Thy Tran writes literary nonfiction about food, the rituals of the kitchen, and the many ways eating and cooking both connect and separate communities around the world. She co-authored the award-winning guide, Kitchen Companion. Her work has appeared in numerous other books, such as Asia in the San Francisco Bay Area: A Cultural Travel Guide, and she has contributed features to The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times and San Francisco Chronicle.

Trained as a professional chef, Thy established Wandering Spoon in 2000 to provided cooking classes, culinary consultation, and educational programming for culinary academies and nonprofit organizations throughout Northern California. She is also the founder and co-director of the Asian Culinary Forum, an annual symposium dedicated to the food culture of Asian communities around the world.

Thy works on cookbooks by day, then creates literary chapbooks by night. An old letterpress and two cabinets filled with wood and lead type occupy a corner of Thy’s writing studio, for she is as committed to the art and craft of bookmaking as she is to the power of words themselves.

Awards & Honors

Individual Artist Grant from the San Francisco Arts Commission to complete a collection of essays on how food changes in families across place and time. (2007)

Harry A. Bell Grant awarded for four months of travel and culinary research in Asia and India. (2001)

Kitchen Companion named as a finalist for Food Reference Award by the International Association of Culinary Professionals. (2000)

The Kitchen Companion received Best Reference Book Award (English Language) from the Salon International du Livre Gourmand in Périgueux, France. (2001)

The Renaissance Entrepreneurship Center gave its Best Business Plan Award for the proposal to establish Wandering Spoon, a mobile cooking school. (1999)

Scholarship for professional culinary study received from the American Institute of Wine and Food. (1996)

Selected Clients

Avalon Publishing

Barron’s Educational Series

California Culinary Academy

Center for Urban Education about Sustainable Agriculture

Chez Panisse Foundation

Chronicle Books

Weldon Owen Publishing

Williams-Sonoma, Inc

Professional Affiliations

Amalgamated Printers Association

California Food & Justice Coalition

Chefs Collaborative

Community Food Security Coalition

San Francisco Center for the Book

San Francisco Professional Food Society  (board member)

Community Affiliations

Kearny Street Workshop  (board member, writing instructor)

AVID, Galileo Academy  (writing tutor)

Project Read (adult literacy tutor)