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Chef Kathy Fang spent her childhood practically living inside her family’s San Francisco restaurant, House of Nanking. Not by choice: her parents couldn’t afford childcare, so from age seven, she was there from after school until midnight, watching her father create the dishes that would eventually make him a legend in the Bay Area’s Chinatown.
But while she was learning the art of Chinese cooking, she was also absorbing something else: traditional Chinese ideals that would shape her for years to come. “Work hard, never complain, always listen to your elders even if you don’t agree, be humble and don’t call attention to yourself,” Kathy explains. “Very little praise, lots of tough love, respect for authority. Those ideals caused me to lack confidence as a kid to ever speak up. It’s hard to dream big and be a leader when you’re taught to follow and be reserved.”…