The Ming-Na Wen cookbook Have You Eaten Yet?: Family Recipes from a Restaurant Daughter arrives October 6, 2026, from S&S/Simon Element. In a new October 2 interview, Wen said the project grew from years of fans asking for recipes from her food posts, then developed over several years into a mix of family stories and Chinese American cooking.
What the Ming-Na Wen cookbook includes
Simon & Schuster describes Have You Eaten Yet? as a collection of recipes and stories shaped by Wen’s childhood in her family’s Pittsburgh restaurant, Chinatown Inn, and by the food she now cooks for family and friends. The publisher lists restaurant classics such as egg rolls, wonton soup and shrimp fried rice, along with family dishes and Wen’s own recipes, including shrimp with garlic noodles and dragon fruit cheesecake cups. The book also includes practical guidance on rice, condiments, sauces, broths and spices.
The publisher lists the book at 256 pages and gives an October 6, 2026 publication date. A Simon & Schuster product page also identifies Dennis Kwan as the photographer and describes the book as part memoir, part family recipe collection.
What Ming-Na Wen said in the new interview
The fresh news hook comes from an October 2 interview with Forbes contributor Josh Weiss. Wen said the idea began after she had been sharing food on social media and fans repeatedly asked for recipes. She explained that turning those informal dishes into a cookbook took years, including the work of translating restaurant-style preparations into quantities suitable for home cooks.
Wen also described the book as a look back at her life through food. Her family’s Chinatown Inn is central to that story: she spoke about growing up around the restaurant, learning to cook later for herself, and eventually adapting family and restaurant dishes for readers. The October 2 interview is the primary source for those comments.
Is This Confirmed?
Yes. The cookbook and its October 6 release are confirmed directly by Simon & Schuster, and Wen discussed the project herself in the October 2 interview. The publisher also has a live book tour page listing events in New York, Ridgewood, Pittsburgh and Los Angeles around the release.
Why the family restaurant matters
Chinatown Inn is more than background for the book. Simon & Schuster says Wen spent much of her youth learning about food in the Pittsburgh restaurant, while Wen told Forbes that some of the book’s recipes are home-scale adaptations inspired by dishes associated with the restaurant. That gives the cookbook a specific family and restaurant lineage rather than positioning it as a generic celebrity recipe collection.
For readers following new Asian and Asian American cookbooks, this also sits alongside our recent coverage of Chris Joe’s Cook Asian cookbook, though the two books have different personal and culinary approaches.
Quick Questions
- When does Ming-Na Wen’s cookbook come out? Simon & Schuster lists October 6, 2026 as the publication date.
- Is Have You Eaten Yet? only a recipe book? No. The publisher presents it as recipes plus personal stories, family memories, cooking guidance and photographs.
- Does the book include recipes connected to Chinatown Inn? Yes. Wen said in the October 2 interview that she adapted restaurant-associated dishes for home cooks, while the publisher lists several restaurant classics in the book.
Update Log
October 3, 2026: Initial report prepared with release details from Simon & Schuster and new comments from Ming-Na Wen’s October 2 interview.
