The Chinese American fashion designer Peter Som is most famous for making beautiful actresses—Natalie Portman, Scarlett Johansson, Rashida Jones, Anne Hathaway—look even more beautiful in his elegant evening wear. He dressed Michelle Obama when she was First Lady. A staple on the New York social scene, Som loves to entertain in his chic, art-filled West Village apartment. And even when there are movie stars at Som’s dinner parties, his cooking always steals the show. “Family Style: Elegant Everyday Recipes Inspired by Home and Heritage” is Som’s love letter to his family and friends, his heritage, and his passion for entertaining. – TED HILDNER
Peter Som, the chef, not the fashion designer.
I’m definitely not a trained chef. I consider a chef to be somebody who’s gone to culinary school and worked in a restaurant. I’ve never worked in a restaurant. I mean, when I was a kid, I was a dishwasher. And then I worked at Jack in the Box as a fryer. It was terrible. But cooking has been part of my whole life. The whole time I was working in fashion, I was cooking. Cooking was therapy. It’s always been that parallel kind of thing to fashion.
Now you have a cookbook.
I found recipe notebooks from my grandmother, who had passed away 20 years ago, that we had never seen. Many were in Chinese writing, dating back to 1960. It was a time capsule. It really sent me on this journey—getting to know my grandmother through her food as an adult is a totally different kind of thing. It was a way to honor my grandmother and pay tribute to my mom. I started cooking when I was a kid with my grandmother: I was her sous chef. I was always in the kitchen with her.
“Tofu is the little black dress. You can dress it up with just about any spices and seasonings.”
Fashion and cooking go hand-in-hand for you.
I’ve always said I design happy clothes, clothes that you’d want to wear again and again that bring you joy. That’s the same approach I have to recipes. I’ve made recipes that are easy enough that they become favorites, like the sweater you want to wear every day.
Your dinner parties are legendary.
The world’s a little crazy right now. People take refuge and comfort in cooking, being at home and surrounding themselves with the people that mean the most to them. Food is a salve for the stress of life and what’s going on in the world.
What do you cook on the run?
A lot of tofu when I’m home just by myself. Tofu is the little black dress. You can dress it up with just about any spices and seasonings.
Your cookbook reads like a memoir too.
Cookbooks transport you to a place and a time like a good novel. There is joy in food. The goal with my book is to have a recipe that somebody’s going to want to make once a week, or they make it every time a certain season rolls around. That is the ultimate compliment. It’s the same when I see a woman walking down the street wearing my dress. Oh wow, that dress has a life beyond what I created. I want my recipes to do the same.
Buy Peter Som’s “Family Style” HERE
