After being told by an industry insider that “Asian culture doesn’t sell,” Renton resident Kat Lieu is close to releasing her second cookbook full of Asian recipes that pull from tradition — but also innovate.

Her first cookbook, “Modern Asian Baking at Home,” was released in July 2022 and has been well-received by baking enthusiasts across the country. The book made Publishers Weekly’s bestsellers list a month after it was published.

Since then, Lieu has helped foster an online community of baking and cooking enthusiasts in her Facebook group “Subtle Asian Baking,” which now now has over 158,000 members on the social media platform — all there to learn, share and experiment with one another’s baking recipes rooted and inspired by the Asian diaspora.

Lieu said the online community started as a “safe space” for folks to share their recipe ideas and traditions while also having cultural ownership over them. Through this group, people have taken an interest in cuisines and dishes that they may have otherwise been unfamiliar with, or would have even previously found off-putting.

“Finally our stories are being heard,” Lieu said of the community traction. “Instead of ‘yucking our yum,’ they are appreciating it.”

Since the creation of the online group, Lieu said it has developed into a real community with real presence. She said many of her friends in the Seattle area are from the group.

She also said members of the community have come together to fund raise for causes like Anti-AAPI hate and have even raised about $16,000 for wildfire relief in Maui.

Lieu said the “Subtle Asian Baking” community has contributed to her newest cookbook, “Modern Asian Kitchen,” set to release in 2024, as they have passed down, tested and perfected recipes among the community.

The cookbook is filled with a plethora of recipes from across Asian cuisine and cultures including dim sum, dumplings, stir-fries, ramen, rice bowls, bibimbaps, pho and more.

“Everything I love to eat is in the book,” Lieu said of her new cookbook. “It’s a cookbook I can go back into any day of the week.”

She said these cookbooks — and the community she has helped create — are about taking cultural ownership over their own cuisines and stories. She used the existence of Trader Joe’s ube pancake mix as an example of how popular it is for cultural outsiders to appropriate Asian cuisines and cultures and profit from them.

For her, they have been a way of fostering appreciation for Asian flavors, without white-washing them.

“Very frankly, this journey has been really hard,” Lieu said of getting her books published.

Ultimately, she said she is proud to have her face, this cuisine, and this community represented on bookshelves.