(Note from the editor: We catch up with Cooking with Granny host and producer Caroline Shin in this story below from Enrabel Demillo. AsAmNews talked with Shin prior to the launch of her show. Now nearly a year later, we see how the web show has taken shape.)

By Ernabel Demillo

@ErnabelD

Nina Ishkin lived through the siege of Leningrad. Louisa Grier fled a physically abusive husband. Sanok Kim left Soviet-occupied North Korea.

These women – all immigrant grandmothers – have stories to tell and they also have family recipes to pass down. Caroline Shin is helping them share both. Shin is the producer of a popular web series on YouTube, called Cooking with Granny, featuring immigrant women, including her own grandmother Sanok Kim.

“My show really documents the lives of very strong survivor woman, so whether it’s surviving a war which is the case of the Russian Jewish grandmother or my own grandmother, or also the more general hardship of immigrating to New York or in the case of grandma Luisa, it’s about surviving domestic violence,” Shin said.

Shin came up with the idea for a cultural cooking show when she was a graduate student at Columbia’s Journalism school. She wanted to preserve the immigrant culture through food. She found that she, along with many of her friends, did not know how to cook the foods that their immigrant moms and grandmothers served.

“When you look at the different cycles of immigration here, there are certain recipes that are being lost along the way,” she said. “Food is a component of culture, it’s the most delicious component of culture so that kind of gets lost. But in this digital age, with video storytelling, YouTube, I can preserve these stories.”

But she wanted to share more than recipes. She also believes the women’s stories are important to chronicle and pass down. The 10-minute episodes features grandmothers from all over the world: Greece, Puerto Rico, Russia, Korea, Trinidad, India, Italy and Lebanon. Shin’s already starting to cast next season’s crew of grandmothers. And she admits that finding the right grandmother is harder than you think.

“The recipe is the easy part because I think a lot of grandmothers already know how to cook, “ Shin said. “ It’s the storytelling part [that’s difficult] because the story needs to be compelling.”

Watch one of Cooking with Granny’s stars cook her favorite holiday recipe from the Philippines on this month’s episode of CUNY-TV’s Asian American Life.



December’s edition of Asian American Life includes:

December’s new edition of Asian American Life hosted by Ernabel Demillo from the Asia Society exhibition Philippine Gold: Treasures of Forgotten Kingdoms, premieres on broadcast and cable TV beginning Friday, December 4 (2015) at 10am, 3pm & 8:30pm on CUNY TV (*see below) and is available for viewing 24/7 on www.cuny.tv.

PHILIPPINE GOLD: TREASURES OF FORGOTTEN KINGDOMS

At the Asia Society, Ernabel Demillo profiles a dazzling new exhibit of 10th-to-13th-century gold pieces from the Philippines – spectacular works primarily discovered over the past 40 years on the islands of Luzon, the Visayas, and Mindanao. The exhibition is on display at The Asia Society Museum through January 3, 2016.

CONTEMPORARY ARTIST AND DESIGNER RICHARD TSAO

Art is art, and fashion is fashion – but contemporary artist Richard Tsao proves they can exist together. He’s best known for his line of fashions featured at The Met Opera and Asia Society Museum stores. Many of New York’s opera singers wear his creations. Reporter Kyung Yoon spends a day at Tsao’s showroom and learns more about his creative process.

HIP HOP ARTIST AND RAPPER MC JIN

In 2002, MC Jin became the first Asian American rapper to sign with a major record label. Then he moved to Hong Kong, where he met his wife. Now he and his family have moved back to New York, where he’s in the spotlight again. Reporter Paul Lin catches up with him at the annual B-Boy Royale breakdance competition in New York, and doing stand-up comedy at Caroline’s on Broadway.

ARTIST ZHANG HONGTU

At Queens Museum, New York-based Chinese artist Zhang Hongtu debuts a pop-culture series on life and politics in China, with nearly 90 pieces of contemporary art objects exhibited. These include Zhang’s famous Mao series depicting the Cultural Revolution, plus his interpretation of works by European masters like Van Gogh and Monet. Ernabel Demillo interviews the artist and Luchia Meihua Lee, curator of the exhibition. The show runs through Feb. 28, 2016.