Molly Yeh (born May 22, 1989) is an American

cookbook A cookbook or cookery book is a kitchen reference containing recipes. Cookbooks may be general, or may specialize in a particular cuisine or category of food. Recipes in cookbooks are organized in various ways: by course (appetizer, first cour ...

author and

blog A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order ...

ger who is the host of the Food Network cooking show ''

Girl Meets Farm ''Girl Meets Farm'' is an American cooking television series that airs on Food Network, and is presented by cookbook author Molly Yeh. The series features Yeh cooking Midwestern farm meals sometimes influenced by her Jewish and Chinese heritage, ...

''.

Early life

Yeh was born and raised in Glenview, Illinois, to Jody (

née A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...

Shinbrod) and clarinetist John Bruce Yeh. Her mother is

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

and her father is

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...

. She has an older sister, Jenna, who is a

chef A chef is a trained professional cook and tradesman who is proficient in all aspects of food preparation, often focusing on a particular cuisine. The word "chef" is derived from the term ''chef de cuisine'' (), the director or head of a kitche ...

, as well as a younger half sister, Mia. Yeh attended

Glenbrook South High School Glenbrook South High School, or GBS, is a public four-year high school located in Glenview, Illinois, a north suburb of Chicago, in the United States. It is part of Northfield Township High School District, which also includes Glenbrook North Hig ...

and the

Midwest Young Artists Conservatory Midwest Young Artists Conservatory (MYAC) is a youth music and jazz organization based near Chicago, Illinois. It is the largest youth ensemble music program in the Midwest. MYAC was founded in 1993 in Evanston, Illinois by Dr. Allan Dennis and ...

, where she was a member of two

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

ensembles—The Rattan Trio and Beat 3—which won consecutive gold medals (2004 and 2005) in the junior division of the

Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition The Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition is the largest and oldest continuous chamber music competition in the United States. In 1973, Joseph E. Fischoff and fellow members of the South Bend Chamber Music Society established a competition to ...

. She kept journals from a young age which turned into her blog in 2009. After high school, she moved to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

to attend the

Juilliard School The Juilliard School ( ) is a private performing arts conservatory in New York City. Established in 1905, the school trains about 850 undergraduate and graduate students in dance, drama, and music. It is widely regarded as one of the most el ...

, where she was editorial assistant and writer at ''The Juilliard Journal'' and in 2011 earned a

Bachelor of Music Bachelor of Music (BM or BMus) is an academic degree awarded by a college, university, or conservatory upon completion of a program of study in music. In the United States, it is a professional degree, and the majority of work consists of prescr ...

degree in percussion.

Career

After Yeh and her husband Nick Hagen moved to his family farm outside East Grand Forks near the North Dakota/Minnesota border in 2013, Yeh began devoting more time to her food blog, which included personal stories about her life on the farm. The blog gained attention in part due to Yeh's artistic food photography becoming popular on Pinterest; in 2015 she was named "Food Blogger of the Year" by ''

Saveur ''Saveur'' is an online gourmet, food, wine, and travel magazine that publishes essays about various world cuisines. The publication was co-founded by Dorothy Kalins, Michael Grossman, Christopher Hirsheimer, and Colman Andrews, who was also the ...

''. In October 2016, Yeh published her first book, ''Molly on the Range: Recipes and Stories from An Unlikely Life on a Farm'' (Rodale Books), for which she won the Judges' Choice

IACP Cookbook Award The International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP) is a United States-based not-for-profit professional association whose members work in culinary education, communication, or the preparation of food and beverage. History The organizati ...

in 2017. Like her blog, the book combines Yeh's recipes and food photography with autobiographical stories. Yeh began hosting her cooking show ''

'' on Food Network which debuted on June 24, 2018. The series is recorded at Yeh's farm and features

Midwestern cuisine Midwestern cuisine is a regional cuisine of the American Midwest. It draws its culinary roots most significantly from the cuisines of Central, Northern and Eastern Europe, and Native North America, and is influenced by regionally and locally g ...

as well as elements from her Chinese and Jewish heritage. Her eleventh season of ''Girl Meets Farm'' launched on September 4, 2022. In November 2018, she was a guest co-host on '' From the Top'', a podcast showcasing young classical musicians. Yeh had previously appeared on the show twice as a teenager, in 2004 and 2007. She hosted the Food Network competition shows ''Ben and Jerry's Clash of the Cones'' in 2021 and the eighth season of '' Spring Baking Championship'' which premiered on February 28, 2022. In 2022, Yeh opened Bernie's, a café restaurant in East Grand Forks, Minnesota specializing in Midwestern dishes with Scandinavian and Jewish influences.

Personal life

In 2014, Yeh married fellow Juilliard

music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspect ...

major Major (commandant in certain jurisdictions) is a military rank of commissioned officer status, with corresponding ranks existing in many military forces throughout the world. When used unhyphenated and in conjunction with no other indicators ...

Nick Hagen a year after the couple moved to East Grand Forks, Minnesota where Hagen is a fifth-generation farmer. In November 2018, Yeh announced that she and her husband were expecting their first child. On March 30, 2019, Yeh gave birth to a daughter, Bernadette Rosemary Yeh Hagen, named after her husband's great-great-grandfather Bernt (who started the Hagen farm) and her own great-great-grandfather, Bernard. In September 2021, Yeh announced she and her husband were expecting their second child in February 2022. Their second daughter, Ira Dorothy Yeh Hagen, was born on February 20, 2022. Ira's name was suggested by Jamie, the director of photography for ''Girl Meets Farm''.

Bibliography

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Yeh, Molly 1989 births American people of Chinese descent American businesspeople American cookbook writers American television chefs American women bloggers American bloggers Food Network chefs Juilliard School alumni Living people People from Glenview, Illinois American women chefs American women non-fiction writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers Jewish American chefs Jewish American writers Chefs from Illinois American women percussionists Musicians from Chicago 21st-century American women writers International Association of Culinary Professionals award winners 21st-century American Jews