Ron Hsu in conversation with Henna Bakshi

Chinese American chef Ron Hsu shares original recipes exploring innovative Asian-influenced dishes via the rich larder of the American South in his debut cookbook, Down South + East

With mouthwatering ingredient combinations, a fresh take on Southern food, and comforting-yet-creative recipes, Down South + East helps home cooks across the country look at everyday ingredients in new ways and discover exciting possibilities for them.

Ron Hsu grew up a restaurant kid, surrounded by the delicious smells and flavors of Chinese food at Hunan Village, a set of seven restaurants his parents ran in Georgia from 1980 to 2008. Now, with culinary school, seven years at the world-famous Le Bernardin—where he moved from line cook to creative director—and his Michelin-starred restaurant Lazy Betty under his belt, Hsu is more than ready to share his recipes inspired by his Chinese childhood in the American South.

The delicious results include recipes like cornbread made with deeply flavored lap cheong (Chinese sausage) standing in for pork cracklins and char siu style pork lacquered with a sorghum syrup-bourbon glaze. Laced with ginger, the potlikker of gently braised watercress can throw down with that of any collard greens, and a soy sauce and shiitake mushroom gravy enhances traditional meatloaf.

Photo credit: Colette Collins

Ron Hsu is the culinary director and a partner in his Michelin-starred restaurant, Lazy Betty, in Atlanta, Georgia. His upbringing in a restaurant family led him to become a leader in New York’s culinary industry as the executive chef of Le Colonial and the creative director of Eric Ripert’s three-Michelin-starred Le Bernardin. Beyond the restaurants, Hsu was featured on the Netflix cooking series The Final Table. He is involved with several nonprofits, including Raise: High Road Restaurants, an advocacy group dedicated to fair wages and racial and gender equity in the restaurant industry as well as Kulture City, which creates sensory accessibility and inclusion for those with invisible disabilities. 

Henna Bakshi is Eater's Regional and Audience Editor and an award-winning food and wine journalist. She has a decade of experience producing news at CNN. Henna is certified in wine with a WSET (Wine and Spirits Education Trust) Level 3 degree and Sake Level 1. Her wine reporting appears in Decanter, Wine Enthusiast, and Food and Wine Magazine, among others, with a focus on war-zone wines and global storytelling. Henna has hosted multiple food and wine pop-up events around Atlanta. 

Parking

When visiting our Midtown campus, walking, rideshare, and MARTA are highly encouraged! The Midtown MARTA station is only one block away. There is a small amount of complimentary parking available in the parking lot across Crescent Avenue from the entrance to Margaret Mitchell House. Once these spots are full, there are a number of paid offsite parking spots and decks in the area, including:  

On-street parking via ParkMobile 

999 Peachtree Street building parking deck 

930 Juniper Street/Metropolis  parking deck