October 5, 2025 • 22 mins
She’s a New York Times best-selling author and a James Beard award winner, Joanne Lee Molinaro takes a seat at Luke’s Diner this week.
Joanne gives her props to Mrs. Kim for Season 3 E9 “A Deep-Fried Korean Thanksgiving.”
Plus, she reveals the one dish she’d bring to the table that might just earn Mrs. Kim’s approval.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
I Am all in Again.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Oh, let's I Am all in again with Scott Patterson
and iHeartRadio Podcast.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Hey everybody, Scott Patterson, I Am all In Podcast one
eleven productions. iHeartRadio Media, iHeart Podcast. We are doing a
Luke's Diner with Joanne Lee Molinara. Let me tell you
something about Joanne. She's a James Beard Award winner New
(00:42):
York Times bestseller, but most importantly, she is a beloved
storyteller and cook, captivating her four million social media followers
with heartfelt narratives that accompany stunning videos that are preparing
everything from traditional kimichi to inventive, career inspired pasta dishes.
Her smash debut, The Korean Vegan, was named one of
(01:05):
the best cookbooks of the year, and her sophomore follow
up goes on sale this coming October fourteenth. Welcome joe Anne.
How are you?
Speaker 2 (01:15):
I feel like glowing after that incredible introduction?
Speaker 1 (01:19):
Well, you know, we want to make you feel welcome,
and you know you've got We had to cut this
resume down, actually by by about ninety percent. You're so accomplished,
but welcome to the show.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
And let's dive.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
Let's dive into it.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Let's do it.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
You know, Korean cookie cooking and recipe crafting on the
show Gilmore hasn't really happened yet. But when did your
love for cooking begin? What is is something you grew
up with or did that come later in life?
Speaker 2 (01:56):
No, it definitely came later in life. I was not
one of those who spent a lot of time in
the kitchen growing up, you know, at my grandmother's shoulder
or anything like that. It was more a situation where
I became plant based. And that story was while I
was dating my then boyfriend now husband, and so it
(02:17):
was partly out of need because there weren't a lot
of Korean vegan options, but also it was this is
the you know, age old tale. Was trying to impress
my boyfriend. I wanted to cook for him, and it
turned out I really really liked it. I found it
extremely soothing and comforting but also challenging and inspiring and
(02:41):
just kind of took off from there.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Well, the Korean vegan is such a great name and
it mashes two types of cuisine. Were you always a
vegan or was there the turning point that led you to.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
No, I was definitely not a vegan. My boyfriend. He
went vegan before me, and I remember remember telling him like, well,
I'm sorry, but I can't be vegan. I'm Korean. It
just doesn't work. But you know, he convinced me after
a few weeks and I eventually joined him. And you know,
that's that's was back in twenty sixteen, so we were
(03:17):
like in our mid thirty I was in my mid
thirties at that time.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
So what's the one Korean ingredient that more people should
have in their kitchen.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Oh, it's definitely tinjung okay, which I think is going
to have. It's like qutchajong moment because everybody knows gucha
jong right now because everybody's had the booky and it's
like the really cool hot condiment, right. Tinjung is like
Qutjujong's like unpopular little sister because she's too nerdy. That's
(03:51):
how I would describe Tinjung. It has a very similar
flavor profile to quot chu jong, you know, which is
really red and fiery, but tin Jung is a little mellow,
doesn't have heat. It's really about, you know, an explosion
of umami. It's it's that thing that you add to
your stew or to your soup, or to your pasta saucer,
(04:12):
or to your dressing, to really elevate it to that
next flavor level.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
All right, now we're going to ask you about a
disaster story. Oh in the kitchen, you ever had a
dish you thought it would be amazing only to have
it failed miserably?
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Yes, I did.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
So.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
When I was developing recipes for the Koreem Vegan Homemade,
which is the book coming out this fall, I had
this great idea for let's see Korean style curry enchiladas,
which is like it was very ambitious. So it was
(04:53):
like a lot of different cuisines, one dish and so,
and I was it's like, convinced, this is going to
be the next big breakout recipe of my next cookbook.
And I was so excited to make it. And I
made it and the curry tasted great, but then once
I tried to do it in enchalada form, it sort
(05:14):
of fell apart and it got mushy, and I was like,
I don't really know what I'm eating here, not to
mention you, and I photographed all my own photos. It
looked hideous. It looked like not something you would want
to eat and so that was a total failure, and
it was about half a day's worth of work just
kind of, you know, literally through the trash.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
So look you found out right, yes exactly, some people
work a couple of years and they you know, half
a day's not so all right. So your your cookbook
Homemade coming out October fourteenth. It took you four years
to put this together? What made this such a labor
of love?
