The Asian Culinary Forum fosters the exploration and enjoyment of Asian foods from around the world by connecting and sharing the stories, recipes, traditions and innovations of our diverse communities. We present educational, multidisciplinary events and programs that celebrate the rich history and culture of food and drink. And yes, we love eating and sharing good food!

ERICA J. PETERS (secretary), Ph.D., is a food historian and the founder/director of the Culinary Historians of Northern California. She received her bachelor’s degree in history and literature from Harvard University (1991) and her doctorate in history from the University of Chicago (2000). She has taught at Stanford University, Santa Clara University, and San Francisco State University. Erica has published articles on the history of Vietnamese food and drink in the Journal of Vietnamese Studies, French Historical Studies, the Social History of Alcohol and Drugs, and French Colonial History, and has presented at numerous conferences across the United States and abroad. She is currently finishing a book manuscript on the politics of food and drink in nineteenth-century Vietnam.

CINDY MENDOZA (development chair) has channeled her food enthusiasm, born of her mother’s Filipino home cooking, into her work with small-scale family farmers and her independent travels. She has facilitated cooking demonstrations at the Ferry Building Farmers Market with the Center for Urban Education about Sustainable Agriculture and Far West Fungi. She earned her bachelor’s degree in Design of the Environment from the University of Pennsylvania and studied architecture, planning and historic preservation in New York and Parisat Columbia University. Cindy is a nonprofit community development professional with a focus on affordable housing and workforce development and cultural education. She was recently board president of San Francisco City Guides and currently works at Glide Foundation.

BOBBIE PEYTON was born in the Philippines and her family moved to Oregon before turning one year old. She grew up in a logging community where the dichotomy of jobs versus the environment played out in the struggle to save the spotted owl. After attending Tufts University and completing her M.A. from the Urban & Environmental Policy and Planning department, Bobbie developed a deeper understanding of environmental justice issues that she now brings to her current work. She became a food and farming advocate and currently works with Roots of Change, an NGO committed to developing a collaborative network of leaders and institutions in California with interest in establishing a sustainable food system by the year 2030. She oversees projects that focus on equity and justice issues, and benefit underserved farmers like the Hmong farmers in the Central Valley. She is also a member of Slow Money Northern California, whose goal is to increase money flow to organic food enterprises by connecting investors to people working in the field.

JOYCE SOOD developed a love for Asian food at an early age, growing up in a Filipino and Indian household. She earned an M.B.A in Marketing from the University of San Francisco, B.A. in Journalism & Advertising from Temple University, and has worked on a variety of print, social and multi-media campaigns ranging from the restaurant and hospitality industry to technology, retail and non-profit sectors. Her worldwide travels sparked a passion for celebrating cultural diversity through food, and in her spare time, you may find her concocting regionally-influenced flavors of ice cream. Joyce currently serves as Communications Manager for the Glide Foundation.

THY TRAN (co-founder & director), professionally trained as a chef, found her true calling in writing about the history and culture of food, teaching creative nonfiction, and specializing in educational programming within the culinary arts. She coauthoredThe Williams-Sonoma Kitchen Companion, winner of the Best Reference Book (English) award at the Salon International du Livre Gourmand. Thy has also contributed significantly to numerous books on cooking and traveling, including Asia in the San Francisco Bay Area: A Cultural Travel Guide and Cooking at Home with the Culinary Institute of America. While executive chef at the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market’s educational kitchens, she recruited renowned restaurants chefs for cooking demonstrations and launched special market festivals. Her culinary writing has been featured in The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times and San Francisco Chronicle. A 2007 recipient of an Individual Artist Grant from the San Francisco Arts Commission, Thy is currently working on a collection of essays about how food changes in families across time, place and memory.

NANCY WEI is a Registered Dietitian and holds a Masters in Public Health Nutrition from the University of California, Berkeley. She is fascinated by the intersection of agriculture, industry, food security, sustainability and public health. Nancy’s food experience ranges from working to improve community nutrition programs, coordinating nutrition research projects, creating customized plans for individuals and developing health education materials. People’s Grocery and NBC/Telemundo News have invited her as a guest to provide food demonstrations focused on healthy eating. Nancy believes that eating well means enjoying your food while nurturing your body, mind and spirit. Currently, Nancy is Director of Nutrition and Compliance at Revolution Foods, a company that provides fresh, home-style meals to schools in various communities nationwide.

BRYAN WU (treasurer) is a digital product design consultant based in San Francisco. After graduating from Carnegie Mellon University, he found his calling in graphic and interaction design. He was the art director for A. Magazine, a national magazine about Asian American culture and politics, and has served as an advisor to Hyphen magazine.  Bryan believes in the power of mass media, the internet, and learning the "whys" behind the "what."

