Over six vibrant seasons of Lucky Chow, PBS’ Emmy-nominated culinary series, host Danielle Chang has traveled across America, uncovering bold flavors and timeless dishes that tell the story of Asian cuisine — with heritage woven into every bite. Now, for the first time, an entire season is devoted to a homecoming: Chang, a first-generation immigrant from Taiwan who moved to the U.S. at age five and now lives in NYC, turns her gaze and palate toward Taiwan, rediscovering its tastes, culture, and the memories they stir.
This year’s Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month kicks off with a flavorful feast for the senses. The seventh season of Lucky Chow premieres this Thursday, , kicking off this year’s Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month with a flavorful feast for the senses. The show delves into Taiwan’s rich culinary traditions, from age-old tea ceremonies and temple cuisine to modern innovations in soy sauce and rice production.
Chang describes the show as “a love letter to this island.” In this five-part season, Chang immerses herself in the rich food and cultural traditions of her homeland, spotlighting Indigenous boar hunters, innovative bubble tea creators, bustling late-night seaport eateries, and Buddhist temples where vegetarian cuisine is elevated to an art form.
“Taiwan is a place where tradition and innovation coexist in the most beautiful and delicious ways,” said Chang. “From the rice paddies and tea farms in the north to the innovators of the city, every bite tells a story of resilience, community, and connection. Through food, we celebrate the richness of global culture, a universal language that unites us all and reminds us of our shared humanity.”
The immersive culinary series premiered s new episodes on May 1 on the PBS app, PBS Stations nationwide, and streaming on PBS Passport with new episodes weekly throughout May.
Ahead of the season premiere, Documented spoke with Danielle Chang about her journey as an immigrant, what it means to return to her roots through the show, and what she hopes audiences take away from it.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Can you tell us a little more about your experience growing up as an immigrant? I know you moved to Houston at a very young age, and later you’ve been living in New York City with two daughters. What does living in two different cities mean to you as an immigrant?
I was born in Taipei and immigrated when I was five, so very young. I lived in Houston from age five to fifteen, then moved to California for high school in Palo Alto, and eventually to New York City.
I think my experiences were very different from those of my daughters. For instance, when I first moved to Texas, I didn’t speak any English. Back in Texas in the 1970s, there just weren’t that many Chinese people at all. I was the only Chinese kid in my whole school, so I was made fun of all the time. I tried to assimilate and do all that before I realized that my culture, my heritage, is something special and meaningful to me. That was how I was going to be able to fit in and make friends in the U.S.
Living in California was a whole different experience for me [than in Texas] because there were a lot of Asians there. And I learned to drive, so I had freedom. I’d say that was where I met most of my friends today, during those high school years.
So I had to go through that whole assimilation process, whereas my children, who are now in college, grew up in New York City and its diversity. They never really felt like they didn’t belong.
I noticed that your work has long centered around food and identity, through the LuckyRice food festivals and Lucky Chow. What inspired you to enter the culinary media world and spotlight Asian food and culture in your work?
It’s always been important for me to spotlight Asian culture in my work. I studied Cultural Theory in grad school at Columbia, and that really means looking at the world through a cultural lens, it can be applied to lots of different industries.
I’ve tried to highlight Asian culture through different media, like I started a magazine called Simplicity in 1999, where we put an Asian woman, Lisa Lin, on the cover. I was the CEO of Vivienne Tam, a Chinese fashion company, and we had models walking the runway in qipao (also known as a cheongsam, is a traditional one-piece Chinese dress for women). I started a Chinese language school for children called Xiao Bao [in New York City], a Chinese school for kids under five and their parents. That’s something I developed for my kids because I wanted them to have their own community growing up.
With LuckyRice and Lucky Chow, it’s promoting Asian culture through the lens of food. You know, obviously I love food, but I never learned about cooking, or I never went to culinary school. About 15 or 20 years ago, I was interested in the popularity and rise of Asian food in America, and I realized that it was so disparate, there was no community around it. So I started LuckyRice as a way to bring together the chefs and restaurants with the people, the audience, and then the advertisers that wanted to reach this group, and so it just was the right kind of Zeitgeist.
This season of Lucky Chow brings you back to your hometown in Taiwan. Did that trip offer you any new experiences, surprises, or deeper understanding of your roots?
Very much so. As a child, I just saw Taiwan through my parents’ eyes, you know, went to eat at their favorite restaurants and did everything that they wanted to do. But when I went back to film for Lucky Chow, I saw it through my viewers’ eyes. I wanted to show them a Taiwan that they had never seen before and that I had never experienced.
So we traveled all around. We went to the Pacific and foraged with indigenous tribes. We went to night markets, Buddhist temples, Michelin-starred restaurants and seaports, just all around the island. I learned so much about Taiwan that I just never knew before.
Can you give me an example? What experience impressed you the most?
I’d say just the diversity of it, that such a small place can have such a large group of diverse people living coexisting peacefully.
I guess you’ve likely dined at some of the best restaurants around the world. Was there a favorite place or experience that stood out to you this season? How do you decide which stories and cuisines to feature each season?
Well, we told about 26 or 27 stories this season, so that’s actually a range. I had a great field producer, her name is Clarissa Wei, and she lives in Taiwan. She’s a Taiwanese American journalist, and she found a lot of the personalities for us. We wanted to find people whose stories were not only informative and interesting but also heartwarming and driven.
