News

January 24, 2025

SHARE:

Credits: Patricia Ratulangi Vice President, Global Communications Nielsen

In recent years, food shows featuring Asian chefs and cuisines have seen a surge in popularity, capturing the attention of diverse audiences around the globe. This trend highlights the growing appetite for cultural representation and inclusivity in entertainment. As we celebrate Lunar New Year—a holiday deeply rooted in food traditions—it’s the perfect time to reflect on how Asian representation in food media resonates with viewers and drives mass viewership.

Food shows featuring Asian chefs and cuisines highlight cultural diversity, resonating with audiences and driving viewership, especially during Lunar New Year celebrations.
Food shows featuring Asian chefs and cuisines highlight cultural diversity, resonating with audiences and driving viewership, especially during Lunar New Year celebrations.

Food shows stand out as a medium where culture, tradition, and storytelling intersect seamlessly. Programs like Top Chef, which has featured contestants such as Melissa King and Hung Huynh, and The Great American Recipe, where home cooks celebrate diverse culinary heritages, showcase the rich variety of Asian cuisines and the personal narratives behind them. These stories invite viewers to connect with the cultural roots and contemporary adaptations of dishes they may have never experienced before.

2024 Viewing MinutesAsianTotal U.S.
Top Chef‎‎  ‎ 458.0 million5.7 billion
The Great American Recipe‎ ‎ ‎ 9.8 million84.5 million
Chrissy & Dave Dine Out‎‎  ‎ 9.2 million61.4 million
Dinner Time Live with David Chang‎ ‎ ‎ 67.4 million430.1 million
Source: Nielsen audience measurement: Jan 1 – Nov 30, 2024

Lunar New Year exemplifies the central role food plays in cultural celebration. From dumplings symbolizing wealth to fish representing prosperity, the holiday is a sensory feast steeped in meaning. By spotlighting Asian chefs and their innovative approaches to dishes that represent their heritage, food shows bridge the gap between cultural nuance and modern audiences. 

A Tết (Vietnamese Lunar New Year) tray filled with traditional Vietnamese dishes for Lunar New Year, symbolizing happiness and peace.
A Tết (Vietnamese Lunar New Year) tray filled with traditional Vietnamese dishes for Lunar New Year, symbolizing happiness and peace.

The success of Asian-centered food programming aligns with broader audience preferences for authenticity. Nielsen data reveals that 63% of viewers are more likely to support brands and content creators that authentically represent diverse communities. For mass audiences, this means a greater willingness to engage with shows that go beyond superficial portrayals and offer genuine insights into Asian culinary arts.

The viewership data highlights the significant appeal of food shows among both Asian audiences and the broader U.S. audience, underscroring the growing đemand for authentic, inclusive food shows that celebrate diverse cultures.

Nielsen Chart A
Nielsen Chart B

As Lunar New Year festivities fill homes with the aroma of traditional dishes, the increasing visibility of Asian representation in food shows reminds us of the universal power of food to connect people across cultures—one dish, one story at a time.

Related Articles

Image Source: The Denver Post

News

Denver’s Vietnamese Refugees Share New Life While Keeping Family’s Heritage

Because of the chaos that was happening in their homeland in the 1970s, thousands of Vietnamese fled and some, later on, found a home in Colorado.

The melancholic memory is still fresh for Nga Vương-Sandoval, who, at the age of three, had to temporarily stay in refugee camps in the Philippines, Guam, and Arkansas.

She was with the about 2 million people who were unhoused and still have from within the shock of their suffering. 

It had been very challenging for them as they had to leave behind the good life they have in Vietnam and even depart from their relatives in order for them to leave safely.

Starting their life all over again, Denver has become a home to the 24,000-man Vietnamese Americans.

After being able to establish their community and found a home in the place, Nga said “I’m proud to say that it’s the city that I love, it’s the state that I love.”

Meanwhile, Vo, a 21-year-old grandchild of a Vietnamese who grew up in Aurora after his grannies and parents left Vietnam in the 1990s to seek a better life, had the experience of living in “a very diverse place.”

Knowing very little about his family’s past in Vietnam, he conducted a research project to unleash an “inherently American story,” according to him. 

Enabling people to have a glimpse of the refugees from a different perspective, Vo made use of his relatives as objects of his photography.

“Even though we moved here, they still lived a very Vietnamese life,” Vo said in Denver Post, 

It was also in his research that he found out how the majority of his family members were able to escape Vietnam while being robbed of cash and gold on their way.

He also mentioned how his family kept their culture by still practicing them in Denver which contributed to what America is, a place with diverse cultures. 

Despite having to start from scratch, they were able to begin life anew and even owned an Asian supermarket, Asian cinema, and Truong An Gifts.

His family also started the Far East Center shopping mall in 1987, home to him and his cousins and even to the Asian community.

Image Source: Silicon India

News

South Asians Found Second Home in Devon Avenue’s “Little India”

At Devon Avenue in Chicago, immigrants from India discovered a taste and comfort of their home country.

The area, commonly referred to as “Little India,” has served as a shelter for Indians who miss their culture.

Finding a home in it, Indians such as National Indo-American Museum board member Beverly Kumar, go there every now and then, especially when she craves Kalakand, a traditional Indian fudge.

