#Dr yu susan do santa monica full

The dan tat croissant doughnut it comes with is a Chinese egg tart and Cronut fusion, an ode to Yu’s pastry mentor Ansel. The rice is infused with the flavors of five-spice, lime, chile and cilantro. The Firecracker is influenced by pozole, with hominy and tender braised pork in addition to Chinese pork sung (floss). It’s accompanied by youtiao made with wheat flour, spelt and sourdough for extra flavor. I’d still watch ‘Hannah Montana,’ yeah.”Ĭombining her love of the Thai classic tom kha gai, a creamy chicken, coconut and galangal soup, with congee is how she came up with Tom Kha(ngee) - a food pun Ted Lasso would approve of. My mom and I would play ‘Chopped,’ and she’d give me five ingredients. “I grew up during the prime of food media. I went to my first cooking camp at 9,” she reflected. “I always loved cooking, but I was still a normal kid who went to camp - arts camp, sports camp. “I didn’t really talk about my experience on ‘MasterChef Junior.’ I didn’t want to be arrogant, but the other students seemed to know anyway,” she says. After high school at Crossroads, Yu was admitted to the Culinary Institute of America at Hyde Park, N.Y. At 12, she competed in the inaugural season of “MasterChef Junior,” the children’s spinoff of “MasterChef.” Yu nearly won it all, placing as runner-up. “I’m always the youngest one in the kitchen,” she says. bakery at the Grove and personally asked her to be a part of his opening team. When Yu was still a sophomore in high school, Ansel launched his L.A.

She was mentored by famed Cronut creator Dominique Ansel at both his New York bakery and restaurant. in Los Angeles while still in high school. She staged at the Tasting Kitchen, Bouchon Bakery and A.O.C. Yu has worked in more prestigious kitchens and bakeries than some culinary professionals will have in their entire careers. For Sunday’s Congee & Crullers, which takes place at the Curious Palate in Santa Monica, she will introduce three of her own versions, combined with her unique takes on youtiao, the Chinese cruller-like strips of fried dough traditionally served for dunking into the porridge.

I always asked her to make it.” Yu’s congee, however, is anything but basic. “Grandma’s congee growing up was pretty basic: rice porridge, chicken stock, shredded chicken, soy sauce.

#Dr yu susan do santa monica full

Now Yu’s first pop-up, Congee & Crullers, brings her full circle to the love she has for her grandmother’s congee. “One for immediate family and the bigger one for when the extended family is over.” Home-cooked family meals were a significant part of her upbringing - her grandmother insisted on it. “You’re a true Asian if you have two rice cookers,” she says. and selects the smaller of two rice cookers. Yu opens a kitchen cabinet at her home in West L.A. “My memory of congee or jook, as my family calls it, is of my grandmother or mother making it for me when the weather got cold or when I was sick,” Yu says. Just ask Dara Yu, who at all of 21 years old, is the most recent (and youngest) winner of the hit cooking competition show “MasterChef” with Gordon Ramsay and a part-time cooking instructor at the Gourmandise School in Santa Monica. Frosty mornings are for making the traditional Chinese rice porridge called congee.