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Well, I think part of it is because I do everything,
you know. I photographed my own recipes, I develop my
own recipes, I test my own recipes. I write every
word that goes into this book. And so I'm maybe
a little bit of a control freak. I don't like
to let pieces of this thing that I'm creating be
(06:16):
delegated to anyone, you know, other than you know, the
things that are out of my control truly, And so
you know, testing the recipes itself is a very long process.
I tested them, and then I subject subjected them all
to third party recipe testing as well, and then photographing it.
That is a huge job, and so I was doing
(06:37):
that as well. But I would say the longest piece
of it was the writing. I write essays, to go
with every single chapter of the book. And these are really,
like you said, you know, the storytelling that I do
on my social media, it's a mirror of that in
the book. It's it's the written version of that. And
some of these stories are a little bit emotional and
(06:58):
they're vulnerable, and sometimes it takes a little time to
really put that together in a meaningful way.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
You know, I'm going to get this cookbook that sounds
very special. I mean, yeah, feel free to send me one.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
Of course, we'll send you one I'd loved.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
I'd love to read it. I'm always looking for new recipes,
and I'm not I'm not going to be able to
pronounce some of these works.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
We'll help you.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
These These are mouth watering recipes. There's a got you Jong,
got you go Jong stew, stuffed camichi mac and cheese. Yes,
a pesto? Did I say it right?
Speaker 2 (07:43):
That was actually pretty good?
Speaker 1 (07:44):
Very all right? Red beans stuffed French toast.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
I can say that.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
Chocolate's ask me cake?
Speaker 3 (07:49):
I was okay with that.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
How did you create these dishes?
Speaker 3 (07:52):
Did you grow up eating?
Speaker 1 (07:53):
And how's a mix of sweet and savory contribute to
those dishes?
Speaker 2 (07:59):
So sweet and savory. That mixture is very very Korean.
That's a very Korean sort of flavor profile, which I
didn't even realize because, of course, when you grew up
eating these foods, you do sort of take things for granted.
But right now, you know, on TikTok, you know, and
now I'm a denizen of that social media app, a
lot of people are talking about why do Korean foods
(08:20):
always have a little bit of sweet and a little
bit of savory, And that's very much our style. So
when I think about the foods that I wanted to create,
gu jajongstew is a very I mean, it's a pretty
traditional dish, right, But something like kimchi, mac and cheese.
I really wanted this cookbook to show I'm Korean American.
I grew up eating, you know, kimchi, but I also
(08:44):
grew up loving mac and cheese. What would happen if
we joined those two things. Just like my personality, I'm
a little bit Korean, I'm a little bit American, And
so that was so much a part of developing the
recipes for this. Like you know, French toast, love French toast.
Everybody loves French toast, right, but I also really love
sweet red bean paste. That's a very traditional Korean ingredient,
(09:07):
and I thought, oh, wouldn't it be fun to stuff
the French toast with a little bit of sweet red
bean paste And it turned out glorious. It was like amazing,
not like the enchilada. So that's really kind of how
these recipes came to.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
Be, right, Okay, Well, the Korean army stew is a
beautifully shown on the cover of your cookbook. Walk me
through this recipe. What makes your version special?
Speaker 2 (09:32):
Well, part of the thing that I wanted to do
when making Pudicchiga, which is the army strew, is to
actually study it. I wanted to understand sort of the
anthropology of this particular dish because it is you know,
it can be triggering for a lot of people to
see that dish, especially on the cover of a cookbook.
(09:52):
And I talk about in the head note, my mother
really doesn't like that dish, not because she doesn't like
the way that it tastes, but because what it represents
to her, which was this is the food that Korean
people sort of mishmashed together with the leftovers during the
war because they were so hungry. They were so poor,
and so this dish to her always reminds her of
(10:13):
how poor they were and how she nearly died from starvation,
so I can understand that. So to me, it was
really important when I was developing a vegan version of
this to understand the history and the stories that really
underlie how this dish came to be so that I
could honor it in a way that wasn't disrespectful. And
I think because of that, I learned a lot of
(10:34):
interesting things. For example, if you go to a Korean
bar right now and you order puditchige, a lot of
times it's not going to come with beans. A lot
of times it's going to come with ramen, and it's
going to come with spam and all of the different
heavy proteins, but not beans. And I was like, why
not beans? Beans is such a big part of a
plant based diet, and I was like, let's add a
(10:54):
lot of beans back to this. So I actually used
white beans because that's the bean that I prefer, even
though back in the day in the nineteen fifties, they
love to use baked beans or red beans. That was
a really big popular item. The other thing that they
like to use of course, is spam. I don't eat
spam anymore, but I love vegan sausage, and so we
(11:16):
incorporated a lot of that. I think the reason mine
is great, though, is because I used Ramen seasoning. I
love instant lamion. Lamyan is how you say ramen and Korean.
