— 你好 from a wandering kitchen —
Hi, I'm Mia.
I'm a food photographer and recipe developer from China — equally at home pulling noodles with my grandmother in Xi'an or kneading sourdough in a friend's kitchen in Vancouver. I cook both Chinese and Western dishes, photograph all of them myself, and share the ones worth making again.
The short story
I grew up in Xi'an, in a household where my grandmother pulled noodles by hand every Sunday and my mother insisted on roasting tomatoes over an open flame before they ever touched a pot. Food, in our house, was never quick — but it was always worth waiting for.
University took me to Shanghai, where I cooked my way through homesickness in a 4-square-meter kitchen with one induction burner. That's where this site really started — me trying to recreate my grandmother's recipes with terrible lighting and a hand-me-down camera.
The travel part came next. Every year since 2019, I've spent two or three months overseas — staying with cousins in Vancouver, friends in Sicily, aunts in Singapore — and I always come home with a notebook of recipes and a memory card full of photos. Forty Flavors is where they all end up, side by side: my grandmother's biang biang mian, my cousin's sourdough, my own ridiculous attempts at Sicilian arancini.
What you'll find on Forty Flavors
Chinese home cooking
The dishes I grew up on, written out the way my grandmother actually makes them — including the steps most recipes leave out.
Travel-inspired recipes
What I learned in other people's kitchens, retested in mine. Sicilian pasta, Vietnamese summer rolls, Singaporean kaya toast.
Honest food photography
Every photo is mine, shot in natural light. No food stylists, no glycerin, no sad little tweezers placing herbs.
Small-kitchen friendly
If it doesn't work on one burner with limited counter space, it doesn't get published. I cook like a renter, not a celebrity chef.
Behind the camera
I shoot on a Fujifilm X-T4 with a 56mm prime lens, almost always at the same window in my apartment between 9 and 11 in the morning. There's no studio, no backdrop wall, and no second photographer. When the light is bad, I postpone the shoot. When the dish doesn't look right, I just eat it and try again next week.
You'll see the same plates and linens turn up across recipes — that's on purpose. I want the photos to feel like the same kitchen, because they are.
Quick FAQs
Where are you based?
Officially Shanghai, but realistically my laptop and a kitchen knife live in a duffel bag. I spend a few months a year visiting family and friends overseas, and the rest of the time exploring smaller cities and countryside in China.
Do you photograph all your own food?
Yes — every photo on the site is shot by me, mostly on a Fujifilm X-T4 with natural light from a north-facing window. I'm a bigger nerd about lighting than about plating.
Are the recipes Chinese, Western, or both?
Both, intentionally. I grew up on my grandmother's hand-pulled noodles in Xi'an and learned baking from my aunt in Vancouver. The site reflects that — Sichuan dry-fried green beans live happily next to weeknight pasta.
What kind of kitchen do you cook in?
A 4-square-meter rental kitchen in Shanghai with one induction burner, a tiny oven, and no dishwasher. If a recipe works here, it'll work in yours.
Can I request a recipe?
Please do — drop me a note on the contact page. About a third of the recipes I post each year start as reader requests.
Cook something with me?
Browse the index, or drop me a note — I read everything.