The Untold Truth Of Molly Yeh
If you had to name someone who has a food blog, Short Stack recipe book, full cookbook, AND is the star of their very own Food Network show, you may think of Rachael Ray, The Pioneer Woman, or perhaps Giada De Laurentiis — but you'd be mistaken. We're talking about Molly Yeh: the newest darling on the food media scene (via My Name is Yeh).
In recent years, Yeh's popularity has exploded. Part of the reason for that may be her interesting background. According to a 2019 interview with USA Today, Yeh's father is Chinese and from Los Angeles and her mom is a Jewish New Yorker. She's not classically trained in the culinary arts, but is clearly well versed in the kitchen — particularly when it comes to sweets (her cakes are gorgeous). Bon Appétit states that Yeh's first foray into food was at a local bakery, where she worked the early shift learning to frost cakes, including elaborate, time-consuming ones for weddings. Her educational background is primarily based in music — Yeh shares on her website that she actually has a degree in percussion from the prestigious Juilliard conservatory. A piece chronicling her rise in Minnesota Monthly says that Yeh grew up in a suburb of Chicago and debuted at Carnegie Hall at the young age of 17. Beyond that, the Food Network states that her father, John Bruce Yeh, is a clarinet player with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and was their first Asian-American member when he joined in 1977. Wow!
From the concrete jungle to the farm
After graduating from Juilliard, Yeh's focus shifted from music to both food and her burgeoning new relationship, so she moved from Brooklyn to her now-husband's family sugar beet farm in Grand Forks, Minnesota, according to the Food Network. Minnesota Monthly shared a sweet glimpse into Yeh's marriage, saying that she first really took notice of her husband when she spotted his new tattoo at a party. Yeh couldn't tell what it was at first, but he told her: "It's a sugar beet... you make sugar out of them." The rest, as they say, is history.
The couple moved to the family farm in 2013 according to Bon Appétit, and were married in 2015 (via the Food Network) — with Yeh herself baking the cake, a special Funfetti-esque sprinkle variety with buttercream frosting and shredded halva. (Yeh shares more details about her amazing wedding dessert spread on her website). Yeh soon began to focus on fusing the culinary worlds of her Chinese and Jewish heritage, her husband's Norwegian ancestry, and her new home on the North Dakota-Minnesota border, according to Bustle, which helped Yeh to create her incredibly original perspective on food.
Molly's rise to fame
Yeh began a blog in 2009, called "My Name is Yeh," and her first cookbook, "Molly on the Range," was released in 2016. Between those two milestones, Bon Appétit says the first recipe to really take off on her blog was for pretzel challah in 2013. Glamour calls her scallion pancake challah a "representative and delicious example" of the recipes Yeh creates using a combination of her Chinese and Jewish heritage.
Yeh's food is never intimidating, but always wholly original — and obviously delicious. The combination helped to launch her into superstardom, catching the eye of the Food Network, which has now aired six (!) seasons of her show "Girl Meets Farm," according to the television channel's website. The show is currently on filming hiatus due to the pandemic, but Bustle says that Molly's third cookbook "Home Is Where The Eggs Are" is currently in production and set for a fall 2022 release.
Wise words from Molly Yeh
Speaking with Bustle, Molly Yeh shared this as the worst piece of advice she's ever received: "If I go to somebody for help about something that's keeping me up at night, the worst thing they could ever say is, 'Just let it go. No one's going to notice if that pie crust looks bad in this picture.' But I'm going to notice. You never want to lower your standards. Maybe you learn to pick your battles, but if something is truly bothering you, it's important to work to fix it and not let it go. It's important to create the work at a standard that you feel really good about." Yeh's essence is crystallized in this quote, showing that celebrities can be direct and truthful, while still being encouraging, instead of offering empty promises or vapid platitudes.
Molly Yeh has clearly taken the world by storm over the past few years, and we're so excited to see what else it to come.