When MAKfam’s co-owner Doris Yuen got an Instagram message about doing a TED Talk about MSG, she thought someone was trying to scam her. Turns out, the offer was legit.
“I was shocked and I didn’t want to do it,” said Yuen over the phone. She discussed the offer with her husband and business partner, Kennith Wan, and he convinced her to try. “He was like, ‘You push me to do press and media now it’s your turn,’ so I signed up.”
As for the subject, MSG is something Yuen feels strongly about, both in using it and the racist implications associated with the spice. Turns out MSG is also the perfect hook for TED Talks’ On the Contrary series. The organization describes the course as looking at, “The tension between opposites not as conflict, but as connection…In duality, we can find dialogue, rather than division.”
Yuen’s own journey toward MSG started with the same rhetoric of it being unhealthy, causing illness, and as a source of indigestion. It all changed when one night, while living in New York City, when her husband came home and talked about a dinner with MSG highlighted on the dishes.
“I was like, ‘Isn’t it bad for you?’ He was like, ‘No Doris, that’s racist,’” she recalled. The revelation took her down a rabbit hole of research and the myths that created the pegged “Chinese restaurant syndrome.” It’s made, she said, through fermentation and isolating the glutamate. “I did research and realized it’s not bad for you, it’s all based on bad science and race and anti-Asian biases due to the Korean War and Vietnam War.”
When the couple moved to Denver and launched Meta Asian Kitchen in Avanti Denver, Yuen saw the discourse MSG brought first hand. People could come by their stall, she said, and ask about if they used MSG. Once she confirmed that yes, they included MSG in some dishes, the diners would leave.
“They would walk away and get a burger, but there is glutamate in tomatoes, and MSG is added to pepperoni,” she said. “People don’t know, they just come up to the Chinese stall and ask if we use MSG. The more people that kept asking me, the more angry I got, thinking ‘this is so unfair, it’s targeted to point us out as having MSG while other stalls also had natural or added MSG.”
So, when they launched MAKfam on South Broadway in 2023, Yuen wanted MSG to be a feature of the restaurant. Inspired by Bonnie’s in NYC, which had an MSG martini on the menu, Wan and Yuen decided to lean into the ingredient and boldly state their use of it.
“I figured the people who understand will be our customers, and those that don’t understand, we will tell them [the truth] about it,” she said, adding they even put up the now iconic poster of the classic salt girl, but it’s touting MSG. “I just hope I can be part of someone’s journey to discover foods they don’t have to be afraid of.”
Today MAKfam has a strong following and has been recognized by the Michelin Guide and the James Beard Foundation. All of that, added Yuen, stems from them cooking with the ingredients they believe in. After all, she added, glutamate is that umami punch found in mushrooms, tomatoes, many cheeses, and even breast milk.
Now, the day of that TED Talk has come. On Saturday, April 4 at 2 p.m., Yuen will take the stage to speak about something important to her, and everyone is invited. The show takes place at the Macky Auditorium on the CU campus, and tickets are available here. If you can’t make the live show don’t worry, it will stream and Yuen is at MAKfam and ready to talk about the real story behind MSG.
