What was the impetus for writing your cookbook, Mooncakes & Milk Bread?
Kristina Cho: The dream of writing a cookbook is something that I’ve had for a while. And to be honest, writing a book about Chinese baking wasn’t necessarily at the top of the list. I always thought that I would emerge onto the cookbook scene by sharing family recipes. I grew up in a family full of great cooks. My grandparents had a Chinese restaurant. But the idea of a Chinese baking book came about because I started playing around with milk bread in my own kitchen. As I shared these recipes, I sensed a lot of excitement about the recipes. I think it was something that people hadn’t seen too much, whether or not they grew up going to Chinese bakeries. It was new to them. And then, if they did grow up going to Chinese bakeries, it was, “Oh, I never knew I could make this on my own.” So, I tapped into that. There was just nothing like it, nothing comparable. There was nothing that holistically had a deep dive into the world of Chinese baking. I took it as a challenge upon myself to explore that world and write a book that authentically and honestly shares these recipes and the stories of the bakers who made this world really delicious.
Tell us about the Chinese bakeries that you grew up with.
I grew up in Cleveland, [Ohio,], where there wasn’t a Chinese bakery for me to visit. But at least once a year, my family would pack up into the van and drive to Chicago, [Illinois,] occasionally Toronto, [Canada,] which had a more robust Chinatown, and go to the bakeries there. We would try different ones, but there wasn’t one that I attached to when I was younger. I think the void of having that made every visit to a Chinese bakery—wherever I was, whether it was Chicago, Toronto, or a family trip back to Hong Kong—it made every single one of those trips special because it was
