Jocelyn Ueng of Hudson Valley on Life, Lessons & Legacy

Jocelyn Ueng shared their story and experiences with us recently and you can find our conversation below.

Jocelyn, so good to connect and we’re excited to share your story and insights with our audience. There’s a ton to learn from your story, but let’s start with a warm up before we get into the heart of the interview. When was the last time you felt true joy?
Foraging with a friend in Boston’s Middlesex Fells this summer. Food is everywhere you look, from the cracks of the sidewalks in Copenhagen to the lush mountains of Niigata. Wild food, as compared to farmed food, is especially exciting because there’s always new plants to learn about and identify. There’s a natural high that I get when I’m foraging for plants or fungi, discovering new species and flavors along the way. Wild food teaches us about the environment, the natural cycles of life, how to tend to the land, and what true flavors are…because there’s really no comparing a store bought strawberry to a wild berry found on a chainlink fence. And sharing this knowledge with a fellow chef friend makes it even more joyful.

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
Jocelyn Ueng is a Taiwanese-Chinese American chef, creator, traveler, and entrepreneur. Her approach to cooking is rooted in a core belief: food is everywhere you look. She draws inspiration from nature, tuning into its rhythms to develop innovative recipes and flavors.

Traveling to 45+ countries, Jocelyn sees food through a global lens. Her craft focuses on microseasons, foraging, fermentation, and preservation; and the importance of these interconnected pieces as inputs to our ecosystem, our bodies, and our planet.

Jocelyn’s mission is to reconnect people to the land and nature through cooking and immersive dining experiences.

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Prior to becoming a chef, Jocelyn worked as a strategy consultant in the private and nonprofit sector, dedicating her time to causes that mattered most during pivotal moments in our nation. In 2019, she made the “radical” decision to turn in her corporate laptop for a chef’s apron and enrolled at The Culinary Institute of America. Since then, she has cooked at the world’s best restaurants, including The French Laundry, Satoyama Jujo, and most recently, noma.

Jocelyn currently reside in the Hudson Valley with her partner, senior shiba inu, and ever-hungry orange cat. She’s focused on popup dinners, chef collaborations, and private cheffing. She’s currently developing her restaurant in the Hudson Valley, which is slated to open in 2026.

Okay, so here’s a deep one: What’s a moment that really shaped how you see the world?
I once read that the reason we travel is to test our instincts and way of existing. That traveling is a means for survival, inherent to our (as in homo sapiens) nomadic upbringing as hunter gatherers. I’m an avid believer of this. Traveling humbles me, challenges me, expands me, and grounds me. The small, mundane moments on the road are the best parts of the journey.

In 2019, I went on a two week trek up to Everest Base camp, starting with a 6 person propeller plan landing in Lukla (which is a story for another time). My guide, Nir, and now lifelong brother, and I shared stories of life, loss, triumph, pain, and suffering. We both share Buddhist upbringings which made our communication that much deeper and expansive. I remember one evening staying at Tashi Deleck guesthouse in Dhulikhel, at an elevation of 3700 meters above sea level, a 6-bed tea house with special healing powers. Didi (which translates to ‘older sister’ in Nepali), the owner of the guesthouse, welcomed me and fellow trekkers for a cozy evening, while caretaking for her sick and aging mother. She was busy multitasking: making chapatis in her kitchen for guests, pouring tea for neighbors, setting up a healing ceremony for her mother, responding to calls with doctors…and through it all, she held patience, calm, and compassion. We shared a tender moment that I’ll never forget as I wished health to mother as she was getting airlifted by helicopter to the nearest hospital (as this is the norm living in the mountains of Nepal).

I asked Didi how she’s able to move through life with such grace, and she replied, “We are simple people, us mountain people. It seems like we don’t have alot, but we have just as much as you Westerners do. We have family, a small business, people to take care of. Don’t forget that we are all simple, us humans. We all share the same experiences. So just be simple.”

I’ll carry her words with me for the rest of my life. It reminded me that being human is and will always be a shared, simple experience.

When did you stop hiding your pain and start using it as power?
Being queer!! There’s no greater power than being yourself. I grew up in the 90s when there wasn’t as much language on being queer, no queer representation in television and film, and no knowledge of how to even move through life as a queer Asian American femme. So instead, I buried my identity and true self, hid it from my friends and family, and shamed myself for not being “normal.” I hated being queer, and hated more that I couldn’t be myself and feel whole.

But one day I woke up, and began to live into my truth. And I never looked back.

So a lot of these questions go deep, but if you are open to it, we’ve got a few more questions that we’d love to get your take on. What’s a cultural value you protect at all costs?
I grew up in a three-generation, Chinese and Taiwanese household. My grandparents grew up in China, in Shandong and Fujian, and fought in the Sino-Japanese war and against the cultural revolution before fleeing to Taiwan (where my parents were born). The first value I was taught was to respect your elders. This is a value that spans across all global majority cultures.

In my household, our grandparents sat down and ate first. They are the first we greet when we enter their house. They are the ones we thank for our upbringing (as they took care of us through early teenage years). They are the reason for our core existence, the ones who established our foundations. To respect my elders is to respect my culture, family, and traditions. I will never get behind the American culture of putting aging parents in homes. There’s something inherently special when meeting someone that’s raised by their grandparents, and that’s something that should be carried on into our modern world.

Okay, so let’s keep going with one more question that means a lot to us: What are you doing today that won’t pay off for 7–10 years?
Haha, building my dream restaurant: chin lan.

I remember sitting in front of the TV as a young child, watching the Food Network and vigorously taking notes on recipes by Martha Stewart and Dave Lieberman (this was before the internet). I would beg my parents to take me to the market so I could recipe test a sweet potato pie or marinated rib eye steak. During weekend family gatherings at my grandparent’s house, I would be hanging out in the kitchen watching them make noodles, pancakes and dumplings, asking questions as to why they used boiling water for pancake dough vs. room temperature water for noodles/dumplings. Cooking was always the dream, but it took me some detours to fully pursue my passion.

I’m now embarking on the wild and earnest journey of opening my dream restaurant. I recently moved to the Hudson Valley, NY with my partner after living and working abroad for 4 years. Having trained in the best kitchens in the world, including The French Laundry and noma, I’m now starting my first concept and returning to my roots: Taiwanese and Northern Chinese food. The restaurant will fuse the old traditions of Taiwanese & Northern Chinese food with modern techniques. The menu will be driven by 23 micro seasons, with foraged and wild ingredients at the core. Workplace culture and sustainability are vital to a restaurant’s existence and success, so my goal is to be able to create a no tipping model, and offer salary and benefits to all full time staff.

I’m currently raising capital and looking for the dream space in the Hudson Valley (primarily Dutchess and Ulster county). Chin Lan is the name of the concept, my paternal grandmother’s name. This restaurant will pay homage to her and everything that she instilled in me.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://jocelynueng.co/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jossywossy/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jocelynueng/

Image Credits
Philip Wolfe