that went beyond blending culture and cuisines in trendy fusion style, but celebrates influences and tradition from a heritage and life left behind.

This book was created with passion and perfect partnership with Thompson, a Seattle-based award-winning freelance food and travel writer and author of several cookbooks, along with her very own memoir, A Year Right Here: Adventures with Food and Family in the Great Nearby. Her work has appeared in Food & Wine, Cooking Lite, Seattle, Sunset, Edible Seattle, the New York Times and more.

The resulting book became an instant classic and a necessary staple for the modern, foodie kitchen.

MY RICE BOWL: Korean Cooking Outside the Lines takes you on a spirited journey of Rachel Yang’s name change, education (she graduated from Brown University), back story that led to a beautiful marriage and partnership with Seif Chicchi, and the centeredness of their family (two young boys) that brings to light Rachel’s journey in learning how to cook Korean food well after she had classical French training and modern American fine-dining experience under her belt.

She explains her style of cooking as “food without boundaries, made with ingredients from all over the globe, created within a relatively rigid framework built from our understanding of how flavor works.”

“Underneath everything, there’s a dependable backdrop – my Korean heritage, made up of my childhood and distant food memories that are engrained in me. It’s topped off with a mosaic of flavors seasoned with my cooking experience, informed by Japan, China, France, Italy, Mexico, Spain, Thailand, Vietnam, Mongolia and India (just to name a few) – the way America is.”

My second winemaker dinner with Chef Rachel was to launch her newly released cookbook in Portland at her restaurant, Revelry. The dinner landed on October 1, 2017 and she pulled recipes from her book that were paired with my wines. The menu was phenomenal and the small restaurant space was packed.

FIRST
Yellow Curry Pickled Beets (p 136)
Chickory Apple Kimchi (p 159)
Smoked Tofu (p 121)

SECOND
Taro Pancake (p 174)
Shrimp and Bacon Dumpling (p 191)

THIRD
Mrs. Yang’s Spicy Fried Chicken (p 223)
Dirty Farro (p 263)
Butternut Squash Gratin (p 111)
Micro Cumin Grilled Eggplant (p 115)

SWEET
Miso Caramel Chocolate Torte (p 297)

That night I received my signed copy of her book!

And here it is several years later and this cookbook is a beloved addition to my kitchen library. The book opens with a thoughtful and helpful “How to use this book” section – which encourages you to “embrace your own adaptations” (which is how I personally cook and use cookbook recipes), includes a whimsical tip – see “pancake theory”, a gentle reminder to “practice, practice”, and an encouraging invitation to “find your flavors”.

I love Chef Rachel’s approach, story, and overall organization of this book. A good cookbook has great recipes. A great cookbook has good stories. This cookbook has both.

I love the way the recipes are spelled out in a methodical way that makes more sense to me than most cookbook recipe instructions. It reads cleanly and I feel like it allows for any level of home cook to follow the instructions in a way that will turn out a great dish.

Highlights for me are the Grilled Chinese Broccoli with a delicious walnut pesto; Miso-Cumin Grilled Eggplant with crispy chickpea; Kale Salad with octopus, white bean, and miso; Beef Try-Tip with lemongrass marinade; Cold Red Curry Noodles with zucchini pesto and shrimp; Geoduck Fried Rice with seaweed dust, pickled pork rind.

There are so many wildly creative flavor combinations to find in this book, a treasure trove for sure. I am proud to have partnered with Chef Rachel and hope, perhaps, the stars align for us to put together another dinner to celebrate where we now are in life. I’m now a boy-mom, like Rachel, and there’s a lovely connection there on mothering while creating a serious body of work in food and beverage. We had talked about the challenges of being women in our respective roles. And we shared a mutual admiration for each other’s work. I raise my glass and we’ll see what comes.