Q: What kind of reception have you gotten for Relish and your role as the host of the show?
That’s your curiosity. What I loved in that lutefisk episode is, once a year, this community comes out and gets to be around each other. It's a sense of belonging. Q: In one new episode, you visit Kramarczuk’s Sausage in Northeast Minneapolis. What was special about meeting this team and learning their story? Yia Vang : I never thought in my lifetime I could show my dad that what he used to do in the mountains of Laos is similar to another refugee family we've teamed up with for Relish [the Kramarczuks are from Poland]. My dad shared later that, while in the refugee camp in Vietnam, he worked in the butcher section. I had never understood why I was so drawn to butchery as a kid growing up. So, it comes full circle where I'm discovering stuff about my own family.
Yia Vang : What I love is bumping into some of these fans of Relish . One of the ladies, she grabbed my arm and she said, “I love the show so much. It's taught me so much and I'm in my 70s.” It's that restoration thing, right? It's still changing hearts and minds. I have a stack of letters from a school out in Saint Louis Park. They watched a bunch of the Relish shows and then they sent me these letters as part of their assignment. One of them was like, “Hey, I'm Asian, but I'm adopted into a white family, and I don't know where I belong. But when I watch these shows, I feel a sense inside of me.” And so that's why for me, this is the passion for me. This is that part where it's like, this is so incredible what we get to do.
Q: What are the similarities between being a chef and being a show host?
Q: Did you have any new food items or dishes that surprised you?
Yia Vang : Working in restaurants, especially cooking, you need to depend on and trust each other, and be three steps ahead. The moment you want to be a hero and be a lone wolf, you will fail, and the system will crash. Being a host, you must build trust with people you’re interviewing because you're going into their lives. The way that a host overlaps with being a chef is saying, “Hey, I’ve got to be two steps ahead, three steps ahead, and I’ve got to be very curious.” Andrew Zimmern told me, “You are the avatar, and the viewers are going to see through your eyes.”
Yia Vang : Working with Kale and Aubry Walsh from The Herbivorous Butcher [a vegan butcher], I learned a lot about Guam and the flavors they grew up with. We now use some of these flavors at Union Hmong Kitchen in a delicious mushroom broth and omelet.
Q: Why is Relish a meaningful show for you to be part of?
Yia Vang : It's so important for kids watching Relish that they see people who look like them. Growing up, I never saw anybody that looked like me on TV. One of the biggest compliments I received was from a young mom who said to me, “Hey, this is my son Max, a Hmong kid. He's 7 and he loves to cook, and he watches all your shows.” The mom then whispers in my ear, “It’s so good for my son to see someone that looks like him that's doing this.”
Begin streaming Relish May 10 on the PBS App and TPT.org/relish .
Relish is made possible by Minnesota's Arts & Cultural Heritage Fund.
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