Demystifying Asian Cuisine
What's your specialty?
It's a common question asked when someone shares that they love to flex some muscle in the kitchen, and if you were to ask Farina Kingsley, she'd tell you that it was Asian.
A San Francisco native and now based in Singapore, Kingsley is a cookbook author, cooking instructor, and chef who is bringing authentic Asian cooking to everyone's fingertips. Kingsley fell in love with cooking at a very young age through the influence of her Cantonese grandmother, and further developed her passion through cooking school in San Francisco and training in Hong Kong and Thailand. After a few years working at the Ritz-Carlton in San Francisco, working in kitchens throughout Hong Kong, and teaching at a Bay Area culinary school, Kingsley turned her attention toward the home cook.
Now, with more than 20 years of experience cooking and teaching, Kingsley is "demystifying" the exotic cuisine for the American kitchen with her new product line Farina's Asian Pantry. Described as "kits," Kingsley's bundles vary regionally, and in her words, "create a one-stop shop for home cooks in the way of cooking authentic Asian cuisine." Taking her years of experience and love for cuisine, Kingsley developed packages of authentic cooking ingredients that were essential for Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Southeast Asian cooking.
Kingsley stressed that the key inspiration behind the kits is to help home cooks beat the one fear that many have when it comes to Asian cooking: shopping for the ingredients. The kits will easily help you make Asian cuisine "part of your cooking repertoire," containing anywhere from 15 to 18 staple ingredients that last about six to eight months. Along with developing her line of kits, Kingsley recently launched an app for her Asian Pantry line, which includes more than 60 original recipes and 12 cooking videos of Kingsley demonstrating some of the hardest tasks involved with Asian cooking. To find out how to stock up your pantry with Asian ingredients and read mouthwatering recipes by Kingsley, visit her website.
Spicy Minced Chicken Salad Recipe
"Salads of Laos and Thailand tend not to focus on leafy greens but rather use meat, seafood, fruit..."
- Farina Kingsley
Lemongrass & Seafood Soup Recipe
"Authentically prepared with seafood, this wonderful soup is loaded with aromatics and seasoned with lime..."
- Farina Kingsley
"A product of French colonialism in Vietnam, this ever so popular sandwich is the perfect combination of east and west..."
- Farina Kingsley
Anne Dolce is the Cook Editor at The Daily Meal. Follow her on Twitter @anniecdolce