I grew up on that stuff. My father like basically
raised me on instant Korean lamion, and I like to
use the seasoning in addition to the noodles for this dish,
(11:39):
and it just instantly brings a ton of nostalgia, but
an explosion of flavor to this stew. I think it's
also why my dad absolutely loves my army Stewkay.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
So let's dive into your writing process a little bit.
You build the dish first.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
So the writing process in terms of, you know, what
comes first, chicken or the egg obviously neither in my book.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
But.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
For me, I kind of treat those things very separately.
So I idate the recipes and I kind of let
myself go as you know, crazy as I want to.
Like the enchilada situation, like, let's really push the envelope.
What kind of flavors do you want? What do you
want to make? What do you think will be fun?
What do you think will taste delicious? That's one part
(12:36):
of my brain. The writing is done completely separately. Oftentimes
I'll have already created all of the recipes and I'll
have written all of those down, and the last piece
of putting the book together is often the writing, because
I know it's going to be the hardest, and so
I will sit down and I'll think of a story
that I think, you know, has some relationship to the food,
(13:02):
or is at least thematically consistent with the rest of
the book, so that it doesn't feel like, uh, it's
literally coming out of nowhere, but is really designed to
shine a light on the stories of my family and
hopefully get people to feel like, oh, this is so relatable,
I understand this. This makes me feel like, oh, I
(13:23):
could sit down with this lady while she's cooking dinner
for me and eat with her.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
Right right, All right, Well, let's go back to the
show a little bit here. Gilmore Girls Season three, episode nine,
a deep fried Korean Thanksgiving, missus Kim famously serves Tofurky,
have you ever made that yourself? And another question is
if you were hosting a Korean vegan Thanksgiving? What would
(13:48):
you have? What would have to be on the table?
Speaker 2 (13:49):
Okay, so those are really two good questions. I have
not made the classic tofurky, but I have made many
dishes that are very similar to tofurky. And you know,
obviously I don't have all of the cool, fancy ingredients
that the tofurky people have. But what I have is,
you know, I have made tofu wrapped in either tofu
(14:13):
skin or rice rice paper, right soaked rice paper that
has been you know, in a brine, just like a
turkey would be. So I have done something very very similar.
And I often treat turkey like, you know, sort of
a poultry type of meat, you know, So I have
done that. In terms of your second question, what would
I serve at a Korean vegan Thanksgiving? So I have
(14:36):
been celebrating Thanksgiving in a very Korean way long before
I even went vegan. So I always like to have
a mix of both Korean food and American food when
we celebrate Thanksgiving. I would say the things that are
always there are mac and cheese because I love mac
and cheese. I love, love, love mac and cheese. I
(14:58):
often bring my kimchi mac and cheese now my pea
can pie. I love my peacan pie. That's from my
first cookbook. It's the Peacan red Bean Pie. It is
one of the mos like more popular recipes of that cookbook.
And I would say also corn bread, because I love
corn bread. I just think there's so many ways that
you can prepare it. We love biscuits. I'm trying to
(15:21):
think in terms of a protein. I always go with
my braised tofu. That's a very traditional Korean dish. It's tupuchodine.
It's very popular. It's easy to prepare, as our brais
dishes oftentimes, but it really packs both, you know, a
flavor punch and a protein punch.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
Well, here's something that I read that I found fascinating.
