Celebrated for her popular food blog and cookbook, Illinois native Molly Yeh brings her unique take on cuisine to Food Network Canada with Girl Meets Farm. If you’re still new to all things Yeh, here are a handful of fun facts you might not know about the chef and her fascinating life cooking up sumptuous culinary creations on her North Dakota farm.
She’s a Musician
“I graduated from Juilliard with a degree in percussion,” the Girl Meets Farm star writes on her blog My Name is Yeh, adding that it was during her time in New York City that she truly fell in love with food. These days, Yeh still performs occasionally, and sometimes writes reviews for classical music radio station WQXR.
And it Runs in the Family
Yeh certainly comes by her musical talent honestly: Her father, John Bruce Yeh, is a Julliard-taught clarinet player with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra — and was the first Asian-American ever appointed to the orchestra when he joined in 1977.
Love Match
You really can’t stop the music in this household! Yeh (pronounced “Yay”) lives on a sugar-beet farm in Grand Forks, North Dakota with her husband, fifth-generation farmer Nick Hagen (aka “Eggboy”). The Illinois native met her hubby, who plays trombone, when she moved to Brooklyn to attend the Julliard School.
Meet Baby Bernie
On March 30, 2019, Yeh and Hagen welcomed their first child, daughter Bernadette Rosemary Yeh Hagen, who came into the world weighing a healthy 7 lbs., 6 oz.
Her Viral Breakthrough
After launching her food blog in 2009, Yeh — who is half-Chinese and half-Jewish — explored recipes that fused together both sides of her heritage. One of these was her recipe for a pretzel challah, which went viral after she posted it on her blog in 2013. It was the recipe that put her on the map. Try a flavourful variation yourself: Molly Yeh’s Garlic and Onion Challah Bread.
She Baked Her Own Wedding Cake
When Yeh and Hagen exchanged vows in 2015, guests noshed on her signature funfetti cake, which served as the couple’s wedding cake. “Our wedding dessert table was my baby,” she wrote.
Get the recipe for Molly Yeh’s Sprinkles Cake
A Month of Schnitzel
Back when she was still living in NYC and attending Julliard, Yeh ate nothing but schnitzel for an entire month after she won 30 days’ worth of the breaded meat from a local food truck. As Yeh has proclaimed in the past: “If life gives you lemons, squeeze them on a schnitzel!” Her love for the food goes so deep that her family even dressed up as schnitzel for Halloween.
Her Birthday Tradition
Among the many animals who live on her North Dakota farm, Yeh and her hubby raise chickens — and she names them! As Yeh explained in an interview, she prefers to name her farmyard pets after the male pen names of famous female authors. The end result? Chickens with such names as George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans) and Curer Bell (Charlotte Bronte). However, she refers to her chickens collectively as “Macaroni.”
She’s An Author
In 2016, Yeh published her first cookbook, Molly on the Range, which she insists wouldn’t have been produced had it not been for her mother and husband. Speaking with Bon Appetit, Yeh admitted that she would have been perfectly happy to have her recipes simply live online, but they encouraged her to create “this physical thing.”
Molly on the Range, Amazon Canada, $36.
Sprinkles Everywhere!
Not only are sprinkles a Yeh pantry staple, she considers them absolute treasures. As she told the Food Network, “I refuse to get rid of any sprinkle that comes into my house. I love collecting sprinkles whenever I go out of town. I bring home sprinkles from other countries and I just never want to let them go. They’re [probably mostly] faded and gross by now.”
Get the recipe for Molly Yeh’s Chocolate Sea Salt Rugelach
Her Favourite Meal
As she revealed to Food Network, “My [favourite] meal to eat is second dinner which is when I start craving potato chips and French fries and late-night pizza. That’s the best food.” Can’t say we disagree with you, Molly.
Get the recipe for Molly Yeh’s BBQ Pulled Pork Nachos