INTERVIEW

INTERVIEW

‘Top Chef’ influence

Melissa King leverages TV fame to bring attention to big causes

BY JENN TANAKA

If you won $10,000, would you give it all away? That’s what chef Melissa King did. After winning “Top Chef: All Stars L.A.,” she donated all her prize money to charity. The National Black Coalition, Asian Americans for Equality, Asian Youth Center and the Trevor Project benefited not only from her donation, but King’s new reality TV fame also brought attention to their causes. “I made sure I always wanted to give back where I could,” says King. “It’s so close to me because I’m an Asian-American. My parents are immigrants. I am queer. I’m a woman of color. There are so many facets to who I am and so many layers to who I am, and if I can give back to these communities that are in a sense a part of who I am, then I will try to do that as much as possible with any of the projects that I do. It started pretty early in my career.”

King grew up in the San Gabriel Valley in the 1990s. She graduated from UC Irvine with a cognitive science degree, then excelled at the Culinary Institute of America. She worked with three-Michelin star chef Dominique Crenn and refined her technical skills as a certified level 1 sommelier. She has cooked for Oprah and Al Gore, yet remains grounded without an ounce of pretension.

“I would say a lot of my creations, I draw from childhood,” King says. “I draw from flavors that I grew up with, that grandma made. Flavors of my culture, of who I am and where I come from, and I’m very proud of that.”

We caught up with the Top Chef and asked about what’s in her pantry, what places remind her of home and what it’s like filming during the pandemic.

You launched a series of virtual cooking classes last year. When everyone was stuck at home, and even the worst cooks were forced to fend for themselves, you helped them create delicious meals. What’s your secret?
It was interesting. The pandemic actually sparked and inspired me to do a lot of cooking classes. Honestly, I don’t think that’s going away.

People really enjoy cooking Asian cuisine with me. A lot of my classes I tie in tandem with charities that I hold close to me. [We’re working with] a deaf queer organization. The one prior to that was to Stop AAPI Hate. So, I’m going to keep doing that and focus some energy there.

You mentioned that most virtual cooking classes are not inclusive for the hearing impaired. To highlight this issue, you hosted your own Crowdcast webinar with an ASL interpreter. How did you come up with that idea?

My friend Caroline Blaike, who is an ASL interpreter, and I were talking about my cooking classes. She said, “You realize they’re not accessible.” I thought,

“She’s right!” I didn’t think of that. There’s a lack of captioning, especially on the specific platform that I’m using. She said, “Why don’t I interpret a class for you.”

It sparked organically and I thought Tantanmen Ramen would be a fun direction to go. Everyone loves ramen. Everyone likes spicy things. We wanted to keep the class plant-based as well, so it could be accessible to anyone’s palate. This is the first time I’ve seen a class like this, that’s been all inclusive.

I do know a lot of people in the deaf community don’t have the privilege to enjoy these sorts of live events because there is nobody translating for them. I thought what better way to have food connecting them than to have an ASL interpreter involved.

Tell us more about your cooking classes. Is this something that you’ll continue?

As I started doing these cooking classes, at the start of the pandemic, they just keep evolving more and more as each class goes by. I want to be as inclusive as I can. I want to bring awareness to things that are happening in the world. What better way to do that than through food? I feel that’s a big motivating force in the creation and development of these classes. How can we tie this back to something that’s happening in the world at this moment, and bring awareness?

Last year, you raised awareness of the Beirut disaster with a cooking fundraiser. Why did you decide to do this virtual event?

At that time, there were things going on in Beirut, so it felt natural to tie things together.

As far as the cuisine, I’m trying to empower people to explore the Asian pantry as much as possible. I’m trying to create classes that are fun and easy but are also creative and have a lot of umami punch. … The more that I keep doing it, I see the engagement and I see how much we raise.

Last year, just from the cooking classes alone, we raised a little less than $10,000 – and that’s over the course of nine months. It’s just [advertised] through social media and word of mouth. People can donate through the classes during the one-hour session.

In an amazing way, we raised over $10,000 last year and this year it’s almost $5,000. I also donated all my fan favorite winnings from “Top Chef: All Stars L.A.”

Since March of last year, I’ve raised over $25,000 toward charities and various organizations.

That’s incredible. Have you always sought out charitable endeavors?

It started pretty early in my career. Even when I was doing pop-up dinners, I would have the proceeds go toward local charities. Now that I am fortunate to have a larger platform to speak out, I figured why not keep moving and keep it going.

How has the pandemic changed you?

Everything that I have worked on has been inspired during the pandemic. I didn’t have a sauce line. I didn’t have a merch line. I did not have virtual cooking classes that I could offer. So the beauty of what’s happened, the silver lining, is I’ve been able to pivot the direction of my work toward the virtual space.

Whether it’s through selling products or teaching people classes, I feel very proud of what I’ve accomplished. I hope it shows other chefs out there that you don’t necessarily need to rely on a restaurant job or a restaurant opportunity. You can explore your career in so many other ways.

Can you dish about what it was like to film “Top Chef” during the pandemic?

When you see it on TV, it looks like we’re having so much fun – and we are – but at the same time, it was a very emotional experience to go through. But I’m fortunate that I had a community of other chefs to go through that with and it was a very safe environment.

We were getting tested every other day, if not every day.

