The First-Ever Zongzi-Fest
Family, Friends, Fun… And Yes, Food!

Chris (CK) Jeong has been teaching Kitchen Medicine classes at Cameron House for many years. These classes have covered many Chinese traditional recipes, as well as other cultures’ foods—all with the root of healthy cooking and eating.

One repeated request has been to make Zongzi (Cantonese: Joong). After years of talking about it, and some of his students sharing that they each had their own family styles, CK thought it would be great fun to gather them all together to share their family traditions. He coordinated all of the planning, organizing, ingredients, and working with the teachers to create this special event.

Over 100 people attended the first-ever Zongzi-Fest and together they created over 450 zongzi!

Comments from participants:

“I think you found the perfect ‘Asian soul food’ activity that puts us in touch with our roots and CH family, warms our hearts and fills our tummies! You can’t help but feel a bond with people after you’ve cooked something special with them, and it was awesome to re-connect with people from all years and meet their families. My family members and friends now want to have a Zongzi-Fest at my house.” -Maxine Lym

“I would never have guessed that this was the very 1st time that this event was done – it was extremely well organized with great flow, pacing and timing to maximize learning & practice. Teachers were well-prepared and gave excellent verbal, visual & hands-on instruction (i.e. sample packages of ingredients). All of the teachers had different “tips” that really helped.” -Amy Lai Huey

“My favorite thing about this workshop was sharing the experience with family; had a lot of fun & many laughs. In addition, we got to take four joongs home, which were yummy! Thank you for helping me learn a skill I had not learn from my mom.” -April Wong

“Participating in the event brought back fond memories of my mother making joong. I enjoyed the camaraderie and listening to other people’s stories of their family recipes. Kudos to all the teachers who were so patient in teaching us how to wrap. If there was another Zongzi-Fest, I would highly recommend it to others because it was such a fun learning experience and it made making joong a lot easier.” -S.L.

“I loved seeing girlfriends helping girlfriends, witnessing a room full of young and old learning a tradition that can only be taught by doing, hearing all the chatter, watching people scribble notes, and feeling the great vibes of energy in Culbertson Hall! Thank you to the kitchen crew, our registration crew, and CK for masterminding this event and making the day flow. I got to be a teacher and student too! Yesterday I shared the other families joongs that I made at the event with my in-laws as we taste-tested each one. My mother-in-law said she would buy each of your joongs and wished she could have learned to make a pyramid too. My hope is to have those who came to the Zongzi-Fest have a party with their families. It’s so cool to have two and three generations sitting down together and making a meal.” -Rhonda Louie

“I loved that each station had something different…each small tweak made it so interesting. I also loved that Mei & Carolyn (mothers) were able to join us. It really helped to reinforce the idea that this process/project/task is a generational family gathering and needs to be passed on from generation to generation. And, of course, within our own generation is the friend to friend sharing.” -Joanne Woo

Thank you to CK Jeong and all of the teachers who gave such a huge effort to make this happen!
• Mei Yee & Crew (including her daughter, Belinda)
• Rhonda Louie & Crew
• Nancy Chee/Marie Chin & Crew
• Sabrina Gee-Shin & Crew (including her mother Carolyn and brother Terrence)

Check out some pictures from the event!