Nite Yun’s debut cookbook is called ‘My Cambodia: A Khmer Cookbook.’ (Andria Lo/Ten Speed Press)

When Nite Yun cooks, she’s telling her family’s story.

The Cambodian-American chef, best known for her restaurant Lunette in San Francisco, has long used food to honor her parents’ country. But as she was growing up in Stockton, her parents rarely talked about their life in Cambodia and the genocide they fled in the 1970s.

“My parents dodged landmines, survived starvation, forced labor camps, walked under the hot, hot sun to safety,” Yun told NPR’s Leila Fadel.

It was in the kitchen that she began to piece their story together.

“Cooking Cambodian food has been a way of storytelling,” she said.

Now Yun is sharing those stories and her recipes with the world in her debut cookbook called

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