Chef Melissa King teaches confidence in debut cookbook ‘Cook Like a King’

In her debut cookbook, Cook Like a King: Recipes from My California Chinese Kitchen, Top Chef All-Stars: Los Angeles winner and fan favorite Melissa King shares 120 of her most cherished recipes.

The book, which was co-written with JJ Good and is out now, blends the comforting flavors of her Chinese upbringing with the refined techniques of Michelin-starred kitchens where she trained under chefs like three Michelin-starred Dominique Crenn. From nostalgic family classics such as her grandmother’s Shanghainese lion’s head meatballs, to inventive California Asian creations like lemongrass cioppino, King provides approachable recipes with expert guidance, pantry insights, and “level-up” options for home cooks of all skill levels.

King recently spoke with JoySauce and shared about the book’s creation process, deciphering old family recipes and what ingredients she is loving right now. 

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Daniel Anderson: With your debut cookbook finally being released, how are you feeling?
Melissa King: Oh my god, I’m so excited for it to finally be out in the world. I’ve been working on this for four years, but I like to say it took my whole life to write. I feel really proud of what we put together. There are dishes from my childhood, things I used to make as a kid, and even dishes from Top Chef. It’s been a journey, and I’m glad we’re finally here.

DA: Can you share the inspiration behind this cookbook and why this felt like the right time?
MK: I’ve always dreamt of having a cookbook. Since I was a kid, cookbooks were my first source of cooking inspiration, so it’s a chef’s dream to put all your creations and ideas into a place where they exist in the world.

For me, it’s so important to share my food with people and teach them how to be stronger cooks. That really started during the pandemic when I began teaching cooking classes. Connecting with people that way felt so natural. This book became a passion project and a labor of love.

DA: Did teaching during the pandemic shape your approach to the book?
MK: Definitely. I actually taught cooking and wine classes even before Top Chef, and I found so much joy in it. But during the pandemic, I had the time to really lean in and connect with people.

A lot of the recipes in this book like my dumplings, chicken and ginger congee, and coconut corn soup (a Top Chef-winning dish) came straight out of those classes.

I designed this book to be an all-levels book and approachable for everyone—even my sister, who can barely cook. But there are also level-ups for those who want to push themselves. You can follow the level-up suggestions that I offer, or you could bring it back down and make it a little easier for yourself. 

I also kept ingredient accessibility in mind and what people are able to source, versus what I can here in California. I even included a full pantry section to introduce readers to Asian staples I want them to keep next to their olive oil, such as black vinegar, miso, and bonito flakes. 

DA: Expanding on the Asian pantry, are there ingredients you think are underrated?
MK: I love working with lemongrass. It’s not exactly underrated. It’s a cornerstone of Thai cuisine, but I think a lot of home cooks feel intimidated by it. I hope this book encourages people to embrace it. Lemongrass adds such a beautiful, aromatic brightness to broths, stews, and marinades—it’s like adding a lemony perfume that transforms the whole dish.

Ginger is probably my favorite ingredient of all time—it’s in almost every recipe in the book. It’s such a humble, versatile way to build depth and warmth. Black vinegar is another favorite—there’s a recipe for Shanghainese black vinegar ribs that’s inspired by my grandma, and I had to recreate it completely from memory.

And then there’s yuzu. It’s become more mainstream lately, but I still think it’s such a fun curveball citrus. You can swap it for lemon or lime and instantly add nuance and brightness.

I also wanted to demystify ingredients that people think of as “basic,” like soy sauce. There isn’t just one kind. In the book, I break down the difference between light and dark soy sauce. Dark soy is aged, slightly sweet, with a molasses-like quality, and used more for color than saltiness. It’s what gives soy sauce eggs that deep amber color. I wanted readers to understand how each type works. Ultimately, my hope is to empower people to explore, to wander through an Asian market, pick up something unfamiliar, and experiment. I still discover new ingredients every time I shop.

DA: I love that the subtitle is Recipes from My California Chinese Kitchen. Was that always part of the plan?
MK: I think the subtitle really encompasses me. Many of these recipes come from dishes I made with my family growing up. I have memories of standing on a stool next to my mom, stir-frying vegetables, making chicken congee, or her steamed egg custard with clams. My dad’s Shanghainese lion’s head meatballs are in here too. It’s the one dish he knows how to make, passed down from his mother.

