Meet some of our collaborators
Jing Liu
@jingpalate
Chef Jing Liu, a member of the Chinese Street Market & talent pool, was born and raised in Guangdong province, China, where dim sum is a part of the day-to-day lifestyle. She moved to the UK during her teens to study and obtained her Master's degree from the University of Manchester (Business School). She later decided to pursue her passion in food and cooking and underwent training at Le Cordon Bleu Paris, where she received the prestigious Grand Diplôme in French Cuisine and Pastry.
Now she is a guest chef and recipe designer, giving dim sum trainings and cooking classes, and helping business develop and fine-tune recipes and menus. She's also the owner of JingsPalate Food Lab and Jigs Plant-Based Patisserie, always experimenting and showcasing original recipes through various social media platforms with the goal of promoting Asian culture and providing healthier food choices to local communities.
In her cooking style, Jing will show you different techniques, incorporating her professional skills into her otherwise traditional preparation process. She hopes that you'll be able to take away from her cooking a fun dish to make on your own.
Hung Tran
@ramen__addict
Chef Hung was born in Saigon, Vietnam and emigrated to the US at four years old with his family. His first trip to Japan in 2016 started his journey into ramen making. He now has eaten hundreds of bowls around the world and throughout Japan, going back almost every year.
Hung’s cooking is based on his taste memories. He wanted to recreate the bowls he had in Japan at home. His style is heavily influenced by watching his grandma cook in the kitchen using taste and feel rather than precise measurements. After staging at a couple of ramen shops, he recently had his first pop-up.
When he is not in the kitchen, he is working a full time job as a hospital pharmacist. Cooking is his creative outlet. He hopes to introduce new styles of ramen to the public and expand their ramen knowledge.
LA Batac-Nguyen
@capitalsake
LA Batac-Nguyen (aka The Sake Mom) is a Sake Scholar and Certified Sake Sommelier in Washington, DC. She spent her formative years in Okinawa as a military child in a Navy family which led to her deep appreciation for Japan. Prior to her work in hospitality, she supported academic initiatives and policy research in East Asia studies under the Henry Luce Foundation, and authored articles for startups focused on Japan-made products.
LA is the founder of Capital Sake, a sake events, consulting and education company that serves DC, Maryland and Virginia.
She is the Beverage Manager for Two Nine Omakase in Georgetown.
Between playtimes with her daughters, she loves to pour and share the beauty of Japan through the lens of premium Japanese sake.
Amanda Starr Bean
@districtharvest
I was born and raised in Washington, DC and I am proud to still call this city home. As the daughter of a prominent environmentalist, the natural world was an integral part of my upbringing.
I spent nearly two decades studying and performing opera. As I gradually accepted that path was not my destiny, I began to teach yoga. For the last ten years, I taught classes and led yoga teacher trainings in the District.
District Harvests is both full circle and a natural culmination of my paths - nature, art and wellness. I strive to bring you small, local, sustainably grown product and craft. I grow most of my own plants in my small, urban garden. For edible bouquets and pressed flowers my supply is limited to what I grow and forage. My art includes some outsourced materials.
Thank you to my family - both by blood and choice - for a life time of support. I would not be me and this dream would not exist without you.
This is dedicated to Vini Schoene. In hindsight I see that all my paths lead back to you. I will forever remember every birdsong you taught me, and each edible plant you ate as you made your way through this beautiful life.
Vivian Hu
@chicago_desserts
Vivian is the owner and operator of Chicago Desserts (@chicago_desserts), founded in Chicago. Vivian has always loved baking, and she started Chicago Desserts as a way to share her love of sweets with others. She grew up making 12 different cookie varieties over 3 days during Christmas for friends and family and quickly realized that she had a knack for baking.
Vivian competed in a Netflix cooking competition show, and she has had clients such as Arc'teryx and Wilson Sporting Goods. She specializes in macarons, but she also creates a variety of other desserts, such as cakes and cookies.
Vivian has located and lives in Washington DC now. When she is not baking, she loves to run and has run 9 marathons.
Ruri Kippenbrock
@tenuguiart
Ruri was born in Japan and moved to China in her teens.
After graduating from University in Beijing, she worked for trading and fashion makers for more than decades in Asia and New York, gives Ruri a wealth of knowledge - from the factory floor through to distribution and ownership of various agencies.
Ruri found Tenugui in 2002 during her husband's cancer therapy as a head cover. The soft fabric was so gentle on the skin and the size was perfect to cover his head. They enjoyed the variety of colors, patterns of tenugui and creating own style to wear it.
