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Join Ann Hui live for a book reading of Chop Suey Nation!

 

Synopsis: In 2016, journalist Ann Hui drove across Canada to answer two questions: Why is there a Chinese restaurant in every small town? And who are the families who run them? It was only after the story was published that she discovered her own family could have been included—her parents had run a Chinese restaurant, The Legion Cafe, before she was born. This discovery set her on a time-sensitive mission: to understand how her family had somehow wound up in Canada. Chop Suey Nation weaves together Hui’s family story with those of other Chinese restaurant owners from coast to coast. Along her trip, she meets a Chinese-restaurant owner/small-town mayor, the owner of a Chinese restaurant in a Thunder Bay curling rink, and the woman who runs a restaurant alone on remote Fogo Island. Hui also uncovers the fascinating history behind “chop suey” cuisine, detailing the invention of classics like “ginger beef” and “Newfoundland chow mein,” and other uniquely Canadian fare like the “Chinese pierogi” of Alberta. Using her own family’s story as a touchstone, she reveals the importance of these restaurants to this country’s history and makes the case for why chop suey cuisine is quintessentially Canadian.

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Ann Hui Bio

Ann Hui is The Globe and Mail’s National Food Reporter and uses food as a lens to explore public policy, health, the environment, science and technology. Before she joined The Globe, her writing was published in the Walrus, the National Post, the Toronto Star and the Victoria Times Colonist. Hui was born in Vancouver, BC and currently lives in Toronto, ON. Chop Suey Nation has won the 2019 Gourmand World Cookbook Awards for Canada (Chinese cooking and food writing category) and the Dr. Edgar Wickberg Book Prize for the Best Book on Chinese Canadian History.

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MODERATOR

Pay Chen is an experienced TV and radio host, writer and producer whose work focuses on food, lifestyle and travel. She is currently hosting “Here’s the Scoop” a food podcast in association with The Globe Content Studio that digs into the history of what we eat and why. Pay is frequently seen on morning shows and national daytime programs as a guest expert and contributor. 

A food and lifestyle writer, Pay has been featured in and written for: The Globe and Mail, National Post, Chatelaine, Canadian Living, and CBC Life. She has also written extensively for live-action and animated television series.