As part of a new program to bring visiting chefs to the College, award-winning chef and self-professed advocate of wok-style cooking Grace Young is spending two days this week sharing her recipes, featured at the Class of 1953 Commons, with staff and students. During her stay on Tuesday and Wednesday, Young will also lead two cooking classes for students, whom she will teach to cook simple and inexpensive stir-fry dishes.
Jack Cahill, assistant director of Dartmouth Dining Services, said he began making plans for the visit in December.
"Chef Young had a cookbook which I thought highly of," Cahill said. "One of the cultural missions we've had is to include more world food and a bigger cultural view on our menus, so chef Young's expertise was perfect for us."
Young's recipes are being served at Ma Thayer's station at '53 Commons on Tuesday and Wednesday and will also be served every third Tuesday of this term, according to Cahill. Her recipes include Nyonya-style Singapore noodles, Chinese crispy chicken salad and spicy garlic sauce and eggplant, according to the DDS website.
Because '53 Commons features a full-size industrial wok, it can accommodate Young's cuisine specialties, including 1,065 pounds of ribs for Tuesday night's dinner, Cahill said.
Young said she became interested in food at an early age, having been raised by "foodie" parents who "trained" her to eat well. She began working in the food industry as an intern in recipe development.
"When I was about 14 years old, I met Julia Child," Young said. "That was a really life-transforming experience."
Young describes her first book, "The Wisdom of the Chinese Kitchen," as a memoir about her family and her second book, "The Breath of a Wok," as an "anthropological look at the wok." Her most recent cookbook, "Stir-Frying to the Sky's Edge," won the James Beard Foundation Award for Best International Cookbook.
"I think stir-fry is a term that's really understood in America, but it's so poorly executed in restaurants, and when you see recipes in cookbooks or magazines, they're really awful," Young said.
In order to correctly cook stir-fry, it is necessary to have fresh ingredients and cook them quickly in a hot wok, which creates more flavorful and nutritious dishes, according to Young.
"Cooked in a wok, the way the food tumbles in it and caramelizes and sears gives it a really intense flavor and aroma," Young said. "The quick cooking protects the more delicate vitamins like vitamin C and folic acid."
Wok-style cooking is also an efficient method of food preparation, Young said.
"The more you cook with it, the less oil you have to use, and when you compare the food to what's cooked in a nonstick skillet, there's no comparison in taste," she said. "What I love about it is it's fuel-efficient."
The wok is characterized by flexibility and can be used to cook dishes as diverse as scrambled eggs and pasta, she said. Her work is motivated by the disappearance of this traditional cuisine in China, which has been perpetuated by Western marketing of nonstick cookware.
"I'm trying to reinforce and honor the traditions of cooking with either the carbon steel or cast iron wok," she said. "What's very special about cooking with a wok is that it's the original nonstick pan. I'm trying to start a wok revolution."
Activities planned for Young's visit include dish preparation with DDS staff as well as two Wednesday cooking classes that are open to students. The classes, limited to 10 students due to space constraints, will be held where the panini grills are typically set up in '53 Commons, Matthew Smith, administrative assistant at DDS, said. Young said she is enthusiastic about coaching young people who are interested in cooking.
"[Cahill] has helped me set up a teaching session with students, and that's what I'm really excited about," Young said. "It's great to reach young people who are about to launch their own lives."
In her classes, Young will teach participants to make simple stir-fry dishes that she said are geared toward students because they are inexpensive and easy to make.
"There are several non-student members of the Dartmouth community who are on the waitlist [for the classes] if there are no more requests, but we are hoping that the last few spots will be taken by Dartmouth students," Smith said in an email to The Dartmouth.
Kaila Cauthorn '15 said she appreciates the variety that bringing new chefs to '53 Commons offers.
"It's a good thing," Cauthorn said. "If I don't like what's at Ma Thayer's, I just get something like pizza that's always there. I like the idea of having new food."
Katy Feng '14 said that while she does not normally like Asian food, she enjoyed Young's offerings.
DDS will invite visiting chefs twice each term and feature their recipes at '53 Commons, according to Cahill.
"It's something we started doing this year with the new '53 Commons with multiple measures in mind," he said, noting the expansion of international cuisines and training opportunities for staff as examples.