But most of all they enjoyed the beauty of life through the art of tenugui. Ruri moved to New York City in 2007, started her own business "wuhao newyork Inc" offers Tenugui (Japanese traditional towel), Noren (Japanese fabric divider), and other variety of Japanese hand-dye products, from design to production, and working with craftspeople in the partnership dye house in Japan.
Ruri continues to introduce versatile Japanese cotton cloth
"Tenugui" to the world, hopes that Tenugui will bring you a little spice to your balanced daily life--and make you aware of the changing seasons, the gift of nature, traditional wisdom, the I ove of someone special, and most of all, the happiness that comes from a simple smile.
Michelle Tew
@homiahfoods
Michelle Tew grew up immersed in Nonya cuisine in the kitchen alongside her grandmother, Nonie. Nonie wasn’t just any home cook though—she was a cooking school instructor of serious note in Penang, the culinary capital of Malaysia. Michelle moved to the US to pursue her BA in Mathematics & Philosophy from Columbia, and then her MBA from Chicago Booth, she continued to share her passion for Nonya cuisine with others, first as dorm room supper clubs to full blown pop ups (fun fact: Eater named her Laksa pop ups one of the hottest NY pop ups in the summer 2022)! In 2022, Michelle founded Homiah as the 1st Nonya Pantry in the USA. Today, Michelle is based in NYC but travels back to her native Malaysia to craft Homiah’s products based on Nonie’s original using only hand-sourced, traditional spices.
Jason Liu
@jliu96
Jason Liu was born in Oshawa, ON, just an hour outside Toronto, and moved to Maryland at a young age. As the child of Chinese/Vietnamese immigrants, he would go to dim sum every Sunday with his family, eat and shop at Eden Center with his mom every weekend, and take regular trips up to the different Chinatowns of New York. In his teens, he would help out on weekends at his aunt’s pho restaurant, doing everything from back to front of house tasks. It was the culmination of these experiences that sparked Jason’s interest in food and cooking.
The pivotal moment in Jason’s life was his senior year of college, when he was deciding what he wanted to do for the rest of his life. In a leap of faith, he reached out to a friend who got him a job as a line cook at Summer House Santa Monica in Pike & Rose. With no formal training outside of his family’s pho restaurant, he had learned the ins and outs of working as a cook in a large-scale restaurant like Summer House before eventually going to cook at The Salt Line in Navy Yard, DC. There, he was exposed to new ingredients that he had never worked with before, and learned new techniques that he had the opportunity of honing in a high volume kitchen setting.
Jason is no longer in the restaurant industry, and instead works as a programmer at a biotech company, but his love for good food and cooking never went away. Though he and his family grew up poor, they always made sure that everyone that walked through the doors of their house ate well. That philosophy has always stuck with Jason, and he loves cooking as a means of bringing people together. He hopes to share his passion for food with others, and highlight the humble dishes that he ate growing up that sparked his love of food.
Becca Jacobs & Joseph Kocjan
Becca Jacobs - @ostreetkitchen
Becca is a recipe developer working with Food52 and Today Food, as well as the face behind ostreetkitchen.
Joseph Kocjan - @jofijk
NYC -> DC
Chem/Bio -> cocktails
Daikaya -> the Sheppard -> Barmini -> Creative Food Group
Jennifer Nellis
@jen_nellis_
Jennifer Nellis, part of the High Road Spirits (HRS) team, is deeply passionate about introducing unique, artisanal international spirits to the Washington, D.C. area. HRS imports these exceptional spirits from nine different countries and collaborates with fifteen family producers. The core mission of HRS revolves around not just distributing these spirits, but also conveying the narrative of each producer and their cultural influences through the exquisite spirits they craft.
Jennifer's profound affinity for Japanese Whisky was kindled in 2012 when her brother, Eric Swanson and sister-in-law, Yuno Hayashi, introduced her to this captivating spirit. In 2021, Jennifer joined the HRS team, where she skillfully weaves together the rich history of Japanese Whisky and the distinguished distilleries she proudly represents. In 2023, she embarked on an unforgettable journey to Japan, where she visited several artisan distillers and acquired firsthand insights into the art of distilling whisky in Japan.
Prior to her tenure at HRS, Jennifer's career path took her through elementary school teaching in Montgomery County, Maryland, and entrepreneurship in the realm of small businesses. With a solid background in sales and teaching, her role at HRS was a seamless transition, aligning perfectly with her skills and passion for showcasing the finest spirits to the world.