DEBBIE YEE is in-house legal counsel for Wells Fargo Bank. She is a graduate of University of California, Berkeley and University of California, Berkeley School of Law (Boalt Hall). She is an avid supporter of nonprofit organizations, having previously served on the boards of Asian American Women Artists Association and the Barristers Club of the Bar Association of San Francisco. In addition, she is a Kundiman Fellow in Asian American poetry and her work has appeared in anthologies and reading series, including The Best American Poetry 2009, Cheers to Muses: Contemporary Works by Asian American Women and Litquake. An arts enthusiast, crafts explorer and fan of pastries, she is fascinated by steamed desserts.

ADVISORY BOARD

LINDA CARUCCI, M.Ed., a founding board member, is an award-winning culinary instructor and cookbook author based in the San Francisco Bay Area. In 2002, her peers in the International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP) voted her Cooking Teacher of the Year. She is the author of Cooking School Secrets for Real World Cooks(Chronicle Books, 2005), which was honored as a finalist for the IACP’s Julia Child First Book Award and for a James Beard Cookbook Award. After serving as the first Julia Child Director of Culinary Programs at COPIA: The American Center for Wine, Food & the Arts, Linda assumed responsibilities as chef director of The International Culinary School at The Art Institute of California – San Francisco, overseeing the 2008 launch of a new culinary arts training program.

ANITA DHARAPURAM, MNA, simply enjoys food. She thrives on trying new ethnic restaurants, especially taste-testing new South Asian places. As Director of Programs at Creating Economic Opportunities for Women (C.E.O. Women), Anita helps low-income immigrant and refugee women learn entrepreneurial skills in order to open their own small businesses. She earned her Master’s in Nonprofit Administration from the University of San Francisco focusing on the overall success and feasibility of programs in the nonprofit sector. Anita has worked at CompassPoint Nonprofit Services, served on the board of Kearny Street Workshop and was a collective member of OY! Organizing Youth.

LIEN HO-LIN, born in Hong Kong as the second eldest of seven children, started her culinary career at the age of eight washing dishes and folding wontons in her family’s restaurant in upstate New York. She also worked as a hostess and server in family restaurants in Los Angeles. Lien studied public policy, management and planning at the University of Southern California, but decided to follow her true passion for the culinary arts, graduating from the California Culinary Academy in 2003. She started her professional culinary career at the renowned Slanted Door restaurant as an extern and worked her way up to line cook, kitchen manager and special events/catering manager. Lien has been directly involved with opening Out The Door, The Slanted Door’s sister restaurant at various locations. She has assisted with recipe development and has contributed recipes representing The Slanted Door to Bon Appetit, Gourmet and Food Artmagazines.

NILOUFER ICHAPORIA KING, Ph.D., a founding board member, is an independent scholar interested in tropical food plants and cuisines. She is the author of the acclaimed cookbook, My Bombay Kitchen: Traditional and Modern Parsi Home Cooking (University of California Press, 2007) for which she won the James Beard award for best book in Asian cooking. Niloufer has contributed to the Journal of Gastronomy, Fine Cooking, The Slow Food Guide to San Francisco and the Bay Area, and Cultural Survival Quarterly.

ANDREA NGUYEN (co-founder), M.A., one of the founders of the Asian Culinary Forum, is an Asian food expert, writer, and cooking teacher based in Santa Cruz, California. She created Vietworldkitchen.com, one of the most complete resources on the Internet devoted to the food and culture of Vietnam, her native country. A contributing editor to Saveurmagazine, she has written for the Los Angeles Times and San Jose Mercury News. She led a tour of Orange County’s Little Saigon for Epicurious TV, which airs on the Travel Channel. Andrea’s award-winning debut cookbook, Into the Vietnamese Kitchen: Treasured Foodways, Modern Flavors (Ten Speed Press, 2006), is the first comprehensive full-color cookbook devoted to Vietnamese food in the English language.

ALEXANDER ONG, born and raised in Malaysia, apprenticed at the Shangri La Hotel in Kuala Lumpur for four years before coming to United States. Recruited by the Ritz Carlton Buckhead in Georgia, he has traveled throughout the United States working on assignments for the company. In 1995, he moved to San Francisco where he worked with Chef Jeremiah Tower at Stars for three years. Though he was trained in classical French cooking, he decided to return to his Asian roots and opened Le Colonial’s kitchen and then Xanadu in Berkeley, where in 2000 he was named Rising Star Chef by the San Francisco Chronicle. Currently Alex is the executive chef & managing partner of Betelnut Pejiu Wu in San Francisco.