Kwong Shop's Dumplings Are a Whole Mood
How fashion designer Jenn Kwong uses mood boards to realize her playful, design-forward dumplings.
A hearty hello to subscribers both new and old! This is the final excerpt from the print edition of issue 1 of Above the Fold. That can mean only one thing: Issue 2 is on the horizon! That is currently in the process of being printed, and will hopefully be ready for purchase by late March (!!!). You’ll receive many more reminders as it gets closer, and this newsletter will become more active following its launch.
Still interested in getting your hands on issue 1? There are just about a dozen copies left (for now), so act fast if you want one soon:
Until then, please enjoy this deep-dive into Jenn Kwong’s fashion-inspired dumpling design process! —Leah
Dumplings were part of Jenn Kwong’s life early on in Cincinnati, where her parents run the Chinese restaurant Sizzling Wok. Her dad would bring home extra dumpling filling in the evenings, which the family would wrap into dumplings for the freezer. “That was our way of really bonding, and actually sitting down and talking to each other,” she remembers. Jenn initially went in a different direction as she got older, attending design school and moving to Los Angeles to work as a denim and ready-to-wear designer. But she returned to her culinary roots after losing her job during the pandemic.
“I would call my parents a lot, and we would exchange recipes. That's when I started making potstickers,” she says. “I literally don't think I made dumplings on my own from homemade dough and filling until the pandemic hit.” That experience became the basis for her business, Kwong Shop, which specializes in vegan dumplings with kaleidoscopic wrappers. “For inspiration, I like to pull random things from my childhood just because I love nostalgia, and I think kids from the ’90s had the best things growing up,” she says. Today, Jenn’s back to working in fashion by day, but she still sells her dumplings—as well as the sweet, soy-based Kwong Sauce and chili crisp—on the side. Take a a closer look at her design process below.
How a Kwong Shop dumpling goes from idea
to reality
Step 1: Inspo sourcing
“In fashion, we start out with a concept board,” Jenn says. She uses a similar approach to design her dumplings. The dumplings shown above, for example, drew inspiration from the leaf-printed wallpaper at left.
Step 2: Dough design
Jenn uses food-based dyes to render her vision in dough form.“I love mixing turmeric with green wheatgrass powder or matcha—it makes a lime green color,” she says. Then she strategically places dough strips together so that, once cut and rolled, the dough takes on tie-dyed swirls and terrazzo-like shapes.
Step 3: Filling and folding
“My most popular dumpling flavor is probably my mushroom,” she says. “I use caramelized onions as the base, plus dried shiitakes and roasted mushrooms, which gives a super-meaty texture. Then I roast cabbage, which adds this charred, smoky flavor. Combined together, it’s a delicious and balanced bite.”
From mood board to dumpling
A look a the varied sources of inspiration that inform Jenn Kwong’s dumpling colorways and patterns, as well as the natural ingredients—spirulina, turmeric, wheatgrass, beets, black sesame seeds, and dragonfruit powder—that bring them to life in dumpling form.
1. LA Sunset
2. Dragonfruit
3. Funfetti cake
4. Planet Earth
Above the Fold was created by Leah Mennies
absolulutely fascinating!
This is so cool!