Chef

Geoff Bennett: From Michelin-starred kitchens to guest-starring on "Sesame Street," chef Melissa King has done it all, including breaking records on "Top Chef."

Tonight, she shares her Brief But Spectacular take on food, identity and the family recipes behind her debut book, "Cook Like a King."

Melissa King, Chef: I don't know what mom gives their child a Chinese meat cleaver for their birthday, but my mom gave me one when I was about 10 years old.

I remember doing everything with that knife. That was what I would slice bok choy with and julienne ginger. I was like, I am going to be a chef. I know that I want to cook. I love food so much.

I had never really seen anyone that looked like me that cooked, other than Julia Child and Martin Yan. I watched them obsessively on PBS as a kid. And it was seeing a woman and an Asian man cooking. That was everything.

By like age 10 or so, I was cooking for the family. My parents would come home late from work. I was putting dinner on the table. I went to a traditional college. Then I went to culinary school and then moved to San Francisco, built my career in Michelin star kitchens out here, and I never looked back.

I went on a show called "Top Chef." I competed twice. After I came out of that experience, so many people reached out and they told me how they were so proud of me and they saw an Asian woman cooking in a kitchen, a queer woman. They had never seen anyone like me on television.

And so it kind of got me thinking back to and Martin Yan and Julia Child and when I was a kid and seeing the importance of representation. My cookbook is called "Cook Like a King," and it's embracing Chinese Californian dishes.

A lot of these dishes are things that I made with my grandma. You know, I would crimp dumplings with her in the kitchen and hang out with my mom and we would steam a Chinese egg custard with clams. There's a Taiwanese popcorn chicken dish in there, and that's something that I used to eat at boba shops in high school.

I have one of my cookbooks here. I have wanted a cookbook since I can remember. I remember receiving it in the mail and I opened it up, and I just, like, started crying.

(Laughter)

Melissa King: I just cried because it's a journey, first of all, to even make the book, but to be able to tell a little -- little bits of my life, and it's almost like a food memoir. You see the journey and the life that I have lived through the recipes.

I had these foods in my lunch box as a kid that oftentimes made me a little embarrassed, to bring dumplings to school or my mom's leftover fried rice. And here I am embracing it and feeling proud and being in a position to be able to share that with other people.

My name is Melissa King, and this is my Brief But Spectacular take on cooking with pride.

Geoff Bennett: You can watch more Brief But Spectacular videos online at PBS.org/NewsHour/Brief.