jess dang

i love to cook and eat. that's about all you need to know.

my name is jess(ica) dang and i suffer from the need to constantly cook and feed people. not bad considering the many weirder obsessions out there in the world (though i am not one to judge). i grew up in bethesda, maryland but transplanted myself to california’s idyllic bay area for college and have not been able to leave since. i work for a boutique strategy consulting firm in which i conduct all sorts of qualitative and quantitative analyses, play with NPV forecasting models and make pretty power point presentations. that is my day job. in the evenings i moonlight as a lover-of-all-things-food. i read about it; i cook it; i eat it; i dream about it.

my parents immigrated to this country when i was 20 months old from vietnam, although we are ethnically chinese. my father worked in the restaurant industry and as a result i grew up in food. i do not know whether i was a product of my environment or if it was just in my nature to eat but i ate everything - everything from fish eyes to tripe to pate to even swallowing my chewing gum. by the time i was ten, i had tried cow brain, frog legs (which does surprisingly taste like chicken), snails, abalone, and many, many other edible (and some not so edible) specimens. i ate enough for someone twice my size and from my love of eating grew my love for cooking. my freshmen attempts were disasters at best. at the age of nine, i chose to surprise my mother on mother’s day with a waldorf salad. for those of you who do not know what a waldorf salad, it involves fruit and mayonnaise. need i say more? she took a bite, smiled and politely set it aside. no, i was not a natural-born-chef despite being a natural-born-eater. unfortunately, they are not one and the same.

the turning point in my culinary path occurred the summer after my junior year in college. i was twenty and made the decision to take a huge loan that i could not afford so that i could study painting and drawing in firenze (florence for all you americans out there), italy. it was worth every last dollar i shelled out and pound that i gained. i ate like calories meant nothing – pastas, pizze, two to three new flavors of gelato a day, pastries in between classes, chianti at lunch. my gastronomical reputation preceded me – people in my program would meet me, and say, “oh, i’ve heard about you - you’re the girl that eats?” yes, 6 weeks, 11 new pounds later, i was the girl that eats – there was no denying it. but in between all the long restaurant meals and café visits, i stumbled upon the food markets of firenze too. i was in love - strolling through the narrow avenues of these markets in a trance, contemplating all the possibilities that existed. on days where we wouldn’t have organized meals, i’d stop by the market, pick up some cured meats, greens and grains and cook away. i had no idea what i was doing – i couldn’t read italian so picking up a cookbook wouldn’t help so i was better off improving my dishes. i came back to the states that summer inspired, inspired to discover, to create, to experiment with all-things-food-related.

at the end of 2005, i found myself among seven other amazingly talented men and women competing for a chance to win our own cooking show on the food network on season two of the next food network star. my whole five minutes of fame began and ended quickly(i was after all the first one to be kicked off) but my need to feed people continues.

as of late, i've been doing kids cooking classes and private dinner parties and trying to get a personal cheffing business off the ground among many other things. if you're interested in being my assistant or want to talk shop, feel free to drop me a comment or email me at thepetitepig@gmail.com.