Cooking from Memory

After losing her vision in her twenties, Christine Ha had to learn how to cook from memory the recipes she’d grown up eating with her parents. But losing her vision didn’t slow her down. She went on to become the first ever blind contestant on Masterchef US—and won. Since then, she has written a New York Times bestselling cookbook, opened the thrice James Beard Award–nominated restaurant The Blind Goat, become a disability advocate, and gained 1.5 million social media followers.

Cooking from Memory is her long-awaited second cookbook, where she shares the recipes that are nearest to her heart. Now that her mother is long gone, she recreates her Mom’s Beloved Pho Bò from memory, shares fusion recipes like Viet-Mex Aguachile that reflect her Texas upbringing, and offers classic Vietnamese recipes like The G.O.A.T. Sate Sauce from her acclaimed restaurant.

An unapologetic love letter to her parents, Vietnamese people, and the Vietnamese diaspora, Cooking from Memory contains heartfelt stories from Christine’s childhood and reflections on the challenges of becoming blind, learning to cook, and becoming the person she is today. Christine’s memories and recipes remind us to follow our own senses and intuition, to slow down, and to savor our food and our time with the people we love the most.