With an extended family that owned and operated multiple restaurants in metro Denver for decades, you grew up with a deep-rooted passion for food. What inspired you to pursue your own career as a chef and entrepreneur?
I was on a trip to visit family in Bangkok with my mother when I was 11 years old, and it was the first time I had ever tasted khao man gai. This dish solidified it for me—it was my first OMG moment that food was incredible. I started helping out at my parents’ restaurant, prepping items in the kitchen alongside my father and grandfather. And by the time I was 16, I was able to run my Dad’s kitchen on my own.
When life happened and I found myself a single mother with a 1-year-old son at the age of 22, I paused on my original goal of becoming a criminal psychologist and found my way back to the kitchen. Starting as a pantry line cook in a golf and country club in the suburbs of Cherry Hills Village, I worked my way up the ranks into a sous position just two years into the job, and eventually accepted the opportunity as the first female and youngest executive chef in the country club’s history.
I spent 20 years in this club, learning everything it took to run my own operation, team build, and reimagine nostalgic dishes from childhood; refining them in a way to offer them to the clientele of a private club.
When I moved on from this position, my daughter was still quite young. And I decided I was not going to miss out on her childhood like I had to with my son. The motivating goal was to find something that could create a better work-life balance for me to spend more time with family, and to continue cooking and sharing my food.
Yuan Wonton specializes in handmade wontons and dumplings, along with first-generation Canto-American creations. Where did you first learn to make dumplings?
My first dumpling-making experience came as a young child, learning a basic potsticker fold from my grandmother in the back prep kitchen of my parents’ restaurant. I remember vividly trying so hard to recreate the beautiful pleats that my grandmother’s crooked, arthritic fingers yielded so effortlessly. When I simply couldn’t figure it out, her criticism in Cantonese was endearing and maternal, but translated directly to English delivers a completely different kind of message (LOL). And just a few years later, sitting between my father and grandfather, folding wontons before dinner service would start, and even at times during busy services, I would have to fold them to order when we ran out. But these core memories of folding dumplings with my family are what created the catharsis for me that, although time-consuming, making and folding dumplings is a pure labor of love.
What does the name “Yuan Wonton” mean to you?
When I think of “yuan wonton,” my first automatic thought is family. We came up with this name during a family gathering while discussing the potential concept of what this could be. And I remember there was an incredible feeling of support from my family, and it helped ease the fear of starting a business.
The concept for Yuan Wonton first began as a food truck in 2019. What advice might you offer anyone who is launching a new venture of their own?
This concept was born as a pure passion project. It was something I wanted to do because I knew that whatever I ended up doing after leaving the country club, I knew that no matter what, I still had to cook. And I needed to cook dishes for me, as a means to hold on to memories of my childhood and my family. I lost my mother at a very young age, and then both of my grandparents, and then my father. And so cooking dishes redolent with the flavors of my childhood is my way of holding on to their memories. The only advice I have for anyone wanting to start their own venture is to do it with intention.
Since opening the brick-and-mortar in 2023, Yuan Wonton was named one of America’s Best New Restaurants in 2024 by The New York Times, and you’ve also been repeatedly recognized by the James Beard Foundation as a Best Chef nominee. What are you most proud of?
These recognitions have all been received with complete and utter shock because they were never a goal. And because of that, I’m most proud of knowing that these dishes we are sharing, so many flavors from my childhood, are being enjoyed with fervor, and our guests are getting to taste the tiniest glimpse of how delicious my childhood was. It’s an awesome feeling because, as a child who was bullied, I always felt like I had to shy away from most things Asian so that I would fit in. But now, using ingredients like furu, fermented mustard greens, or dried shrimp paste and fish sauce is as mainstream as milk and butter in the daily cooking for our guests.
You regularly host Chifa dinners celebrating the culmination of Chinese-Peruvian cuisine. What, or who, sparked the idea behind these evenings?
Carolina Zubiate started working with us 2.5 years ago. After winning Hispanic Top Chef in 2023 [by the Denver nonprofit, Hispanic Restaurant Association], Carolina was doing a feature interview with a local news crew at Yuan Wonton during one of our prep days. I walked in, took a look at the dishes she was cooking up, and found myself intrigued with many of the dishes because they were so familiar to me. I kept thinking to myself, “That smells just like my dad’s recipe.”
After talking to Carolina about her dishes, she told me about Chifa in Peru, and I was so intrigued that I started researching more and learned that Chifa was born from Chinese immigration into Peru in the late 1800s, and primarily Cantonese cooking. Once Carolina and I started talking more about the idea of doing a Chifa dinner, I was so excited at the prospect of serving up Cantonese dishes like my dad used to serve, while at the same time recreating the nostalgia from Carolina’s childhood.
Since our first dinner in January 2024, we have held monthly Chifa dinners over the last 20 consecutive months. It’s been incredible seeing so many new faces from the Peruvian community here in Denver come out to enjoy Chifa with us.
What is something guests would be surprised to learn about you?
I am a closet junk-food junkie. Although disciplined, I thoroughly enjoy it when I allow myself a bag of Cheetos, a Little Debbie treat, or even a trip through the McDonald’s drive-through.
Looking ahead, what’s on the horizon next for you and Yuan Wonton?
Honestly, I have no idea. This whole thing started with a “Let’s try it and see what happens” conversation. I love that I’ve been able to utilize this platform to help advance other young chefs like Carolina and my sous chef, NgocAnh Nguyen, while sharing dishes important to both of them as well, and it’s been so much fun watching them embrace parts of Yuan Wonton as their own.