We were one of few production teams that were even attempting to create a show during the pandemic so it was a big challenge not just on the competitors, not just the judges, but also the entire crew that built “Top Chef.” We all kind of joined forces as a team to make sure we kept the bubble safe. There were multiple pods within a pod. For instance, the judges couldn’t interact with other pods in order to keep that layer of safety. And not have cross contamination of COVID just in case somebody did get sick. God forbid we get Padma sick!

It was a very safe environment, but it allowed us to have this human connection with other people. I felt, at least for my mental sanity, it was so healing because I know the rest of the world was feeling so isolated having to shelter at home. And I got to go into the “Top Chef” bubble and have dance parties, have dinner with other chefs. It really became a little community that we created. Every one of us was going through a different challenge – whether you owned a restaurant or you had a catering company or you’re like me doing virtual events.

Each of us had a very different experience of how COVID impacted our lives. It was comforting to be able to talk to each other and support one another.

Whether it’s COVID or not, the beauty of “Top Chef” is that you have this family. And I feel like we’re this fraternity in a way. We have this club of amazing talented professional chefs that are very entrepreneurial.

And I do enjoy the moments we get to “talk shop” and bounce ideas.

What’s it like now sitting at the judges’ table?

It’s been interesting on the flip side. Now I’m a judge and I was a competitor. That’s why I’m so grateful for every opportunity that I have in the “Top Chef” world, and the “Top Chef” brand has really supported me – not only through my career but just through life, having the confidence in myself to try judging. It’s a whole new skill set that I’m learning, but I’m grateful every time I get to come back.

Speaking of coming back, you live in San Francisco now but you grew up in L.A. and graduated from UC Irvine. When you return to Southern California, where do you eat?

I always go to Lunasia [for dim sum]. Even though it’s one of the “newer” places – newer in the sense it’s been around for 10 years. I feel like I always go there. Dim sum, in general, is very close to my heart. It’s something that I would do every weekend with my grandmother.

What ingredients are pantry staples for you?

There are several. I love fish sauce. I put that on everything. Szechuan chilies. I love using those in multiple ways. Szechuan peppercorns, black vinegar, bonito flakes, miso, fermented chili paste. There are flavors that are unfamiliar to the mainstream world, and I hope that they explore that a little more. That they’re not afraid to walk into an Asian grocery store and discover new flavors because I think it could be integrated so easily in your pantry.

What else do you crave?

Honestly, any Chinese café in San Gabriel I am a fan of, because there are just some dishes that I grew up with. Baked pork chop over rice. It reminds me of high school, actually. If I wasn’t at school, I’d be at a Chinese café with my friends hanging out drinking lemon iced teas and Hong Kong milk tea. I spent time in a lot of boba shops. I love Half and Half. I feel like I’m always there getting a milk tea boba with pudding.

You impressed the “Top Chef: All Stars L.A.” judges with your Hong Kong milk tea tiramisu dessert. How did you come up with that dish?

I grew up going to boba shops quite often. Even now, I see the big trend of cheese foam and boba. When I was in Italy, it hit me. Why not turn this coffee dessert into a tea dessert? You know, caffeine and caffeine. Tiramisu is made out of mascarpone, and you see cheese foam on top of milk tea beverages back at home [in California].

So it all tied together in my head to make a Hong Kong milk tea tiramisu.

You are celebrated for your interpretation of Asian-American flavors. Did you always embrace these ingredients in your cooking?

When I was younger, I never thought to reach into the dim sum and the dumplings that I was eating at home.

It was very separate. My home life and my work life/my professional life. It was my first “Top Chef” when I really started to discover the ability to merge them together.

How beautiful those flavors could be. I think it had a lot to do with me embracing myself and my culture and being proud of these flavors.

When I was younger, I was taught to be slightly embarrassed – especially when I was in elementary school, I was a little embarrassed by my lunchbox. I’m not going to lie. I had fried rice, pickled things in my lunch that other kids would poke fun at me for and I think for a long time I thought, these are things that I eat at home. It was separate. Consciously, it was separate.

At the time, Michelin star restaurants around the world were all French, were all Italian. It was European food that was praised to be the best. Asian food has had this – well, it was presented to the world as greasy chop suey. I felt, especially on my second “Top Chef,” for “All Stars,” I want to praise Asian food. I want to show how amazing it can be and modernize it in a way that shows the world that it’s not just greasy takeout.

It was my evolution of identity over time. Finding my cooking style and finding my own identity as a person in the world. It all came together through my food.

Do you have any projects that you can share with us?

I’ll continue to be on “Top Chef Portland” and then we’ll do “Top Chef Amateurs.”

I’m launching shirts that people can purchase, and 100 percent goes toward charity. It came together with a designer friend of mine, SunJin Haru Kim. She’s Asian American as well. With everything happening in the world we decided we wanted to help and we wanted to give back so we decided to join forces. She designed a shirt that says, “I am a human.”

The word “human” has a silhouette for the Asian character “person” in the A. She is an amazing designer.

This project inspired me to roll out different shirts with different designers. I’m working on building a collection. The artist will keep ownership of the design, ownership of where it goes. That way everyone feels proud of what we’re putting out there. ■

:: chefmelissaking.com | This interview appeared in FOODIES (OC Register, 2021)