Patricia Yeo wants to put her own stamp on Ginger Park in the South End.
(Wendy Maeda/Globe Staff)
G FORCE | PATRICIA YEO
Park and re-creation
Patricia Yeo wants to put her own stamp on Ginger Park in the South End.
(Wendy Maeda/Globe Staff)
After a long run in successful restaurants in New York and San Francisco, Patricia Yeo (pronounced Yo) moved to Boston a month ago to run the kitchen of the South End’s Ginger Park, formerly Banq. Born in Oregon and raised in England, Yeo was headed for a career in biochemistry. She took what she calls a “Susie homemaker’’ cooking class and made a detour from science to work in Bobby Flay’s first restaurant. Yeo, 50, has been cooking ever since. She is the author of “Cooking From A to Z,’’ which she wrote when she worked at the AZ restaurant in New York.
Q. Did you come to Boston for the job or for personal reasons and then fall into the job?
A. I came for the job. It was just serendipitous. They were looking, I was looking, and we hooked up.
Q. Did the restaurant change from Banq to Ginger Park because of you?
A. The idea for Ginger Park came about after I was on board. I knew I didn’t want to come to Boston and step into a restaurant that was already existing. I wanted to put my own stamp on it, as it were.
Q. What are you up to at Ginger Park?
A. I feel as if people don’t want to sit down and eat a three-course meal anymore; it’s more fun to graze. It’s a huge menu - 30 items. There are not big plates, nothing over $16. The idea is that you come in with four friends, order green papaya salad, some shrimp, dumplings, and noodles, and everyone shares.
Q. What is your heritage?
A. I was raised in Cambridge, England. My father is Malaysian-Chinese, my mother second-generation Chinese-American.
Q. How did you get to work for Bobby Flay?
A. I answered an ad in The New York Times before Bobby Flay became the Bobby Flay. He made [cooking] so much fun, and after three years I left to go to San Francisco. But I kept working for him on and off for the next six years.
Q. I read that you weren’t raised on Asian cuisine.
A. I went to boarding school in England, grew up with Southeast Asian food, and used to visit my grandmother in Malaysia very frequently. That’s not quite traditional Chinese. Malaysian cooking is an interesting hodgepodge of all the different cultures who settled there. I really love Mediterranean food. But after a while you get typecast into a certain category. [Asian food] is what I know best.
Q. Have you had a chance to explore Boston and meet people?
A. I really shuffle between my apartment and the restaurant. Everyone is so amazingly friendly - from the chefs to people on the street. I’ve gotten phone calls from various chefs saying, “If you need anything let me know.’’
Q. What will you do when you get a couple days off?
A. I have to go back to New York to get more clothes. I came up with only summer clothes. And I’m looking forward to trying some of the restaurants in the neighborhood. I like to wander in. It’s pretentious - or ostentatious - to say, “Hey, watch out, I’m coming.’’
© Copyright 2009 Globe Newspaper Company.
