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Activists Around the World: Chef Nak · Stuff Mom Never Told You

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  Speaker 1: Hey, this is Anny and Samantha. I'm welcome to Stuff
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  Speaker 1: Never Told, your production of iHeartRadio.
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  Speaker 2: And for today's activist of around the world. We are
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  Speaker 2: still celebrating AAPI Heritage Month and we are going to
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  Speaker 2: talk about chef, author and change maker Chef Rosenknock Ross,
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  Speaker 2: also known as Chef Knock, which is what I'm going
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  Speaker 2: to reference her as throughout this episode. Because she doesn't
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  Speaker 2: actually say her full name, I have a feeling she
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  Speaker 2: does it for us English speakers non Cambodian speakers to
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  Speaker 2: help us out. But she is known around the world
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  Speaker 2: as Chef Knock and Chef Knock is a Cambodian self
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  Speaker 2: taught chef who has brought her love of her home
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  Speaker 2: and community into her food. Honoring the local ingredients and recipes,
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  Speaker 2: Chef Knock has put Cambodian food on the map and
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  Speaker 2: I love it. Growing up in Cambodia with her family,
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  Speaker 2: this pushed her in her early age to start learning
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  Speaker 2: to cook and feed her siblings. When she was young,
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  Speaker 2: like around five, her parents had to stay for an
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  Speaker 2: extending amount of time in the hospital after a serious
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  Speaker 2: traffic accident. From then, she would go on to be
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  Speaker 2: the one to cook and feed her siblings, and she
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  Speaker 2: did this alongside her oldest sister eldest sister when her
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  Speaker 2: parents had to work extended hours, so it just became
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  Speaker 2: a part of her duties. Later, she did start working
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  Speaker 2: at the Cambodian Living Arts, where she would learn about
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  Speaker 2: Camboding cuisine as well as the performing arts. Here's a
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  Speaker 2: quote from an article featuring her works from Robreport dot com.
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  Speaker 2: As one of five children not grew up in the
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  Speaker 2: chaos of life in Cambodia before the death of Paul
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  Speaker 2: Pott in nineteen ninety eight, it was the era of
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  Speaker 2: playing rice kangi. As a child, she would get up
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  Speaker 2: after midnight to travel with her mother on the hour
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  Speaker 2: long walk to buy vegetables for resale at their local market.
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  Speaker 2: Her interest in food really began at age nineteen, when
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  Speaker 2: she was hired by the nonprofit Camiod and Living Arts,
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  Speaker 2: an organization tasked with passing the knowledge of traditional performing
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  Speaker 2: arts from those who survived the Khmer Rouge to the
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  Speaker 2: younger generations. She soon realized that recipes deserve the same care,
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  Speaker 2: and this is something she's been doing since she began
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  Speaker 2: working in her passion career. Essentially, here's what she had
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  Speaker 2: to say about her love for Kimbodian cuisine in her
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  Speaker 2: article Healing through Food, Reclaiming Kimbodian Cuisine. When I close
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  Speaker 2: my eyes, I'm transported back to the bustly morning market
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  Speaker 2: in PanAm Pen where my mother once had her stall.
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  Speaker 2: It was there I learned one of life's greatest lessons
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  Speaker 2: that choosing the right ingredients and cooking with care can
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  Speaker 2: transform food into more than nourishment. It becomes a story
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  Speaker 2: of place, people and healing. And she goes further saying
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  Speaker 2: this storytelling through plate. Each cooking class, in each dining
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  Speaker 2: experience always includes a narrative for where the dish comes from,
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  Speaker 2: what ingredients are used, who taught it, and what it
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  Speaker 2: meant in a household, etc. So one of the things
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  Speaker 2: that she had done in Cambodia's open up a restaurant
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  Speaker 2: and open up an area where she could teach Cambodian
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  Speaker 2: food and cooking. So I love that she really wanted
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  Speaker 2: to pass this on to generations. And beyond storytelling, she
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  Speaker 2: also is telling the history of Cambodia and bringing back
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  Speaker 2: some things that had been lost for a while. So
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  Speaker 2: back to that rob Report dot Com, The Khmer rouge
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  Speaker 2: killed anyone with any knowledge, said PanAm Pen based Rottennock Ross,
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  Speaker 2: better known as Chef Knock. People fled to other parts
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  Speaker 2: of the world. Documentations was destroyed, people were not allowed
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  Speaker 2: to cook the way they used to cook. Our rich
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  Speaker 2: cultural food became survival food. It goes on infectiously. Passionate
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  Speaker 2: Knock is working harder than anyone to recover what has
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  Speaker 2: been lost. A self taught chef without a culinary or
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  Speaker 2: university education, she has spent the past eighteen years as
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  Speaker 2: a cultural anthropologist, historian, archivist, writer and activist, in the
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  Speaker 2: process becoming one of her country's most in demand celebrity cooks.
