The Woks of Life
| Founded | 2013 |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | New Jersey, USA |
| Created by | Sarah, Kaitlin, Judy and Bill Leung |
| Industry | Culinary |
| URL | https://thewoksoflife.com/ |
The Woks of Life is a culinary blog focusing on Chinese and American Chinese cuisines. It was started in 2013 by Sarah, Kaitlin, Judy and Bill Leung.
Blog
The blog covers traditional Chinese cuisines and Americanized Chinese dishes.[1] Sarah and Kaitlin started it in 2013, after Judy and Bill had relocated from New Jersey to Beijing for Bill's job at Nokia, as a way to maintain a connection with their parents.[2] The family had always had an interest in food and cooking, and Sarah and Kaitlin wanted to learn their parents' recipes so they could recreate them in their own kitchen.[2][3][4][5]
Around a year after starting the blog, one of the recipe posts went viral, and the family began focusing on the blog as a way to reach a broader audience.[5][6] By 2019 Sarah was working on the blog full-time.[6] As of 2022 it receives about 7 million page view per month.[4] According to Dwell it is "possibly the internet's most popular English-language Chinese food blog".[5] According to Bon Appetit, "the family-run recipes blog has been considered by many fans to be the Bible of Chinese home cooking."
The family purchased a 1785 farmhouse on twelve acres of land in New Jersey where they work on the blog full-time and grow produce for use in their recipes.[5]
Cookbook
The family wrote a cookbook, The Woks Of Life: Recipes To Know And Love From A Chinese American Family, which was published in 2022 by Clarkson Potter.[1] Sarah and Kaitlin created the photographs.[6] The book became a New York Times bestseller.[7] It was nominated for a 2023 James Beard Award in the U.S. Foodways category, as well as a 2023 IACP Award in the American category.[8][9] It was named one of the best cookbooks of the year by the San Francisco Chronicle, Simply Recipes, The New York Times, Food & Wine, NPR, Smithsonian Magazine, Delish, and Epicurious.
YouTube
The Leung Family also has a YouTube channel featuring cooking tutorials and lifestyle videos, with each family member presenting their own recipes.
Recognition
In 2015, Saveur named it the Best Special Interest blog.[3][2] The Woks of Life was featured in Season 4 Episode 6 of Lucky Chow (PBS) in 2020 and Season 1 Episode 5 of Family Dinner with Andrew Zimmern (Magnolia Network) in 2021.
The Leung family
Judy Leung was born in Shanghai, grew up in Hubei and Shanghai, and immigrated to the US with her family when she was sixteen.[2][4][6] She speaks Shanghainese, Cantonese, and Mandarin. Bill was born and raised in Liberty, New York, in the Catskill Mountains, where he worked summers local hotels and resorts with his stepfather, a professional chef.[2] Sarah and Kaitlin Leung were born and raised in New Jersey.
References
- 1 2 Limbong, Andrew (December 24, 2022). "'The Woks of Life' celebrates a Chinese American family's history through recipes". NPR. Retrieved October 25, 2025.
- 1 2 3 4 5 Chow, Kat (November 11, 2022). "The Woks of Life Is Shaping Chinese Home Cooking in America. And It's Only Getting Started". Bon Appétit. Retrieved October 25, 2025.
- 1 2 "Blog Awards 2015: The Winners". Saveur. May 27, 2015. Retrieved October 25, 2025.
- 1 2 3 Ho, Soleil (November 1, 2022). "How a family-run food blog became a home for Chinese America". San Francisco Chronicle.
- 1 2 3 4 Chan, Wilfred (November 15, 2022). "They Built "The Woks of Life" From Home. Now They're Cooking Things Up From a New One". Dwell. Retrieved October 25, 2025.
- 1 2 3 4 Brehaut, Laura (January 20, 2023). "The Woks of Life: How one family's 'culinary genealogy' became a cooking resource for millions". National Post.
- ↑ Egan, Elisabeth (November 17, 2022). "The Family That Cooks Together Publishes a Best Seller". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved October 26, 2025.
- ↑ "Congrats to the 2023 Media Award Nominees". www.jamesbeard.org. Retrieved December 30, 2025.
- ↑ Hecht, Lisa. "2023 IACP Awards Finalists". IACP. Retrieved December 30, 2025.