For instance, I love the story we did about the soy sauce manufacturing family. The son went back from the city, from his creative job, to go working in Xiluo, a small town, to brew soy sauce the traditional way, the way that his grandfather had taught him. They use traditional Taiwanese black soybeans instead of yellow ones. He did it because he had nostalgia for that home-brewed black soybean sauce and knew that if he wasn’t going to make it, it would just not exist. So he decided that it was important to preserve his family’s legacy. That’s how he found himself in that sleepy town. I think it’s a really powerful story that a lot of people can probably relate to, whether you’re on a farm in Minnesota or in a hustling city.
Like previously, we featured stories about Korean adoptees who developed farm co-ops where they grow heirloom Korean vegetables. They do it because they want to taste the foods that they grew up with or that are part of their blood as a way to understand more about who they are.
What kind of message do you hope viewers walk away with after watching Lucky Chow? How do you want them to see this show differently than other food shows?
I want them to find stories of joy. It’s supposed to be fun, inspiring, and heartwarming. Like: “Oh, that was a nice story! I really enjoyed learning about this family or this cuisine,” or “I’m inspired now to take a trip because I want to check out these night markets in person,” or even, “I’m going to try brewing. I might get some Iron Goddess tea and brew it Gongfu tea style.”
So just through awareness of new cultures and ideas, I think that that can instill curiosity in your viewers.
I have some personal questions for you. What’s your favorite dish from Taiwanese cuisine?
I love beef noodle soup. It’s just comforting for me. Whether it’s a cold day or a hot day, I love the broth and how rich and satisfying it is.
Are there any Asian or Taiwanese restaurants in your city that you would recommend to New Yorkers? And why?
If you want to try a really fun Taiwanese restaurant, I would go to Eric Sze’s 886, or Wenwen in Brooklyn. He’s a young Taiwanese chef. You know, not a lot of Chinese chefs go out there and say, “Oh, I’m going to make just Taiwanese food.” But he’s one of this group of chefs called the Shy*Boyz Club who do that, and his restaurants are fun. They’re hip. What I love about them is that when you go in, you’ll just see people from the neighborhood eating. It’s not like going to Chinatown, where it’s all Chinese people or tourists, it’s just a neighborhood restaurant that happens to be Taiwanese.
I think in your previous interviews, you’ve spoken about being mocked as a child for bringing “smelly” Chinese lunchboxes to school, and now you’re hosting Asian food festivals and sharing these stories nationwide. Have you noticed a shift in how Americans view and embrace Asian food since your childhood?
Yes, that has changed 180 degrees, because now people want to eat the stuff I had in my lunchboxes: onigiri, rice balls, stewed meats, tea eggs, things like that. That’s what the cool kids want now. So it’s a reversal (laughs). Nobody wants to eat school cafeteria lunches anymore.
Do you face any challenges in producing Lucky Chow or hosting food festivals?
Yes, lots of challenges. First of all, you want to build awareness, that’s why I do this. I want to share the best of my culture, which I love, with everybody else, and through that, hopefully build more understanding and cultural awareness. And that’s a hard challenge. But “one bite at a time,” that’s what I say.
It’s hard, for instance, to find funding to do everything. It’s hard to find audiences that want to watch shows like this. Most food programming these days is competition-based, a lot of reality and competition-based programming. I think those are the main challenges.
Who would you say is your target audience for this show? When you’re thinking of your target audience, do you consider how to balance Asian food culture, culinary traditions, and the tastes or preferences of that audience?
Well, since it’s not a restaurant, I don’t have to cook to someone’s palate. But the stories I tell are meant for an American audience. So they’re not necessarily intended for an in-language audience, because I feel like those audiences already have their sources. If you’re an in-language Chinese immigrant, you’re reading something like World Journal, you’re watching Taiwanese television, you have your sources.
So I just want to reach the person who’s watching PBS on a Saturday afternoon and comes across this and thinks, “Wow, I learned something new, and now I’m not going to confuse Taiwan with Thailand anymore, because now I know the difference.” I think that’s really cool.
Are you also a good cook yourself? If so, what’s your comfort food, and what’s your signature dish?
Actually, I am a good cook (laughs). I love to cook, and my comfort food is Taiwanese beef noodle soup. I make a mean one because I use all cuts of meat, and a really intense bone broth that I simmer overnight, never letting it boil. Then I add beef shank. I love the collagen, the texture of it. So I make a rich beef noodle soup.
But people are always surprised that my signature dish is lasagna (laughs).
Oh, that’s interesting!
Yeah, yeah, because I learned to cook by reading cookbooks like Martha Stewart, Bon Appétit, or Gourmet magazine. I love having dinner parties, but I always want to have the dish prepared in advance so I don’t have to cook while my guests are over, I can just sit and eat with them. So I’m always looking for one-pot dishes you can serve to a crowd.
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And lasagna, it’s actually really laborious. It takes me like half a day because I make my own layers. I make three separate layers: a ricotta-spinach layer, then I make a ragù, and then a vegetable layer too. It’s a big dish that can serve like 50 people.
Wow, your description already made my mouth water! Both sound delicious, the beef noodle soup and the lasagna.
A: (Laughs) Good!
