Amid Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, baker uses treats to nourish body and mind
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — As we close out Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, a confection with a cause is on the menu.
"Cookies are the most universally digestible, most inviting, disarming medium possible," Jasmine Cho said.
But these cookies are not just any cookies.
"They're really meant to be digested more intellectually, emotionally," Cho said.
Cho is the brainchild behind these cookies for change. She is the founder and owner of Yummyholic, an online bakery based in Pittsburgh. She is also a proud Korean-American.
Cho grew up in Los Angeles, where despite an abundance of diversity she said she still felt alienated.
"Being born and raised in this country, the United States, yet having this perpetual feeling of exclusion of not belonging because of how I appeared," Cho said.
She said, as a child, she realized Asian American stories were not being told and only saw media representations of Asian Americans that were more caricatures than real life.
After moving to Pittsburgh 20 years ago, Cho found relevance in baking. Her portrait cookies, in particular, became a big hit. And that's when Cho realized how to harness the power she found at the crossroads of her joy and pain.
"If I have people's attention, then here's an opportunity for me to direct that attention toward something I feel is important," she said.
She began making portrait cookies of Asian American trailblazers, people who helped pave the way but whose stories weren't well known in mainstream America.
"Cookies and social justice? All right, I guess we can pair these two together," she said.
From historical figures like Afong Moy.
"The first Chinese woman to immigrate to America," Cho said. "And she was basically brought over to be showcased to the world, almost like a circus freak show."
And Sammy Lee
"The first Asian American to win gold in the Olympics," she said. "He had to practice his diving into a sand pit because he was barred from entering the public pools in his neighborhood."
To more modern icons like Michelle Yeoh as her character from the movie "Everything Everywhere All at Once."
"When I first started with the cookies, I had no idea that a cookie activist could even be a title or a thing or a career path that I would eventually walk down," she said.
Cho's work in the kitchen now also finds her in the classroom, traveling the country to speak to students.
"Our stories have been excluded historically for years and years and we just want them to come off the backburners and be shared more widely," she said.
"My hope is that one day my teachings will become irrelevant because everyone will have equal access to this knowledge and to these stories," she added.
