Traditional Filipino Cuisine Cooking Demo with Chef Roline Casper

May 19, 2022 at the Vacaville Town Square Library. 6:30 pm.

Chef Roline Casper came from humble beginnings. Being raised by a single working mother, she spent most of her time during the summer in her lola’s (grandmother’s) kitchen in the Philippines, where she was cooking savory dishes for her visiting grandchildren. While being her grandmother’s kitchen assistant and official taste tester, she developed an appreciation for the hard work put into dishes and desserts.

She graduated valedictorian from the Napa Valley Cooking School in St. Helena under Chef Barbara Alexander with an emphasis in classical French cooking. Chef Roline staged at 3 Michelin-starred restaurant, SingleThread, and worked as an extern at Morimoto in Napa. Her first book, The Easy Filipino Cookbook: 100 Classics Made Simple, which was released in March 2020, was a #1 New Release on Amazon. Chef Roline is a guest instructor at her alma mater under Chef Elena Sirignano and is Travis Air Force Base’s 1st Filipina Honorary Commander. The dishes that she creates are reminiscent of her travels around the world and is inspired by those she met along the way.

Author Talk with Kelly Yang

May 21, 2022 at the Vallejo John F. Kennedy Library. 11:00 am.

Kelly Yang is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of New From Here, the FRONT DESK series, including Front Desk, Three Keys, and Room To Dream, Yes We Will, and young adult novels Parachutes and Private Label. Front Desk is Kelly’s award-winning middle grade debut novel about a 10 year old Chinese American immigrant girl who manages the front desk of a motel while her parents clean the rooms. It was awarded the 2019 Asian Pacific American Award for Literature, the Parents’ Choice Gold Medal, was the 2019 Global Read Aloud, and was named an Amazon Best Book of the Year, a Washington Post Best Book of the Year, a Kirkus Best Book of the Year, a School Library Journal Best Book of the Year, a NPR Best Book of the Year, and a Publisher’s Weekly Best Book of the Year.

Author Talk with Stacey Lee

June 18, 2022 at the Fairfield Civic Center Library. 2:00 pm.

Stacey Lee is the New York Times and Indie bestselling author of historical and contemporary young adult fiction, including The Downstairs Girl, a Reese’s Book Club Late Summer 2021 YA pick, and her most recent novel, Luck of the Titanic, which received five starred reviews. A native of southern California and fourth-generation Chinese American, she is a founder of the We Need Diverse Books movement and writes stories for all kids (even the ones who look like adults).

Stacey loves board games, has perfect pitch, and through some mutant gene, can smell musical notes through her nose.