Here at Bitchin’ Lifestyle we love empowering women and Jaden Hair is that type of lady. An Asian-style chef, Jaden is not your average blogger. Hair, whose award-winning blog Steamy Kitchen focuses on ‘fast, fresh and simple enough for tonight's dinner’ cooking, is also a food columnist, a photographer, a TV Chef, a wife and mother of two boys. In the midst of all these wonderfully exciting endeavours, she’s also published The Steamy Kitchen Cookbook that showcases tons of easy Asian recipes that even someone who just boiled water for the first time could conjure up. What we love most about Jaden is her witty sense of humour and her ability to make each recipe charming and sincere.
Bitchin’ Lifestyle had the honour of chatting with Jaden about how she got started, how she manages it all, and most importantly, how she may just have to give up some household chores to make more time for new projects.
Angelique Picanco: We all want to know. How did a normal gal who liked to cook at home get her own column and branch out into TV?
Jaden Hair: Well, long story short, I had just moved from San Francisco to a very, very small town in Florida. And you know San Francisco is like the culinary epicentre of the United States and small-town in Florida…well, not so much. One day I was at a restaurant named “Bangkok Tokyo” waiting for my to-go order. There was this fancy lady wearing these pretty high heels, with perfect nails and an expensive purse speaking very loudly on her cell phone.
“I'm having sushi at the Chinese restaurant...come meet me here,” she said to her friend. I was like, “WTF!? Bangkok f@*!&$# Tokyo is not China.” From that day on, I dedicated myself to teaching Asian cooking classes and writing about the differences between the cuisines of Thailand and China, fish sauce vs. soy sauce and so on. A few months later, steamykitchen.com started as a way for me to store recipes safely. After a couple of BSODs [Blue Screen of Death] where I lost all my data, I figured that having a website would be the safest bet.
AP: Based on your website we know you have many favorite recipes. If you had to choose just one food to eat for the rest of your life (mine would be your Baked Parmesan Garlic Chicken Wings. Wow) what would it be and why?
JH: It would be my Fridge Raid Fried Rice. Give me some leftover rice and I bet you I could raid your fridge and make a killer fried rice. There's no real recipe, because you never know what's in your refrigerator, but it's about technique.
AP: Being a mom, how do you juggle work, the kids and a ladle?
JH: Lots of booze. Just kidding. I think that I love what I do so much that many times I don't really consider it work. The only time it's kind of tough is when I have to travel without my kids, which is why I try to bring them wherever I go. But these days, the school board is so tough that if my 1st-grader misses more than a couple days of school, they're pretty much on my ass about that.
AP: Are you the type of person who likes following recipes or would you rather just wing it?
JH: Are you kidding me? I can barely follow my GPS when she gives me turn-by-turn directions (though if it was a sexy male voice, I might actually listen and drive in submission). The hardest part about creating the cookbook was that exact measurements are required, my editor didn't like my "ish" method of cooking and forced me to get a scale.
AP: Besides Hell’s Kitchen, do you have any favorite cooking shows?
JH: I don't really watch Hell's Kitchen. In fact, I don't watch shows on television at all. They bore me – I’m more into podcasts that are designed to be short and snappy.
AP: It’s 4:45PM – you have no idea what to make for dinner. What’s the fastest, best-tasting meal you can whip up?
JH: I can hack instant ramen better than anyone I know.
AP: If Martha Stewart, Gordon Ramsey, Nadia G, and yourself had a potluck what would each of you bring?
JH: We would have it at Martha's house – she probably has the best digs, and so as honorary host, she wouldn't have to cook. Gordon would bring his magical soufflé and Nadia would just bring Hans so I could sit on his lap.
AP: Like Nadia G., you did all the writing and photographing for your cookbook, what made you decide to have complete creative control?
JH: I'm control freak. I'm fascinated by the learning process. I love learning a new skill and mastering it. So when I started Steamykitchen.com, I had to teach myself food styling, food photography, WordPress, HTML, CSS, social media and writing. It is a lot to learn, and the result is that I can do a lot of stuff, but my brain is pretty much at full capacity. This year, I'll have to give up activities such as ironing and emptying the dishwasher just to make room for learning new technologies.
AP: What’s next for Jaden & Steamy Kitchen, do you have any new exciting projects in the works?
JH: New projects are always popping up every week, and that's what I love. I love the spontaneity of my business and not having an editor, producer or boss. As I said, I'm a control freak. I just launched Newasiancuisine.com. Since I opened SteamyKitchen.com to all types of foods other than Asian, I needed a place to celebrate Asian culture, foods and chefs. So I bought and re-launched Newasiancuisine.com to include the 500+ recipes from over 100 Asian chefs, an Asian grocery store finder for the US and Asian food pyramid information. We're still in beta, but looking to launch to public in next few weeks.
