In 2018, Jing Gao opened a Christmas gift guide. in an online newsletter from the supplier of organic spices diaspora company to find a happy surprise. His new company’s soon-to-be-launched first product: Sichuan brand of chili oil fly by jing — was one of Diaspora founder Sana Javeri Kadri’s featured selections. After Gao got in touch with Kadri via Instagram, the two women quickly went from strangers to confidantes, turning to each other for support and advice as their businesses grew. In the years since, they have made friends with other female entrepreneurs, and, Gao says, leaning on this “community of founders is the only way we’ve been able to survive and thrive.” Last spring, they celebrated that mutual success by hosting a dinner for their ever-expanding network. It went so well that they decided to make it a regular event. The most recent meeting took place on a cool April night at Gao’s 1950s modernist home in the Sherman Oaks neighborhood of Los Angeles. “It’s a bit of a freestyle,” Gao said of the party that morning, admitting that she hadn’t finalized the Indian-Chinese menu yet. “I just went to the market to see what’s fresh and good, so there might be a few surprises.”
The lack of planning ahead was understandable considering the hosts’ perpetually busy schedules. Gao, 35, had returned the day before from a month-long trip to her birthplace, Chengdu, China, where she was visiting manufacturers. Kadri, 29, who lives in Oakland, was leaving the next day for her hometown of Mumbai, where she is headquartered for the ella Diaspora Co. Both women have seen their businesses grow exponentially in recent years. When Kadri launched Diaspora in 2017, she only sold one spice: turmeric. Now her line offers 30 of them, all from India and Sri Lanka. “I wanted to build a better spice trade in the most wildly idealistic way,” she said. “I wanted to work with the best regenerative farms in South Asia, and I wanted to work in a queer, multicultural environment that embraced all my identities.”
Gao lived in Shanghai, where he ran an underground nightclub, also called Fly by Jing, when a visit to an American food industry trade show in 2018 inspired her to cast your line. “I saw such a severe lack of Asian food products in the US that I decided to move to Los Angeles to start the new iteration of Fly by Jing as a condiment brand,” said Gao, who now offers more than a dozen sauces and spices. Her first cookbook, “The Book of Sichuan Chili Crisp: Spicy Recipes and Stories From Fly by Jing’s Kitchen,” debuts on September 26 and Hishis fast-casual Sichuan restaurant will open in July in the Larchmont Village neighborhood of Los Angeles.
However, before all that, the women had something to cook, with the help of chef Akilah York, whom Gao had hired to provide culinary support. Among the 16 expected guests were Ellen Bennett the kitchenware and apron company Hedley & Bennett; Erica Chidi, co-founder of the digital women’s health education platform Loom; bricia lopez, cookbook author and co-owner of Oaxacan restaurant Koreatown Guelaguetza; Rosa Park, founder of Cereal magazine and owner of Francis Gallery in Los Angeles and Bath, England; and the author of the cookbook sonoko sakai. The goal was to back off while propping each other up. “Having these kinds of dinners is both a celebration and commiseration,” said Kadri, who notes that running a start-up can be not only stressful but also isolating. “We go around the table saying, ‘I see you. You are not alone.'”
The friends began arriving at 6 p.m., helping themselves to glasses of Martha Stoumen Nero d’Avola and cans of Ghia, the non-alcoholic aperitif brand founded by party guest Melanie Masarin. Both were arranged on Gao’s dining room table, where shelves of cookbooks share space with her collection of donabes (Japanese clay pots) from West Hollywood’s Toiro store. As the crowd grew, they made their way to the Japanese Zen-style garden in the back, which was designed by Koichi Kawana, the postwar Japanese-American landscape architect known for creating the bonsai garden at the County Museum of Art. from Los Angeles, and features a rock garden, pool, and a plethora of trees, including Japanese maples, ginkgo, and a Chinese fringe that was completely swathed in white blossoms. Dinner was served under a weeping bottle brush on tables covered in patterned sheets from Block Shop Textiles, a gift from the label’s co-founder, Hopie Stockman Hill, a friend of the hosts who was unable to attend the dinner. Guest Yasmine Khatib from Los Angeles Flower Studio Yasmine Floral Design provided a trio of pastel arrangements: white vases filled with foxgloves, pincushions, peonies, poppies and alliums. And Shelley Kleyn Armistead, another guest and CEO of Gjelina’s hospitality group, supplied the speckled white plates from Gjelina’s cookware brand, Gjusta Goods.
At the beginning of the meal, the two hosts asked the women to introduce themselves, which evolved into each guest recounting how Gao and Kadri had entered their lives. “I love walking through life and collecting the good eggs, and you two are good eggs,” Bennett told them. “We are powerful because of the strength of the community that surrounds us.”
Gao and Kadri divided the family meal into three courses. First came a salad of chicken, noodles and celtuce, a Chinese vegetable that tastes like a cross between celery and lettuce, which was topped with Crispy Sichuan Chili Vinaigrette from Fly by Jing; raw scallop with yuzu kosho and Fly by Jing’s Tribute Pepper Oil; and battered and deep-fried maitake mushrooms topped with Turmeric from Diaspora Co. and Mala Spice Mix from Fly by Jing and garnished with edible flowers.
The second course included Kadri’s interpretation of chilli paneer, adapted from a recipe by her friend Karan Gokani of Hoppers restaurant in London. Cubes of soft Indian cheese are deep-fried and mixed in a sauce spiced with cinnamon, curry leaves and chillies. The dish is a Chinese Indian classic, as is the Hakka noodles (wok-fried egg noodles with ginger, garlic, and white pepper) that were served on the side. For dessert, Kadri baked her own adaptation of pastry chef and cookbook author Natasha Pickowicz’s Speckled Date Cake, adding coconut milk and Diaspora Co. chai masala to the mix. And then, with one jet-lagged host and another preparing for a long flight the next day, the festivities wrapped up around 9:30, each guest taking home a trio of Fly by Jing sauces and, no doubt, some business tips. Here, Gao and Kadri share their tips for hosting a relaxed yet festive dinner.
set up early
“In Chinese cooking, the mise en place is very important,” said Gao, who extends that philosophy beyond the kitchen. He likes to set the table as soon as possible, not only to get it out of the way but also to make the house feel special.
provide distraction
To keep guests from staying in the kitchen while she puts the finishing touches on the meal, Kadri makes sure to have appetizers ready in another area of the house. In this case, she placed plates of crudités paired with chaat masala ranch, a recipe she learned from chef Sohla El-Waylly on TikTok, in the garden.
get the light right
To create a warm, golden glow in the garden, Kadri and Gao placed glass candlelight lanterns and cordless mini-lamps on and around the tables. Kadri recommends candles from North Carolina-based housewares and ceramics brand East Fork.
combine the music
Gao and Kadri created a Spotify playlist of Indian and Chinese pop songs to underscore the night’s theme. Two of her favorite artists: Harrdy Sandhu and Isabelle Huang. Even the volume of the music played a role in setting the mood: turned up during drink time and turned down during dinner.