- 5 days ago
- 6 min read
On a back burner, a translucent pot of golden chicken broth quietly perfumes the room. Ye Ye’s mise en place is every Chinese home cook’s dream: julienned ginger, freshly minced shrimp paste, and sliced scallions neatly arranged in colorfully patterned bowls. (We later learn they’re part of her massive collection of “longevity bowls,” ceramic dishes traditionally gifted at funerals, which Ye Ye brings home from China after every visit.)
In Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, Cooking with Ye Ye hosts her Chinese cooking classes in a beautiful, sunlit studio sandwiched between lazily-opening wine bars, vintage shops, and neighborhood cafés. Behind its doors lies a veritable smorgasbord celebrating China’s rich regional cuisines. Ye Ye’s cooking class menu includes offerings from every corner of the country’s culinary landscape: sweet-and-sour guo bao rou from the Northeast; fiery la zi ji and mapo tofu of the Sichuan basin; classic dim sum staples like siu mai and char siu bao; and many dishes from the thousands of miles in between.
We had the pleasure of speaking with Ye Ye, and cooking a few beloved dishes from her hometown. as part of our Serica Storytellers series, spotlighting prominent figures whose work across various mediums shed light on the breadth and depth of the Asian and American experience.
Suzhou Style Wontons
The first dish Ye Ye prepares is Suzhou-style wontons. “It’s a special signature dish from my hometown," she says. “This is actually my favorite dish. Not one of the favorites. My favorite.”
Making wontons has always been a communal affair. Ye Ye remembers weekends spent with family and friends folding hundreds at a time. She jokes it’s like the original meal prep.
Unlike the Cantonese-style wontons more commonly found in the United States, Suzhou wontons typically feature an eggless wrapper and, like many traditional dishes of the region, rely on seasonal herbs, vegetables, and other ingredients.
Suzhou sits in Jiangnan, one of China’s most historically and culturally significant regions, encompassing Shanghai, southern Jiangsu, and northern Zhejiang.
Its culinary contributions include some of China’s best-known dishes and ingredients: Shaoxing wine, pork soup dumplings, squirrel fish, alongside a long-running tradition of fresh and seasonal cooking with the products of the Yangtze river that curves through the region.
(L-R): Pork soup dumplings, Shaoxing Wine, Jiangsu regional dishes
Image courtesy of: The Woks of Life, Savory Sweet Spoon, The China Journey
For Ye Ye, these qualities — fresh, seasonal, and nourishing — are at the heart of Chinese home cooking, and what she hopes more people will come to appreciate. Sharing that side of Chinese cooking with people who might never have experienced it firsthand is what inspired Ye Ye to begin teaching.
After graduating from college in China, she interned at Disney World’s Epcot, before flying over the pond and earning her master’s degree at the University of Leeds. While working in marketing and hospitality, her friends encouraged her to host dinner parties. Many of her guests were vegan, prompting Ye Ye to begin teaching them vegan Chinese recipes.
When she later moved to the United States, she continued teaching cooking classes as a hobby. After being laid off during the pandemic, she turned that passion into a business, starting with Zoom classes before expanding into private in-person lessons and corporate team-building events.
“Because I teach traditional Chinese dishes, I attract certain groups of people — non-Chinese who have lived in China, non-Chinese who have never been [to China] but love Chinese food, Asians who miss their family’s cooking but didn’t know where to start,” Ye Ye says. “So they are very interested in Chinese food in general. They are eager to learn about different regional cuisines, deepening their knowledge of Chinese cuisine and enjoying home cooked meals.”
In a country more than 3,000 miles wide, with countless regional cuisines and dishes, Ye Ye believes Chinese food has something for everyone: “Chinese food is not one thing. There are eight great cuisines in China … each cuisine represents an area of China,” Ye Ye says. “But imagine that if you drive 30 minutes away … it’s a different style completely.”
Her Suzhou-style wontons embody that philosophy: delicately filled with a mixture of pork, shrimp, and whatever else is in season, it’s served in a light chicken broth made from simmering a whole chicken and its bones. Often found in an early-morning boil in breakfast shops, or frozen in the hundreds in family freezers, it's one of many healthy, home-cooked Chinese dishes that Ye Ye loves.
Red-Braised Chicken Wings
Ye Ye’s presents her second dish: red-braised chicken wings. “It’s a representation of the famous ‘generous oil rich sauce’ flavor of the Jiangnan area,” she explains, referring to the iconic nong you chi jiang flavor profile.
After browning chicken wings, Ye Ye adds aromatics to the sizzling wok: ginger, scallions, bay leaves and star anise. The next ingredients: dark soy sauce, Shaoxing wine, sugar, water, a low simmer, and “lots of love,” build that addictively rich and fragrant sauce that coats the wings with a signature deep red gloss, without the need for any food coloring.
Like the Suzhou-style wontons, these wings are a fond childhood memory for her. “My cousins and I growing up, we really loved this dish,” Ye Ye recalls. “My grandma would cook a large batch … we would eat them with chopsticks, over our hand, over a trash can just in case something falls off,” Ye Ye laughs. “We would eat almost all the chicken wings before dinner even started.”
“Every dish I teach carries a story,” Ye Ye says. “Where it comes from, what special ingredients go into it, what season it belongs to, what occasion it was made for.”
For many of her students, who often come seeking certain recipes or memories that hold something special, cooking inevitably becomes a part of that story: “Cooking becomes a way to connect with a culture we’ve lived in, grown up around, or fallen in love with from a distance.”
Though Ye Ye’s favorite dishes come from her hometown of Suzhou, her passion for teaching and learning home-cooked food extends across an endless culinary landscape. Every year she returns to China, taking local cooking classes — and eating plenty of good food, in the name of research. Beyond her classes, she shares recipes, techniques, and resources on her blog. Her expertise in Chinese regional cooking has also been tapped by Epicurious in its popular YouTube series, where chefs around the world interpret iconic dishes through the lens of their own culinary traditions.
In recent years, Chinese restaurants have been opening new locations in the United States at a breakneck speed, offering diners more opportunities than ever before to explore the country’s diverse regional cuisines. For Ye Ye, home cooking offers another way to enjoy that exploration, connecting with the stories, communities, and people behind those dishes.
“I'd love to expand my classes, reach more people, and keep building a community around Chinese food and culture,” she says. “I want to keep going deeper: more research, more exploration of China's culinary world. I feel like I'm just getting started.”
Rapid Fire Round!
What’s one thing you wish everyone knew about Chinese food?
Chinese food in America has a reputation of being greasy, heavy, fried, and really sweet, but that’s just a small window of Chinese food. It's actually very easy to make really good, home-cooked Chinese food.
What’s your cooking "hot take"?
Not everyone needs to be good at cooking, but you have to enjoy the process. The people you cook for will feel that. And if you don't enjoy cooking, don't force yourself. It's not for everyone.
What’s the next big Chinese-American food trend?
Skewers. I think those are a really good late night snack. You know, after work, getting together with a few friends — and skewers and beer.
Who served as an inspiration for your cooking journey?
Most of my family in China are amazing cooks, and we all lived really close to each other — so I actually never had to cook much myself! But they helped me understand what truly good home-cooked food looks like. They used seasonal, fresh ingredients and created well balanced, delicious meals every day. This is the principle I carry into my own cooking.
Ready to bring a taste of China into your own kitchen? Visit Ye Ye’s website to book a class and explore her recipes, blog, and other offerings.