Here at Bitchin’ Lifestyle we love empowering women and Jaden Hair is that type of lady. An Asian-style chef, Jaden is not your average blogger. Hair, whose award-winning blog Steamy Kitchen focuses on ‘fast, fresh and simple enough for tonight's dinner’ cooking, is also a food columnist, a photographer, a TV Chef, a wife and mother of two boys. In the midst of all these wonderfully exciting endeavours, she’s also published The Steamy Kitchen Cookbook, which showcases tons of Asian recipes that even someone who just boiled water for the first time, could conjure up. What we love most about Jaden is her witty sense of humour and her ability to make each recipe charming and sincere.
Bitchin’ Lifestyle had the honour of chatting with Jaden about how she got started, how she manages it all, and most importantly, how she may just have to give up some household chores to make more time for new projects.
Angelique Picanco: We all want to know. How did a normal gal who liked to cook at home get her own column and branch out into TV?
Jaden Hair: Well, long story short, I had just moved from San Francisco to a very, very small town in Florida. And you know San Francisco is like the culinary epicentre of the United States and small-town in Florida…well, not so much. One day I was at a restaurant named “Bangkok Tokyo” waiting for my to-go order. There was this fancy lady wearing these pretty high heels, with perfect nails and an expensive purse speaking very loudly on her cell phone.
“I'm having sushi at the Chinese restaurant...come meet me here,” she said to her friend. I was like, “WTF!? Bangkok f@*!&$# Tokyo is not China.” From that day on, I dedicated myself to teaching Asian cooking classes and writing about the differences between the cuisines of Thailand and China, fish sauce vs. soy sauce and so on. A few months later, steamykitchen.com started as a way for me to store recipes safely. After a couple of BSODs where I lost all my data, I figured that having a website would be the safest bet.
AP: Based on your website we know you have many favorite recipes. If you had to choose just one food to eat for the rest of your life (mine would be your Baked Parmesan Garlic Chicken Wings. Wow) what would it be and why?
JH: It would be my Fridge Raid Fried Rice. Give me some leftover rice and I bet you I could raid your fridge and make a killer fried rice. There's no real recipe, because you never know what's in your refrigerator, but it's about technique.
AP: Being a mom, how do you juggle work, the kids and a ladle?
JH: Lots of booze. Just kidding. I think that I love what I do so much that many times I don't really consider it work. The only time it's kind of tough is when I have to travel without my kids, which is why try to bring them wherever I go. But these days, the school board is so tough that if my 1st-grader misses more than a couple days of school, they're pretty much on my ass about that.
AP: Are you the type of person who likes following recipes or would you rather just wing it?
JH: Are you kidding me? I can barely follow my GPS when she gives me turn-by-turn directions (though if it was a sexy male voice, I might actually listen and drive in submission). The hardest part about creating the cookbook was that exact measurements are required, my editor didn't like my "ish" method of cooking and forced me to get a scale.
AP: Besides Hell’s Kitchen, do you have any favorite cooking shows?
JH: I don't really watch Hell's Kitchen. In fact, I don't watch shows on television at all. They bore me – I’m more into podcasts that are designed to be short and snappy.
AP: It’s 4:45PM – you have no idea what to make for dinner. What’s the fastest, best-tasting meal you can whip up?
JH: I can hack instant ramen better than anyone I know.
AP: If Martha Stewart, Gordon Ramsey, Nadia G, and yourself had a potluck what would each of you bring?
JH: We would have it at Martha's house – she probably has the best digs, and so as honorary host, she wouldn't have to cook. Gordon would bring his magical soufflé and Nadia would just bring Hans so I could sit on his lap.
AP: Like Nadia G., you did all the writing and photographing for your cookbook, what made you decide to have complete creative control?
JH: I'm control freak. I'm fascinated by the learning process. I love learning a new skill and mastering it. So when I started steamykitchen.com, I had to teach myself food styling, food photography, WordPress, HTML, CSS, social media and writing. It is a lot to learn, and the result is that I can do a lot of stuff, but my brain is pretty much at full capacity. This year, I'll have to give up activities such as ironing and emptying the dishwasher just to make room for learning new technologies.
AP: What’s next for Jaden & Steamy Kitchen, do you have any new exciting projects in the works?
JH: New projects are always popping up every week, and that's what I love. I love the spontaneity of my business and not having an editor, producer or boss. As I said, I'm a control freak. I just launched newasiancuisine.com. Since I opened SteamyKitchen.com to all types of foods other than Asian, I needed a place to celebrate Asian culture, foods and chefs. So I bought and re-launched newasiancuisine.com to include the 500+ recipes from over 100 Asian chefs, an Asian grocery store finder for the US and Asian food pyramid information. We're still in beta, but looking to launch to public in next few weeks.
Jaden Hair is everywhere! You can catch this lovely gal on Twitter, on FB, her website.
