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Quyen Ngo

The Bánh Mì Handbook by Andrea Nguyen


This edited article is from Loa, an independent news website and podcast broadcasting stories about Vietnam, and is republished on Chopsticks Alley as part of a content-sharing agreement.

Quyên Ngô is “On the Record” with Andrea Nguyễn, award winning food-writer and author of The Banh Mi Handbook. In our latest “Vietnamism” segment, we join Natalie Nguyễn as she dishes up some delicious Vietnamese mayonnaise.

Andrea Nguyen is an author, teacher and consultant based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Born in Vietnam, she came to the United States at the age of six. Her first book publication was "Trip to Freedom," a short children's book on how her family came to America. Andrea's food writing has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, Saveur, and Rodale's Organic Life where she is also a contributing editor. Her first cookbook, "Into the Vietnamese Kitchen" was nominated for three 2007 James Beard and IACP cookbook awards. "Asian Dumplings" was her second cookbook with award-winning publisher Ten Speed Press. In March 2012, Cooking Light magazine selected both books for their Best 100 Cookbooks of the Past 25 Years award. Andrea's works comprised two of the seven cookbooks in the Asian category. Andrea's third cookbook, "Asian Tofu" (2012) is an exciting work loaded with techniques and recipes, as well as personal stories of artisans, cooks, and chefs for whom tofu is a vital part of their lives; the book was a finalist for a 2013 IACP award. To bring Vietnamese food to a mainstream audience, Andrea wrote "The Banh Mi Handbook" (2014), which NPR named one of the best cookbooks of the year. She is currently working on a new book with Ten Speed Press (Crown/Random House) due out in winter/spring 2017. All of Andrea's works are available as ebooks, with "Asian Dumplings" and "Asian Tofu" being also released as enhanced ebooks with additional video and audio content. She has collaborated with Chronicle Books to develop the Asian Market Shopper iPhone app, which helps cooks understand and select Asian ingredients. Regardless of topic, Andrea unlocks the cuisines of Asia for cooks to explore, master, and savor.

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Quyen Ngo

She is an actor, organizer, and co-editor for Loa, a podcast focused on amplifying stories from and about Vietnam. She aims to provide perspectives that lie at the intersection of social justice, media, and performing arts. She was formerly an AT&T New Media Fellow at Brown University. During her time as an Urban Program Director for a commercial radio station in Southern New England, she DJed Soul and Funk music and reported on issues impacting local communities of color.

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