You're also an attorney. Yes, has anyone ever tried to
mess with your IP? And? Boy, bad bad move on
their part, right.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
It's inevitable, sort of inevitable. So a few years ago,
I got a text from one of my friends who's
also a cookbook author, and it's a screenshot of a
book on Amazon called the Korean Vegan Cookbook, not my cookbook,
somebody else's gigbook. And he goes, what you know, wt
(16:14):
F and I looked at it, and you know, the
thing that was troubling about this because I got to
tell you, there are many books now called the Korean
Vegan Cookbook that kind of exploded after mine came out,
and I was told that there's not a lot I
can do about it. But this one was particularly offensive
because everything looked identical. The only thing that was different
(16:34):
was the cover image. But even the cover image was
very similar to my cover image. And then when you
open it up, you'll find that they literally copied and
pasted all of my chapters, I mean, including the Korean words,
which was very troubling, and so we were thinking perhaps
(16:54):
this might have been one of the early AI generated,
you know, cookbook ripoffs, because of just the way that
it looked. We looked up the so called author person
doesn't exist, which is virtually impossible in this day and
age on the internet, and so it was very frustrating.
It was very hurtful, it was enraging. I posted something
(17:14):
about it on both my Twitter and my Instagram, and
I think, you know, I said, note to rachel Issi,
the purported author, I still work for a thousand lawyer
law firm, just and you know, the community was galvanized
by that. And also we put in a call to
Amazon and the book was delisted within twenty four hours.
Speaker 3 (17:35):
Good good, good move.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
Yeah. You know, it's the age of the Age of
AI is fraught with copyright.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
It's just tragurism, that's what it is.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
No, No, that's the big issue with AI in terms
of like, you know, the entertainment space. It's like its
all about copyright infringement.
Speaker 3 (17:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:56):
Was there a moment when you realized food was no
longer hobby for you but just a full second career, I.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
Would say when I was offered a book deal. I
mean that was such a like like surreal moment. I
was a partner at a law firm. I remember I
took that call in my law firm office, you know,
and I got, you know, lawyer work happening over here,
and I'm taking calls with publishers over here, and you know,
my lit agent told me the good news. And you
(18:24):
could have picked my jaw off the ground. You should
see my parents, you know, my very Korean immigrant parents,
who were like, we're not going to stop doing this
cooking nonsense, you know, you know, like you know, they
were like, what you're going to make money off of this,
so I would say that, you know, and that was
in twenty seventeen, when we first started talking to publishers
and we realized that there was actually going to be
(18:45):
a book in my future. I would say that was
when it became more than a hobby. But I'll tell
you what, I still haven't lost that same sort of Oh,
this is so fun. I love doing this sort of
feeling that you have for hobbies, which sometimes can dissipate
when it turns into a profession. I've been really fortunate.
(19:06):
I just made these amazing zucchini fritty sandwiches yesterday with
this like amazing like you know, greenawl of topa nod
and like a lemon ricotta and like this beautiful, gorgeous
fresh basil pesto on these like crusty baggettes that we
picked up like right here in Brooklyn. They've got so
many different bakeries here, and I was just like, this
(19:28):
is so fun, like making this, like you know, just
seeing how it turns out and then getting to eat
it at the end of the day. I mean, I
love doing it.
Speaker 1 (19:37):
You make me when I come to Brooklyn and deep bread,
I mean it's just like I can smell it. I
can smell it. I miss it so much. All Right,
we're running out of time. Last question for you, Joanne.
We know, we know, we know you're busy. You're busy, lawyer,
busy writer, You're busy, busy, busy. Uh. If you were
to walk into Luke Steiner and you can't do that
(20:02):
yet but maybe soon, what was your order and where
would you sit?
Speaker 2 (20:08):
Okay? I would sit in a corner booth. Let's do
that one first. Okay. I would sit in the corner booth,
all the way in the back, right next to a window.
I love having a window so that I can people
watch and see everyone who's passing right and they can
see me if they want, I don't care. And what
I would order, for sure, this is a classic Joanne
move is I would order the largest available size of
(20:31):
French fries, with plenty of ketchup and a diet pepsi
or coke, whatever they have, that's all I need. If
they do have dinner rolls, I will add that to them. Okay,
so we'll have dinner rolls like you know, the stale
stale dinner rolls like the classic stale I love those,
(20:53):
so I'll have that with a plate of hot French
fries and lots of ketchup and a diet pepsi or coke.
Is my favorite meal.
Speaker 1 (21:01):
There is no wrong answer for that question. Thank you
so much, Joanne Lee moll and Irey Homemade coming out
October fourteenth. Go get her cookbook. It is amazing assortment
of recipes. Thank you so much for the time, Joanne,
and please please please come back. We really enjoyed it. Listen, everybody,
(21:25):
thanks for all the downloads and all the love and
all the cards and letters. You are the best fans
on the planet. You know that, and where you lead,
we will follow.
