What I’ve been up to
When I wrote my first cookbook, The Vegan Chinese Kitchen, I moved to China to attend a vegetarian culinary school in Guangzhou. Initially culinary school was for research purposes, but it was my first foray into professional cooking and I graduated the program wanting more— I was fascinated by the restaurant industry.
I moved back to the United States from Taipei after I turned in my manuscript, and while waiting for the book to come out I started working in restaurant kitchens. My first job was as a line cook at Din Tai Fung in Portland, Oregon, slinging hundreds of orders of garlic green beans, noodles and fried rice a night for four months. (Later I learned I was the first female wok chef hired in Din Tai Fung’s company history). I’d move on to different line jobs in Portland, first at a Thai joint, then a vegan dim sum place, and then a New American restaurant for a year.
In 2021, with more restaurant experience under my belt, I decided to venture out as a chef and cook my own food. I began a series of Chinese pop-ups called Surong. The food struck a chord with Portland eaters and I began selling out events of 80-100+ covers per night and getting local press recognition. It was fun at first, finding that nascent thrill of success and a sense of community in Portland’s food scene. I continued for a year and even did a pop-up in Manhattan. But running my own business involved so much more than cooking, and soon I felt the burnout of production.
Fast forward to 2023: I decided to put my pop-up on hold and go back to working as a cook. I took a full-time chef de partie role in fine-dining and embraced the tweezer, moving out to wine country to work at ōkta. I had to take time off just to attend the James Beard Awards in Chicago, where I won for The Vegan Chinese Kitchen. In the fall, I spent a few months staging at Michelin-starred restaurants, including SingleThread, Eleven Madison Park, Atomix, and Alinea, and during service one night I finally had a ‘holy crap’ moment— I’m here, cooking with the crew in these legendary kitchens, and I can hold my own. So what else am I trying to prove?
I’ve always loved the energy and camaraderie of the restaurant team, of cooking at the highest level, but there were also downsides. Relationships suffered, as did my mental health, and I barely had time to do anything other than my job. Time was marked by shifts in the restaurant, exhaustion, and recovery before the next shift. I felt I needed to assess my life and reprioritize.
My love-hate relationship with working in restaurants is ongoing, but I will always have unwavering respect for my fellow cooks and staff in the industry, the unspoken passion that drives people to show up, grinding fifty, sixty hour weeks, sometimes in mentally taxing and underpaid roles (but that’s another story). After going to Singapore and working with Chef Zor Tan at his inspiring new restaurant Born, I realized that the future of fine-dining, and the food that excited me, was back in Asia.
After Singapore I headed to China. I spent a few months just eating and writing and figuring out whether I wanted to go back to the restaurant industry. Sitting in train cars, watching landscapes blur between provinces, I scribbled about the foods I’d tried for the first time: rice tofu, pea porridge, burnt chiles, zhe-er-gen or “fishy mint,” fermented rice griddle cakes, sangguo (mulberry) wine, and charcoal-rubbed tofu. I went to Yunnan province and found a large vegan community in Dali. I connected with Chinese and expat chefs, cooks, food writers and nutritionists in Shanghai and decided to stay for longer.
Now that I live in China, for the foreseeable future, I’m going back to what I loved the most: writing. And developing recipes. (And cooking for myself: you’d be surprised how many 2AM staff meal leftovers and microwaved oatmeal I’ve consumed in the last few years. Chefs don’t eat very well.)
Writing and long-form are my preferred form of communication. I’ve always loved newsletters— they’re a cozy, quiet corner of the internet, away from the hyperactivity and algorithm pressures and distraction of social media. I’m excited for this next phase in my work, and look forward to sharing more updates. I hope you’ll follow me along this journey.
What’s in the newsletter:
Dispatches on regional Chinese cooking and culture, and new recipes. I’m excited to delve into:
Introductions to lesser-known Chinese vegetables, fruits, and mushrooms
Tofu and all transformations of the soybean. Thus the name of the newsletter! (And the subject of a second cookbook…)
An exploration of regional cuisines outside of the most well-known (Sichuan, Cantonese, etc.). Guizhou and Yunnan province, in particular, have fascinating plant-based traditions.
Projects and deep-dives including
Chinese fermentation
Chinese breads
Koji / qu and applications
Steaming and clay pot recipes
Little Soybean is also a personal missive. I’ll be writing about things I’m cooking and eating, reflections on family, Chinese identity, and culture, and a glimpse into the current food and restaurant scene in China.
There are two versions of Little Soybean:
Free subscribers get:
Ongoing dispatches on Chinese food, cooking, and culture
Occasional free recipes
Paid subscribers ($6/month or $60 annually) also get:
Full recipes, when applicable, on top of the writing
Ability to comment and ask questions, suggest topics for me to explore, and engage with other people in the community
You’ll also be investing in this publication. Writing is my full-time work and your support allows me to invest the time and resources into research, traveling to specific towns and cities, interviewing scholars and locals, buying ingredients, developing ideas and testing recipes. Thank you for supporting me!
Where else can I find you?
I’m on Instagram @hannah.che, or you can email me at hannahche@substack.com.
Sign up now so you don’t miss the first issue.
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In the meantime, tell your friends!
Happy that you're writing more long-form content and in an online space where you own all your own content (vs social media which I don't really use myself). Easy subscription from me and happy to support more vegan chinese content! Looking forward to your culinary adventures. I hope you will continue to host those recipes on plant based wok as well - or perhaps offer a downloadable archive for paid subscribers?
Hi Hannah! I honestly cannot recall how I came across your substack, but I’ve just read this post and am VERY much looking forward to following this next chapter of yours. As someone who is the type to just leave the good Chinese cooking to my grandma, I feel that there’s a lot that I’ll learn from you :)