Judy
Judy Leung is the matriarch of The Woks of Life family, working on the blog alongside husband Bill and daughters Sarah and Kaitlin. Born in Shanghai, China, she grew up in a small village in Hubei—and later Shanghai. After immigrating to the United States with her family at sixteen, food and tradition kept her grounded in a new place. Fluent in both English and three Chinese dialects (Mandarin, Shanghainese, and Cantonese), she also plays the important role of researcher and menu translator!
Drawing from over four decades of cooking experience and travel, Judy aims to bring Chinese culinary traditions to readers and preserve recipes that might otherwise be lost to time. Her many Chinese holiday recipes, from Chinese New Year spring rolls and Mid-Autumn Festival mooncakes to Dragon Boat Festival Zongzi, demystify complex techniques for enthusiastic home cooks around the world. Her expertise spans from Shanghainese cooking and everyday homestyle dishes to a wide variety of regional foodways, showcasing the depth and breadth of Chinese cuisine for a global audience. Her time growing up in Shanghai, a 3-year-stint living in Beijing, and travels throughout China and Hong Kong have convinced her that The Woks of Life will never run out of recipes to share. Some of Judy’s signature recipes include her Shanghai Braised Pork Belly, Dan Dan Noodles, Smashed Cucumber Salad, and the easy Milk Bread recipe that basically built the blog’s Chinese Bakery section!
With the family, Judy has transformed The Woks of Life into what Saveur Magazine has deemed "the internet's most popular Chinese cooking blog," a trusted resource for millions of home cooks. After a decade of developing recipes for the blog, the family’s cookbook (published in November 2022) made her a New York Times Bestselling author, James Beard Award nominee, and IACP Award finalist—an unexpected life turn for a girl who (as she will tell you) grew up in a house with a dirt floor! When she’s not answering comments, testing recipes, or staging and styling a recipe during a shoot, she’s scouring Chinese cookbooks and websites for dishes old and new.
See Judy's posts below!