Speaker 3 (21:34):
Stay safe, hey.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
Everybody'll forget. Follow us on Instagram at I Am all
In podcast and email us at Gilmore at iHeartRadio dot com.
I Am all in Again.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Oh, let's I Am all in again with Scott Patterson
and iHeartRadio Podcast.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Hey everybody, Scott Patterson, I Am all In Podcast one
eleven productions. iHeartRadio Media, iHeart Podcast. We are doing a
Luke's Diner with Joanne Lee Molinara. Let me tell you
something about Joanne. She's a James Beard Award winner New
(00:42):
York Times bestseller, but most importantly, she is a beloved
storyteller and cook, captivating her four million social media followers
with heartfelt narratives that accompany stunning videos that are preparing
everything from traditional kimichi to inventive, career inspired pasta dishes.
Her smash debut, The Korean Vegan, was named one of
(01:05):
the best cookbooks of the year, and her sophomore follow
up goes on sale this coming October fourteenth. Welcome joe Anne.
How are you?
Speaker 2 (01:15):
I feel like glowing after that incredible introduction?
Speaker 1 (01:19):
Well, you know, we want to make you feel welcome,
and you know you've got We had to cut this
resume down, actually by by about ninety percent. You're so accomplished,
but welcome to the show.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
And let's dive.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
Let's dive into it.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Let's do it.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
You know, Korean cookie cooking and recipe crafting on the
show Gilmore hasn't really happened yet. But when did your
love for cooking begin? What is is something you grew
up with or did that come later in life?
Speaker 2 (01:56):
No, it definitely came later in life. I was not
one of those who spent a lot of time in
the kitchen growing up, you know, at my grandmother's shoulder
or anything like that. It was more a situation where
I became plant based. And that story was while I
was dating my then boyfriend now husband, and so it
(02:17):
was partly out of need because there weren't a lot
of Korean vegan options, but also it was this is
the you know, age old tale. Was trying to impress
my boyfriend. I wanted to cook for him, and it
turned out I really really liked it. I found it
extremely soothing and comforting but also challenging and inspiring and
(02:41):
just kind of took off from there.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Well, the Korean vegan is such a great name and
it mashes two types of cuisine. Were you always a
vegan or was there the turning point that led you to.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
No, I was definitely not a vegan. My boyfriend. He
went vegan before me, and I remember remember telling him like, well,
I'm sorry, but I can't be vegan. I'm Korean. It
just doesn't work. But you know, he convinced me after
a few weeks and I eventually joined him. And you know,
that's that's was back in twenty sixteen, so we were
(03:17):
like in our mid thirty I was in my mid
thirties at that time.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
So what's the one Korean ingredient that more people should
have in their kitchen.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Oh, it's definitely tinjung okay, which I think is going
to have. It's like qutchajong moment because everybody knows gucha
jong right now because everybody's had the booky and it's
like the really cool hot condiment, right. Tinjung is like
Qutjujong's like unpopular little sister because she's too nerdy. That's
(03:51):
how I would describe Tinjung. It has a very similar
flavor profile to quot chu jong, you know, which is
really red and fiery, but tin Jung is a little mellow,
doesn't have heat. It's really about, you know, an explosion
of umami. It's it's that thing that you add to
your stew or to your soup, or to your pasta saucer,
(04:12):
or to your dressing, to really elevate it to that
next flavor level.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
All right, now we're going to ask you about a
disaster story. Oh in the kitchen, you ever had a
dish you thought it would be amazing only to have
it failed miserably?
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Yes, I did.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
So.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
When I was developing recipes for the Koreem Vegan Homemade,
which is the book coming out this fall, I had
this great idea for let's see Korean style curry enchiladas,
which is like it was very ambitious. So it was
(04:53):
like a lot of different cuisines, one dish and so,
and I was it's like, convinced, this is going to
be the next big breakout recipe of my next cookbook.
And I was so excited to make it. And I
made it and the curry tasted great, but then once
I tried to do it in enchalada form, it sort
(05:14):
of fell apart and it got mushy, and I was like,
I don't really know what I'm eating here, not to
mention you, and I photographed all my own photos. It
looked hideous. It looked like not something you would want
to eat and so that was a total failure, and
it was about half a day's worth of work just
kind of, you know, literally through the trash.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
So look you found out right, yes exactly, some people
work a couple of years and they you know, half
a day's not so all right. So your your cookbook
Homemade coming out October fourteenth. It took you four years
to put this together? What made this such a labor
of love?
