On a cold when-will-winter-end Thursday afternoon, folks entered Timothy Dwight’s Head of College House for a College Tea featuring Irene Li. As they entered, attendees were greeted by college aides and the smell of dumplings. Lemongrass pork, curried sweet potato, and cheeseburger-filled dumplings covered an entire table, accompanied by creative sauce combinations—soy aioli, and sweet chili apple sauce, to name a few—for all to try.
Chef Irene Li drove down from Boston for a college tea as part of our Chewing the Fat speaker series in conjunction with Timothy Dwight College. Li described her work at Mei Mei Dumplings and Prepshift as promoting sustainability, food waste reduction, fair labor, and financial practices in the restaurant industry.
We began the tea by learning about Li’s bright college years and gap years at Cornell University, where she found a passion for food simultaneously with and without her family. At the end of a gap year in April 2012, Irene opened Mei Mei Dumplings the food truck with her siblings, which grew into a casual counter-style lunch and dinner eighteen months later. Today, Mei Mei operates as a factory, cafe, and classroom with a 30-person staff.
“I’m first and foremost a diner, and I am worried about the independent restaurant industry.” Li noted that her experience running Mei Mei through all its iterations impacted her desire to engage with local and state-level advocacy. She also wanted to apply her expertise in supporting other independent restaurants through Prepshift, a company that uses a reimbursement model with local governments to provide consulting, coaching, and technical assistance for small restaurant businesses across Massachusetts. Outside of Prepshift, Li has spent time advocating to raise Massachusett’s tipping wage, a policy that traces back to the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. “In the end, we should just pay for what labor is worth,” Li responds after being asked what the restaurant experience would look like without tipping.
In the second half of the tea, questions arose about her second cookbook co-written with her sister Margaret titled Perfectly Good Food - A Totally Achievable Zero Waste Approach to Home Cooking. Perfectly Good Food teaches readers how to cook flexibly and creatively, with tips and recipes that are suitable for ingredient substitutions. On Friday, students were able to create dishes that took inspiration from Li’s book. First, the student group Asian Recipes at Yale hosted a luncheon at the Asian American Cultural Center, which was then followed by a noodle-pulling workshop hosted by Li, employing methods of “shopping the pantry” to Timothy Dwight's buttery inventory.
Many thanks to Irene for her stories, insights, and delicious dumplings. Li’s visit would not have been possible without the Asian American Cultural Center and Timothy Dwight College, so thank you to Assistant Dean Joliana Yee and Assistant Director Sheraz Iqbal of the Asian American Cultural Center, Timothy Dwight Head of College Mary Lui, Associate Head Vincent Balbarin, Timothy Dwight staff members Kimberly Rogers, Samantha Gambardella, and Sharon Goldbloom, and their college aides for making not only the college tea but also Irene’s various events during her visit a success.
Photos from the College Tea can be found here, and photos from the rest of Irene’s visit can be found here. Photos taken by Avery Wayne '26 and Fafa Van Ha '22.