2021-10-11
1 小时 2 分钟My guest today, Joanne Molinaro.
She was deep into her career as a full time attorney when she started blogging as the korean vegan, a nod to both her heritage and her curiosity about reimagining the cuisine she grew up on.
She soon after launched a TikTok account that has exploded and along with her other platforms, boasts over three and a half million fans.
She's appeared on the Food Network, Al Jazeera, Englishman, featured in the LA Times, Washington Post, the Atlantic, NPR, and CNN, and has just released her debut cookbook and memoir, the korean vegan Cookbook, which is stunningly beautiful, by the way.
So a korean american woman born in Chicago, Joanne's parents were both born in what is now known as North Korea.
Their harrowing journey to the states led them to eventually settle in Chicago, and from her earliest days she was deeply aware of a sense of inequity and felt this empathic call to advocacy along with the impulse to help people through a process of change.
And that led her into the practice of law, which remained essential devotion, literally until the day before we recorded this conversation.
Her TikTok, the korean vegan, was started largely as a coping mechanism for the isolation caused by the pandemic, and she began posting content related to politics and life as a lawyer and just family during quarantine.
However, after a single post of her making korean braised potatoes for dinner while her husband taught a piano lesson in the background went viral, Joanne shifted her attention to producing these 62nd on the surface recipe videos while telling stories about her life and family and the state of the world.
And she discovered an entirely new channel for advocacy and artistry in this most unusual place, one that both allows millions of people to see themselves in the stories and cultures and experiences and yes, food of others, and also serves as a powerful mechanism to advocate for inclusivity and change.
The day that we talked was actually the day after she resigned her position from the law and became what she called a full time creator.
And we talk about that transition as well.
So excited to share this conversation with you.
I'm Jonathan Fields and this is good life project.
Let's dive in a little bit.
So there's so many different things I want to explore with you.
And by the way, your book is ridiculously gorgeous.
Oh, thank you, Jonathan.
I appreciate that.
Oh my God, I'm flipping through the pages and I'm just like, I want to reach through the pictures because they're so luscious and vivid and just like touch and feel and I'm trying to get the aroma of the dishes from the book.