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Well, I think part of it is because I do everything,
you know. I photographed my own recipes, I develop my
own recipes, I test my own recipes. I write every
word that goes into this book. And so I'm maybe
a little bit of a control freak. I don't like
to let pieces of this thing that I'm creating be
(06:16):
delegated to anyone, you know, other than you know, the
things that are out of my control truly, And so
you know, testing the recipes itself is a very long process.
I tested them, and then I subject subjected them all
to third party recipe testing as well, and then photographing it.
That is a huge job, and so I was doing
(06:37):
that as well. But I would say the longest piece
of it was the writing. I write essays, to go
with every single chapter of the book. And these are really,
like you said, you know, the storytelling that I do
on my social media, it's a mirror of that in
the book. It's it's the written version of that. And
some of these stories are a little bit emotional and
(06:58):
they're vulnerable, and sometimes it takes a little time to
really put that together in a meaningful way.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
You know, I'm going to get this cookbook that sounds
very special. I mean, yeah, feel free to send me one.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
Of course, we'll send you one I'd loved.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
I'd love to read it. I'm always looking for new recipes,
and I'm not I'm not going to be able to
pronounce some of these works.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
We'll help you.
Speaker 1 (07:23):
These These are mouth watering recipes. There's a got you Jong,
got you go Jong stew, stuffed camichi mac and cheese. Yes,
a pesto? Did I say it right?
Speaker 2 (07:43):
That was actually pretty good?
Speaker 1 (07:44):
Very all right? Red beans stuffed French toast.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
I can say that.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
Chocolate's ask me cake?
Speaker 3 (07:49):
I was okay with that.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
How did you create these dishes?
Speaker 3 (07:52):
Did you grow up eating?
Speaker 1 (07:53):
And how's a mix of sweet and savory contribute to
those dishes?
Speaker 2 (07:59):
So sweet and savory. That mixture is very very Korean.
That's a very Korean sort of flavor profile, which I
didn't even realize because, of course, when you grew up
eating these foods, you do sort of take things for granted.
But right now, you know, on TikTok, you know, and
now I'm a denizen of that social media app, a
lot of people are talking about why do Korean foods
(08:20):
always have a little bit of sweet and a little
bit of savory, And that's very much our style. So
when I think about the foods that I wanted to create,
gu jajongstew is a very I mean, it's a pretty
traditional dish, right, But something like kimchi, mac and cheese.
I really wanted this cookbook to show I'm Korean American.
I grew up eating, you know, kimchi, but I also
(08:44):
grew up loving mac and cheese. What would happen if
we joined those two things. Just like my personality, I'm
a little bit Korean, I'm a little bit American, And
so that was so much a part of developing the
recipes for this. Like you know, French toast, love French toast.
Everybody loves French toast, right, but I also really love
sweet red bean paste. That's a very traditional Korean ingredient,
(09:07):
and I thought, oh, wouldn't it be fun to stuff
the French toast with a little bit of sweet red
bean paste And it turned out glorious. It was like amazing,
not like the enchilada. So that's really kind of how
these recipes came to.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
Be, right, Okay, Well, the Korean army stew is a
beautifully shown on the cover of your cookbook. Walk me
through this recipe. What makes your version special?
Speaker 2 (09:32):
Well, part of the thing that I wanted to do
when making Pudicchiga, which is the army strew, is to
actually study it. I wanted to understand sort of the
anthropology of this particular dish because it is you know,
it can be triggering for a lot of people to
see that dish, especially on the cover of a cookbook.
(09:52):
And I talk about in the head note, my mother
really doesn't like that dish, not because she doesn't like
the way that it tastes, but because what it represents
to her, which was this is the food that Korean
people sort of mishmashed together with the leftovers during the
war because they were so hungry. They were so poor,
and so this dish to her always reminds her of
(10:13):
how poor they were and how she nearly died from starvation,
so I can understand that. So to me, it was
really important when I was developing a vegan version of
this to understand the history and the stories that really
underlie how this dish came to be so that I
could honor it in a way that wasn't disrespectful. And
I think because of that, I learned a lot of
(10:34):
interesting things. For example, if you go to a Korean
bar right now and you order puditchige, a lot of
times it's not going to come with beans. A lot
of times it's going to come with ramen, and it's
going to come with spam and all of the different
heavy proteins, but not beans. And I was like, why
not beans? Beans is such a big part of a
plant based diet, and I was like, let's add a
(10:54):
lot of beans back to this. So I actually used
white beans because that's the bean that I prefer, even
though back in the day in the nineteen fifties, they
love to use baked beans or red beans. That was
a really big popular item. The other thing that they
like to use of course, is spam. I don't eat
spam anymore, but I love vegan sausage, and so we
(11:16):
incorporated a lot of that. I think the reason mine
is great, though, is because I used Ramen seasoning. I
love instant lamion. Lamyan is how you say ramen and Korean.
