2024
For the second time, I am included in Code Hospitality’s Women of the Year list, this time in the ‘Leader’ category. With over 850 nominations across seven award categories, the judges selected 55 women from across the industry who have made a significant impact in hospitality.
A mention of the Communitea poetry sessions at Horniman Museum & Gardens, which I am running for their 茶, चाय, Tea (Chá, Chai, Tea) exhibition.
My monthly food & drink column for SCMP’s Sunday Post Magazine begins with an opinion piece on the ‘quiet luxury’ trend in Chinese dining.
Bookseller announces that Renegade wins a three-way auction for An A-Z Of Chinese Food (Recipes Not Included).
2023
Xeno Podcast (Apple music link)
Podcast interview with Isabella McDonnell of Xeno on on diasporic routes, radicals and the taste of home.
Why has British Chinese food shocked the US? Contributed my opinions to Anna Sulan Masing’s piece diving into the history of British Chinese takeaway food, which went viral on TikTok in May 2023.
Fatboy Zine (YouTube link)
Interview with Christopher O’Leary for the inaugural season of Fatboy Zine Radio, talking about my journey and how I’ve grown my personal project Celestial Peach.
School Of Soycery (Spotify link)
A podcast interview with George Stiffman, author of Broken Cuisine, talking all things soy and tofu.
A Taste Of Place (Whetstone Radio Collective)
Featuring on Episodes 6 and 10 of A Taste Of Place, a narrative podcast hosted by Dr Anna Sulan Masing that aims to untangle our understanding of the past and investigate our relationship with nostalgia, with the taste of pepper as the thread.
Asian Dessert Exchange is announced as a supporter of ESEA Lit Fest.
Putting The Act In Activism: An Interview with Jenny Lau, founder of Celestial Peach
Interview with Beatrice Bowers about the intersection of caregiving and activism.
South China Morning Post (paywall)
Article by Charmaine Mok about congee, and why the humble rice porridge polarises diners.
“I’m definitely maximalist when it comes to congee,” says Jenny Lau, a London-based communications specialist and the founder of Chinese food stories platform Celestial Peach.
She is also the mastermind behind CongeeCon, an annual event where participants get to chat about food and Asian culture. It started three years ago as a potluck gathering, where congee would be served as a base and each guest was encouraged to bring their own toppings.
“Maybe I was one of the first people in London, in the UK especially, who was kind of starting this ‘congee revival’,” Lau says with a self-deprecating laugh. She suggests that the evolution of CongeeCon was tied to the growing conversations around identity and the effects of anti-Asian racism.
“I just saw congee as the perfect metaphor,” she says, emphasising that the “Con” in CongeeCon can also represent concepts such as connection, conversation and contemplation.
And so congee has become a conduit for some pretty serious topics, even when we’re talking about what Lau likes to add to her bowl.
“You pick what you want and you dress it how you want. And I think there’s something very non-dogmatic about that,” she says. “You can have it your way. You often encounter people who are very ‘gatekeepery’ about ‘our’ culture. You know, ‘That’s not how we serve our congee’. Whose [culture] is it anyway?” she says.
2022
The #ChineseFoodiesOfIG100 exhibition was featured in Atlas Obscura’s ‘Year In Food Art’.
Interview with the JAGS (James Allen’s Girls’ School) old girls’ alumnae magazine. Surely the pinnacle of my career so far!
Interview with Adrienne Katz Kennedy for Topia’s World Of Good season 2, themed around THE EGG.
Be Inclusive Hospitality Awards
Jenny Lau is nominated as a finalist in the People’s Choice ‘Person Of The Year’ award at the inaugural Be Inclusive Hospitality Awards.
Jenny Lau receives two nominations in the Gourmand Food Culture Awards 2023 for An A-Z Of Chinese Food (Chinese category) and #ChineseFoodiesOfIG100 (Illustration category).
Interview with Sam Lin-Sommer on the #ChineseFoodiesOfIG100 exhibition.
Named as one of the ‘Most Influential in Community 2022’ in Code Hospitality’s 100 Most Influential Women in Hospitality 2022, as ‘an important voice, doing much to educate both the hospitality industry and the public about the food and culture of the Chinese diaspora'.
Coverage of the #AsianDessertExchange Bakers’ Box for Community Meal Share, Sri Lanka.
Audio interview with Andrew Limbong on the rise of Uncle Roger, comedian Nigel Ng’s alter ego.
Guest on the ‘But Where Are You From?’ podcast, brought to you by Besea.n. Chasing the taste of home (with Jenny Lau and Tiffany Chang): cooking, finding your path and navigating generational divides.
Coverage of the #ChineseFoodiesofIG100 ‘Taste Of Home’ exhibition
Sharing my Veganuary tips.
2021
Coverage of the Beauty Of Batik pop-up, a collaboration celebrating Malaysian Independence Day with The Steam Room and Keshia Wong.
Feature by Catharine Hughes on how community food projects bring warmth to people of colour.
Guest post on the history of sweet and sour, with a sugar-free recipe.
Guest appearance on Netil Radio’s Breakfast Brapp with Shimmy.
Interview with Emerson Lee Scott on celebrating Asian identity through media.
Interview with Anna Sulan Masing on the labour of four Asian women in different parts of the hospitality industry.
Guest appearance on Rice Is Rice, a conversational podcast hosted by three 20-something British East Asians.
Feature by Tiger Hagino Reid on #StopAsianHate and people in the UK helping to tackle anti-Asian hate.
Hosting a panel discussion with British women of East and South East Asian heritage as Chinatown London’s International Women’s Day 2021 ambassador.
‘Women In Food Making Waves 2021’. Featured alongside six other UK-based women in an interview by Tara Rudd, highlighting our relationship to food activism.
Speaking in the Mayor of London’s 2021 documentary celebrating the Lunar New Year of the Ox, and paying tribute to the East and South East Asian community of London.
2020
Coverage of the ‘congee lovers unite’ t-shirt, raising funds for the London Chinese Community Centre in Chinatown.
An interview with Mother Tongue, founded by Gurd Loyal. Sharing my thoughts on my food influences, cultural appropriation, authenticity and more.
A livestreamed Barbican event in which I co-hosted HK Soirée with my old friend and bandmate Emmy The Great, a celebration of Hong Kong through its people and its culture to mark the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival. With special guests Sarah Howe, Daniel York Loh and Dan Schreiber.
BBC Good Food
Featured as one of 10 game-changers: food greats everyone should know about.
I answered ten questions for Sourced, a public research project aimed at developing lines of inquiry into our relationships with food and drink.
An interview for South China Morning Post on the #HumansofChinatownLondon project.
An interview for CGTN on the #HumansofChinatownLondon project.
A feature in Artsy on the #HumansofChinatownLondon project.
Guest appearance on popular Asian comedy podcast, Rice To Meet You hosted by Nigel Ng (Uncle Roger) and Evelyn Mok.