The author and journalist Rachel Phan discusses her memoir Restaurant Kid: A Memoir of Family and Belonging (Douglas & McIntyre, 2025), with Joseph Planta.
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Restaurant Kid: A Memoir of Family and Belonging by Rachel Phan (Douglas & McIntyre, 2025).
Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: Restaurant Kid |
Text of the introduction by Joseph Planta:
I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, British Columbia, at TheCommentary.ca.
One of the best books I’ve read this year is Restaurant Kid: A Memoir of Family and Belonging by Rachel Phan. There’s a lot in the book. Rachel is born in Canada to Chinese-Vietnamese parents who had fled China during the Japanese occupation, and Vietnam during the American war, to come to Canada and open a restaurant in small town Ontario. Rachel has two older siblings, a sister and a brother, who have long, complicated relationships with the restaurant. Too many weekends spent at the restaurant that keep them away from their friends and extra circular activities. Rachel, as the baby is largely isolated from the hard work but nevertheless finds the restaurant taking up too much of her parent’s time that she finds that she doesn’t really know them. It’s hard work for her parents, and it provides for their family, but it’s also tenuous; the margins are thin, and the work is long and hard. In a way, Rachel raises herself from navigating what being a real Canadian might be, to sexuality. As the only Chinese girl at school, she alternates from being the sidekick, geek, or Asian fetish, depending on whose gaze was on her. Through the book, Ms. Phan, who joined me from Toronto two weeks ago, has to work through what she’s missing, what she wants, and what she’s needed from her family. She learns to appreciate the place the restaurant itself has in her upbringing. Rachel Phan is a graduate of Toronto Metropolitan University’s Master of Journalism Program. Her work has appeared on the CBC, HuffPost, the National Post, and Maclean’s. You can find more at www.rachelphan.com. The book is published by Douglas & McIntyre. Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, Rachel Phan; Ms. Phan, good morning.
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