I grew up on that stuff. My father like basically
raised me on instant Korean lamion, and I like to
use the seasoning in addition to the noodles for this dish,
(11:39):
and it just instantly brings a ton of nostalgia, but
an explosion of flavor to this stew. I think it's
also why my dad absolutely loves my army Stewkay.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
So let's dive into your writing process a little bit.
You build the dish first.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
So the writing process in terms of, you know, what
comes first, chicken or the egg obviously neither in my book.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
But.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
For me, I kind of treat those things very separately.
So I idate the recipes and I kind of let
myself go as you know, crazy as I want to.
Like the enchilada situation, like, let's really push the envelope.
What kind of flavors do you want? What do you
want to make? What do you think will be fun?
What do you think will taste delicious? That's one part
(12:36):
of my brain. The writing is done completely separately. Oftentimes
I'll have already created all of the recipes and I'll
have written all of those down, and the last piece
of putting the book together is often the writing, because
I know it's going to be the hardest, and so
I will sit down and I'll think of a story
that I think, you know, has some relationship to the food,
(13:02):
or is at least thematically consistent with the rest of
the book, so that it doesn't feel like, uh, it's
literally coming out of nowhere, but is really designed to
shine a light on the stories of my family and
hopefully get people to feel like, oh, this is so relatable,
I understand this. This makes me feel like, oh, I
(13:23):
could sit down with this lady while she's cooking dinner
for me and eat with her.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
Right right, All right, Well, let's go back to the
show a little bit here. Gilmore Girls Season three, episode nine,
a deep fried Korean Thanksgiving, missus Kim famously serves Tofurky,
have you ever made that yourself? And another question is
if you were hosting a Korean vegan Thanksgiving? What would
(13:48):
you have? What would have to be on the table?
Speaker 2 (13:49):
Okay, so those are really two good questions. I have
not made the classic tofurky, but I have made many
dishes that are very similar to tofurky. And you know,
obviously I don't have all of the cool, fancy ingredients
that the tofurky people have. But what I have is,
you know, I have made tofu wrapped in either tofu
(14:13):
skin or rice rice paper, right soaked rice paper that
has been you know, in a brine, just like a
turkey would be. So I have done something very very similar.
And I often treat turkey like, you know, sort of
a poultry type of meat, you know, So I have
done that. In terms of your second question, what would
I serve at a Korean vegan Thanksgiving? So I have
(14:36):
been celebrating Thanksgiving in a very Korean way long before
I even went vegan. So I always like to have
a mix of both Korean food and American food when
we celebrate Thanksgiving. I would say the things that are
always there are mac and cheese because I love mac
and cheese. I love, love, love mac and cheese. I
(14:58):
often bring my kimchi mac and cheese now my pea
can pie. I love my peacan pie. That's from my
first cookbook. It's the Peacan red Bean Pie. It is
one of the mos like more popular recipes of that cookbook.
And I would say also corn bread, because I love
corn bread. I just think there's so many ways that
you can prepare it. We love biscuits. I'm trying to
(15:21):
think in terms of a protein. I always go with
my braised tofu. That's a very traditional Korean dish. It's tupuchodine.
It's very popular. It's easy to prepare, as our brais
dishes oftentimes, but it really packs both, you know, a
flavor punch and a protein punch.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
Well, here's something that I read that I found fascinating.
You're also an attorney. Yes, has anyone ever tried to
mess with your IP? And? Boy, bad bad move on
their part, right.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
It's inevitable, sort of inevitable. So a few years ago,
I got a text from one of my friends who's
also a cookbook author, and it's a screenshot of a
book on Amazon called the Korean Vegan Cookbook, not my cookbook,
somebody else's gigbook. And he goes, what you know, wt
(16:14):
F and I looked at it, and you know, the
thing that was troubling about this because I got to
tell you, there are many books now called the Korean
Vegan Cookbook that kind of exploded after mine came out,
and I was told that there's not a lot I
can do about it. But this one was particularly offensive
because everything looked identical. The only thing that was different
(16:34):
was the cover image. But even the cover image was
very similar to my cover image. And then when you
open it up, you'll find that they literally copied and
pasted all of my chapters, I mean, including the Korean words,
which was very troubling, and so we were thinking perhaps
(16:54):
this might have been one of the early AI generated,
you know, cookbook ripoffs, because of just the way that
it looked. We looked up the so called author person
doesn't exist, which is virtually impossible in this day and
age on the internet, and so it was very frustrating.