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  Speaker 2: Knock is the force behind the hugely popular Khman menu
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  Speaker 2: inspired by yesterday dishes of the royal family. So one
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  Speaker 2: of the things that they do claim is that she
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  Speaker 2: is the first Cambodian celebrity chef. So I guess that
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  Speaker 2: means that, you know, she's just famous, because I'm sure
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  Speaker 2: there's more chefs out there with the Cambodian background, But
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  Speaker 2: she has kind of made the name, like I said,
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  Speaker 2: made history by bringing Cambodian food and cuisine to the
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  Speaker 2: public eye internationally. And she goes on to talk about
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  Speaker 2: the in depth research she had to do to collect
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  Speaker 2: some of these past flavors and recipes. She says, I
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  Speaker 2: wanted to know more about what Cambodian food was like
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  Speaker 2: before the regime, so I started to look for documents.
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  Speaker 2: I was like, wow, I couldn't find anything at all,
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  Speaker 2: she says. So I spent a lot of time and
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  Speaker 2: money out of my own pocket to travel around Cambodia
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  Speaker 2: collecting recipes from elderly people who still remember the textures
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  Speaker 2: and the flavors. I documented how people cooked, what ingredients
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  Speaker 2: they used, how they preserve their food, and the ceremonies
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  Speaker 2: and stories behind what they cooked. So I loved every
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  Speaker 2: about this. And she goes on in that article talking
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  Speaker 2: about how she had to tweak it the recipes to
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  Speaker 2: make it something beautiful and nostalgic, but kind of really
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  Speaker 2: had to guess a little bit because these recipes were lost.
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  Speaker 2: But she did it, and with this knowledge has opened
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  Speaker 2: up restaurants and obviously cooking classes, written award winning cookbooks,
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  Speaker 2: and in twenty twenty three, she released her second cookbook,
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  Speaker 2: Saloi Royal Cambodian Home Cuisine. Here's what her site says
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  Speaker 2: about the cookbook. Quote built on recipes compiled and taught
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  Speaker 2: by Her Royal Highness Princess nor Dam Rasmi Tobahana in
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  Speaker 2: the nineteen sixties. The book preserves a refined cuisine shaped
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  Speaker 2: in the kitchens of Cambodian royalty. Chef Knock respectfully reinterprets
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  Speaker 2: this legacy for today, bringing back long lost flavors, forgotten techniques,
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  Speaker 2: and the philosophy of balance at the heart of Khmer cooking.
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  Speaker 2: So apparently I think it might be a little more
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  Speaker 2: difficult to get this book. Maybe not. I didn't look
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  Speaker 2: it up. Because it is world renowned and it is
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  Speaker 2: a big undertaking. I have a feeling it might be
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  Speaker 2: difficult to try to do some of these recipes since
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  Speaker 2: we don't have local Cambodian ingredients, But it would be
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  Speaker 2: interesting to see what the book has to offer. And
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  Speaker 2: with all that, she's also become an advocate in food
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  Speaker 2: safety practices and healthy cooking with Unisuff. She's been working
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  Speaker 2: with local organizations and farms to make sure she's helping
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  Speaker 2: her community. So this is from the asianmagazine dot com.
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  Speaker 2: Connecting farmers, traditional food producers, and young chefs is vital
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  Speaker 2: to cultivating a thriving food industry in the country, says Chefknock.
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  Speaker 2: By fostering a deeper connection to our cuisine, we can
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  Speaker 2: ensure that the future generations take pride in their culinary
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  Speaker 2: heritage and continue to share it with the world. Y'all
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  Speaker 2: know how I feel about food that has so many
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  Speaker 2: memories in it, that breaks up a lot in your heart.
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  Speaker 2: And honestly, this is exactly what food heritage is. Remembering
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  Speaker 2: what you grew up with that warm hopefully warm feelings,
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  Speaker 2: sometimes not but warm feeling of that type of food
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  Speaker 2: that really helped you grow up or shape your childhood
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  Speaker 2: is amazing to see and to have that taken away
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  Speaker 2: from you, I can't imagine. So I love seeing her
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  Speaker 2: work like this and with all of that, of course,
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  Speaker 2: she's been given many awards for her work and books,
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  Speaker 2: including Gorman Awards for the Best Woman's Chef, Best in
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  Speaker 2: Asia in twenty twenty, Best of the Best by the
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  Speaker 2: Gormund World Cookbook Awards for her book Saloy, and in
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  Speaker 2: twenty twenty three she was named top five of the
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  Speaker 2: best Chefs in Asia by Travel and Leisure. So, yeah,
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  Speaker 2: she's doing things.
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  Speaker 1: And that really is amazing work. I think people forget
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  Speaker 1: that when a disaster happens, that part of the tragedy
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  Speaker 1: is the loss of recipes. Right, even not on a
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  Speaker 1: personal level, but on a bigger level as well.
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  Speaker 2: Right.
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  Speaker 1: Yes, So, listeners, if you have any thoughts about this,
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  Speaker 1: or any suggestions for future people we should highlight, please
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  Speaker 1: let us know. You can email us at Hello at
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• 8:00
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