These are the comfort foods of my childhood, and I wanted to show how approachable they are, using ingredients you can find at most grocery stores or easily source online.

I’m a Californian, born and raised in Los Angeles, and I cook with what’s fresh and in season. That shows up throughout the book with lots of vegetable-forward recipes. There are dishes inspired by growing up in LA, like my al pastor bao, which came from eating tacos from a truck with my parents and then stopping by the Chinese bakery next door for egg tarts.

You’ll also see my journey through Michelin-starred kitchens woven in, bringing French, Italian, and Eurocentric techniques into Asian flavors. For example, my yuzu brown butter flounder teaches readers a classic brown butter-caper sauce but swaps in yuzu for lemon, with options to use lemon or lime if that’s what you have.

More than anything, I want readers to feel empowered to think like a chef, whether that’s heating a pan properly or adding little tweaks to make their everyday cooking better.

DA: Tell me about the curation process of recipes in the book.
MK: A big part of this process was leaning into my own story and asking myself, “What are the dishes and flavors I really want to share with the world?” I started with about 250 recipes and had to narrow it down to 120, which felt like choosing between my babies! But I think my co-author JJ and I did a great job selecting the ones that best represent me.

At the heart of it, I’m a storyteller. Food has always been how I express myself and share who I am. My hope is that every recipe brings a little piece of me into someone’s home, and that readers feel that connection when they cook from this book.

DA: You really told your story on the all-star season of Top Chef. It was awesome watching you come into your own and embrace your heritage and Chinese flavors in your dishes.
MK: That’s a huge part of why I feel so proud of this book—it really reflects my story and my family’s story. It highlights both sides of my background: My mom is from Hong Kong, so we spoke Cantonese at home, and my dad is from Shanghai. There are certain Chinese dishes I grew up with that felt important to include, like my grandma’s Shanghainese smoked fish. She always had it in her fridge—it’s fried fish that’s marinated in a sweet soy sauce with five spice and cinnamon, then chilled. You eat it cold with rice, and it was one of my ultimate comfort foods.

I also had to include Chinese sticky rice. It’s a dish I made every year for Thanksgiving. Growing up, my mom would pick up a roast duck from Sam Woo, the Chinese barbecue spot, and that was our Thanksgiving centerpiece. None of us even knew what turkey was until I was about 13, when I insisted on making one. I completely f*cked it up. My family was like, “Why are we eating this dry bird?” But now it’s a tradition. Every year, I make the turkey and we argue about it every time, but they always make me promise to make the sticky rice too. It’s become our family’s favorite holiday dish, and I even make it again at Christmas.

That’s what I love about this book. Every recipe has a little story at the beginning that shares where it came from or why it’s special to me. I wish I could go even deeper into the storytelling. Maybe I will one day on Substack, but for now, I hope readers feel the heart behind each of these 120 recipes.

DA: Many Asian family recipes aren’t written or passed down. What was the process like for you recreating and transcribing some of your family recipes for the book?
MK: One recipe I’m really sad didn’t make it into the book was my Shanghainese grandma’s zongzi, sticky rice wrapped in lotus leaves. It’s something I used to make with her as a kid. I’d stand on a stool when I was maybe 6 years old, helping her wrap them. We never had a written recipe, so I had to track one down from my aunt, who scribbled it in barely legible shorthand, just “rice, pork butt” and a couple other notes. I had to rely on my own food memories, piece them together with that note, and even watch YouTube videos to re-learn how to wrap them. It took a lot of experimenting to get as close as I could to my grandma’s version.

The Shanghainese smoked fish that did make it into the book was another recipe I had to decode from memory. And my Cantonese grandma always had a pot of soy-marinated tea eggs in her fridge. I had to figure out what kind of tea and spices she used through trial and error. So in many ways, some of these recipes are my interpretations, shaped by memory and experimentation.

Even dishes like my dad’s Shanghainese lion’s head meatballs had little family “rules” I had to translate into actual instructions, like his insistence that the meatballs had to chill for an hour before cooking because that’s how grandma did it.

That was probably the hardest part of writing this book: translating intuition into clear, reliable recipes. I’m a “taste as you go, a little of this and that” kind of cook. But I was determined to make this book foolproof. We tested every recipe until I knew that if someone followed the instructions carefully, they’d get results as close as possible to mine. I wanted people to feel empowered and to know that if they trust the process, they can absolutely recreate these dishes in their own kitchen and make them their own.