James Beard Award winner
Frankie Gaw
- Discipline
- James Beard Award winner
Portrait of Frankie Gaw
i. Biography
Frankie Gaw was a UX designer until 2020, when the shape of his creative life began to widen beyond screens and interfaces and into the kitchen. He started Little Fat Boy as a tribute to his Taiwanese American heritage and, just as importantly, to the grandmothers who fed him when he was growing up. The project carries that sense of affection and inheritance at its core: a way of honoring the flavors that raised him while allowing him to reinterpret them with his own hands and instincts.
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At a Glance The project began with visits to his grandma's house, where the work was intimate and unhurried, built around listening, tasting, and remembering. There, Frankie tried to learn the recipes he loved growing up and make them his own, turning family dishes into a personal creative language. What started in that domestic, familiar setting became the foundation for Little Fat Boy: a project rooted in memory, but not trapped by it.
Each visit carried the quiet weight of translation—between generations, between cultures, and between the foods of childhood and the versions Frankie wanted to present now.
Signature
Frankie's signature dishes include First Generation: Recipes from My Taiwanese-American Home and Little Fat Boy. Together, they reflect the project’s central tension and charm: the meeting of home cooking and authorship, of inherited flavors and a distinctly contemporary point of view. The names themselves suggest both intimacy and intent, underscoring the way Frankie’s work moves between personal archive and public expression. “Little Fat Boy started as just me going to my grandma's house and trying to learn the recipes I loved growing up, and making them into my own.”
FAQ
Asked of Frankie
What is Frankie Gaw known for?
He is known for Little Fat Boy and for grounding it in Taiwanese American family recipes.
Who is Frankie Gaw?
He was a UX designer until 2020 and describes himself as a product designer who really loves food.
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The Sunday email
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Every Sunday we send a lead story and up to four more about the chefs, winemakers, sommeliers and hoteliers behind the restaurants, bars, wineries and hotels we cover.
Recent stories
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