It was very hurtful, it was enraging. I posted something
(17:14):
about it on both my Twitter and my Instagram, and
I think, you know, I said, note to rachel Issi,
the purported author, I still work for a thousand lawyer
law firm, just and you know, the community was galvanized
by that. And also we put in a call to
Amazon and the book was delisted within twenty four hours.
Speaker 3 (17:35):
Good good, good move.
Speaker 1 (17:38):
Yeah. You know, it's the age of the Age of
AI is fraught with copyright.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
It's just tragurism, that's what it is.
Speaker 1 (17:47):
No, No, that's the big issue with AI in terms
of like, you know, the entertainment space. It's like its
all about copyright infringement.
Speaker 3 (17:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:56):
Was there a moment when you realized food was no
longer hobby for you but just a full second career, I.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
Would say when I was offered a book deal. I
mean that was such a like like surreal moment. I
was a partner at a law firm. I remember I
took that call in my law firm office, you know,
and I got, you know, lawyer work happening over here,
and I'm taking calls with publishers over here, and you know,
my lit agent told me the good news. And you
(18:24):
could have picked my jaw off the ground. You should
see my parents, you know, my very Korean immigrant parents,
who were like, we're not going to stop doing this
cooking nonsense, you know, you know, like you know, they
were like, what you're going to make money off of this,
so I would say that, you know, and that was
in twenty seventeen, when we first started talking to publishers
and we realized that there was actually going to be
(18:45):
a book in my future. I would say that was
when it became more than a hobby. But I'll tell
you what, I still haven't lost that same sort of Oh,
this is so fun. I love doing this sort of
feeling that you have for hobbies, which sometimes can dissipate
when it turns into a profession. I've been really fortunate.
(19:06):
I just made these amazing zucchini fritty sandwiches yesterday with
this like amazing like you know, greenawl of topa nod
and like a lemon ricotta and like this beautiful, gorgeous
fresh basil pesto on these like crusty baggettes that we
picked up like right here in Brooklyn. They've got so
many different bakeries here, and I was just like, this
(19:28):
is so fun, like making this, like you know, just
seeing how it turns out and then getting to eat
it at the end of the day. I mean, I
love doing it.
Speaker 1 (19:37):
You make me when I come to Brooklyn and deep bread,
I mean it's just like I can smell it. I
can smell it. I miss it so much. All Right,
we're running out of time. Last question for you, Joanne.
We know, we know, we know you're busy. You're busy, lawyer,
busy writer, You're busy, busy, busy. Uh. If you were
to walk into Luke Steiner and you can't do that
(20:02):
yet but maybe soon, what was your order and where
would you sit?
Speaker 2 (20:08):
Okay? I would sit in a corner booth. Let's do
that one first. Okay. I would sit in the corner booth,
all the way in the back, right next to a window.
I love having a window so that I can people
watch and see everyone who's passing right and they can
see me if they want, I don't care. And what
I would order, for sure, this is a classic Joanne
move is I would order the largest available size of
(20:31):
French fries, with plenty of ketchup and a diet pepsi
or coke, whatever they have, that's all I need. If
they do have dinner rolls, I will add that to them. Okay,
so we'll have dinner rolls like you know, the stale
stale dinner rolls like the classic stale I love those,
(20:53):
so I'll have that with a plate of hot French
fries and lots of ketchup and a diet pepsi or coke.
Is my favorite meal.
Speaker 1 (21:01):
There is no wrong answer for that question. Thank you
so much, Joanne Lee moll and Irey Homemade coming out
October fourteenth. Go get her cookbook. It is amazing assortment
of recipes. Thank you so much for the time, Joanne,
and please please please come back. We really enjoyed it. Listen, everybody,
(21:25):
thanks for all the downloads and all the love and
all the cards and letters. You are the best fans
on the planet. You know that, and where you lead,
we will follow.
Speaker 3 (21:34):
Stay safe, hey.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
Everybody'll forget. Follow us on Instagram at I Am all
In podcast and email us at Gilmore at iHeartRadio dot com.
Hosts And Creators
Amy Sugarman
Danielle Romo
Scott Patterson
Tara Soudbaksh
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