Stephanie Lau loves cookbook club loves wear many hats

Stephanie Lau is our guest on Hats.FM which you may have heard her on Wear Many Hats, hosts cookbook clubs, and when she's not cooking, she goes out to restaurants.

WMH: Wear Many Hats loves Cookbook Club. What made you start the club?

SL: At the beginning of 2024, I was looking for a way to connect and meet with food friends offline.

Practically speaking, there are infinite cookbooks and recipes and I am only one person with one stomach. If I want to try all the things, I need a little help. Cookbook club also allows me to share my personal perspective on food. Selected books are my favourite (Dishoom, More than Cake, Tenderheart, etc) or the food I’m eating and exploring in the moment. I try every book before deciding it’s a good fit for the club.

Thanks to the internet, cookbook club has become an entirely different animal — over 2500 people want to attend a cookbook club and my new goals are (1) to enable people to start their own cookbook club and (2) to balance the existing community (hanging out with friends) while welcoming new faces to the group.

WMH: What’s your favorite meal to eat? To make?

SL: To eat, I love pasta. I don’t condone paying $30 for a bowl but if someone wants to cook for me I’ll have lasagna please.

To make, it’s shrimp wontons. When I was living at home, fried wontons were the star of every family potluck. I’d sit with my grandma in her basement kitchen and she would teach me how to fold. The whole process is a bit messy and very hands on, so making wontons is a combination of nostalgia and an escape from being perpetually in front of a screen.

WMH: What is your coffee order and drink at the bar?

SL: I’m highly caffeine sensitive, so an iced matcha americano on the regular and a half caff cortado if I’m feeling naughty. At the bar, these days I’ll go for a mocktail that’s fizzy and citrusy but for a special occasion, I am not opposed to a Moscow mule or dark and stormy!

WMH: What is the restaurant you frequent and get?

SL: For a while, I was at Kong Sihk Tong once month. It’s a Hong Kong style cafe in Chinatown. There’s never a wait longer than 20 minutes and the food comes out instantly after ordering. My order is usually for two or more and we will get fish and corn sauce over rice, sweet and sour chicken, Singaporean style curry noodles, beef rice noodles, and curry fish balls.

WMH: Favorite podcasts?

SL: Other than WMH? So many different podcasts for different things. 70mm for movie reviews, No Stupid Questions / Search Engine / Freakonomics Radio for curiosities and questions about the world, Proof / The Future of Food is You / Maintenance Phase for food. There’s more but I’ll stop there.

WMH: Thanks Steph for coming on hats.fm part of Wear Many Hats, what would you get embroidered on a WMH hat?

SL: RICE.

Thanks Stephanie for coming on Hats.FM of Wear Many Hats.