According to Kumar, “It’s very comforting knowing that just 14 miles away from my house, there is an essence of Little India.” She also mentioned how reminiscing it is to see familiar sights, sounds, scents, and flavors when visiting Devon Avenue since it makes her feel as though she has never left home.

The area not only became a haven for Indians, but also for other South Asians who opened grocery stores, sari and jewelry stores, as well as many other enterprises in addition to food stores.

In the middle of 1960s, the place it became the second and fourth-largest enclave for Indian and Pakistani Americans, respectively.

The Federal Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1965 ushered in the first wave of South Asian immigration, which established settlements for South Asian professionals in Chicago, while the second phase arrived in the 1980s and 1990s.

Psychotherapist Ranjana Bhargava was one of the first immigrants who yearned for vegan food and searched for spices to sate her craving for Indian cuisines, which she found at Mexican places.

Between the first and second waves, businesses such as The Sari Palace sari store and Indian grocery stores began to thrive there.

Since then, a new community has been created where Indians continue to practice their culture through activities like viewing Indian movies, getting together, playing instruments, performing traditional dances, and eating.

The once Jewish-dominated place became a mainly Indian community which captivated more visitors where one can meet not only Indians but people of different races.

Image Source: Olivier Koning / Honolulu Magazine

Stories

Chinatown’s Oldest and Most Respected Businesses Proudly Carried On By Next Generation

The blood of entrepreneurship runs through the veins of Chinatown’s Chinese food business owners, as three of the longest-running businesses have their children enter the management fields of their family business.

Tony and Selina Chun, together with Alan and Helen Chun, who have been in the business for decades, fully trusted their children to run the meat market company they bought in the 1980s.

The older generation passed it down to their children believing that they would treat it the same way they had after 40 years of building and creating the Chinatown cornerstone with crispy roast pigs, burnished roast ducks, and glazed char siu along with butcher store and seafood vendor.

Frankie, 35, and his cousins are now in charge of running the company that they established through diligence and thrift. Given that they have a family business to manage, Frankie has known since then that he won’t take long in any career.

He was reported in Honolulu magazine as saying, “I knew that anything I was going to pursue wasn’t going to be lengthy, because the family would always ask us back for support.”

He and his cousins learned the operations as a result of early exposure to the business and used them as a means of support, which pleased their parents, especially when they took their first vacation in four decades.

Meanwhile, Liana Fang, whose parents Wesley and Jie Mei Fang founded Sing Cheong Yuan Bakery, assists in running the business.

The pair bought the bakery from its original owners and then expanded it by bringing in more goods. The homemade goods were prepared using original family recipes that they later improved.

The 27-year-old claims she adores Chinatown but acknowledges that she is more passionate about cooking than baking. “It’s so authentic. I love Asian food, the fresh markets, the mom-and-pop shops,” she said.

Completing the list, the 33-year-old daughter of Sun Chong supermarket co-owner Ann Sung also contributes to management of the business.

Sun helps them sell their products and other items by marketing it online and by helping accomplish other stuff needed in the business.

Sun, who grew up at the shop with her cousins, said that their business is like a thread that can connect generations. She also claimed that coming home after studying abroad was like paying back her mother, who had done everything for her. Sun plans to update and improve her mother and aunt’s traditional business structure.

Image Source: Yahoo! Life

Stories

29-Year-Old Drift Racer Sara Choi Excels With Prowess In Male-Dominated Industry

Sara Choi, a South Korean drift racer, is one of the rare female drift racers who compete on an equal or even higher level with men in the automotive industry.

“Men have egos. Men have pride,” says Choi upon knowing that some guys dislike her. 

The 29-year-old was taken care of by a gang of automobile kids after leaving her Hawaii home at 15 and this is when she first acquired her curiosity and passion in cars.

Cool as she is, Choi drives a car at 70 mph while it “drifts” due to oversteering and also has to deal with microaggressions and crude remarks about her body as a drift racer.

Being one of the few women of color who is so skilled at it, vehicles are more than simply a hobby, a source of celebrity, or a source of income to her. Not only did she find a great deal of thrill when she drives sideways at high speed, but a new family as well.

“In Hawaii, we only have three freeways. Every Wednesday and every weekend, they would host a “car cruise meet” at the military base, which was everyone—sometimes up to 200 or 300 cars—going on the freeway and just racing. I would always go with my friends to that,” Choi said in Cosmopolitan. 

When Choi got her first full-time work at a tuning shop, she got a 1999 Civic through her boss, which she paid for with every paycheck. This marked the beginning of her passion for cars. 

After being introduced to drifting, she traveled to Japan, the country where the practice first emerged, years later. After completely experiencing the pleasure of drifting there, she grew passionate about it to the point that it became not only a hobby but a career.

Choi revealed that she is still debating whether or not to compete because it is a male-dominated field and that she is experiencing psychological difficulties.

She is currently concentrating on running racing events to keep the fire going.

One big achievement she had in the arena was when she created the Acura mod, a vehicle she worked on for three months for the SEMA exhibition in Las Vegas.

Additionally, Choi encouraged other women who want to pursue drift racing to “Just do it,” adding that they should put themselves out there to connect with individuals in the field.