About Meena Cheng
Hi, I’m Meena.
I am a writer, entrepreneur, and immigrant who came to the United States more than fifty years ago, carrying the food, values, and cultural memory of my Chinese heritage. Over the decades, I built a life here — one shaped by resilience, reinvention, and the complicated, beautiful journey of finding home far from where my story began.
For more than thirty years, I have worked in the investment field, a world built on trust and discipline. And in 2014, I founded my own financial company.
These entrepreneurial ventures have taught me how to build long‑term relationships, navigate uncertainty, and grow through every season of change.
My first book, Fortune in Your Cookies, was named one of BookBrowse’s Top Ten Nonfiction Debuts of 2002 — a recognition I’ve held close to my heart since. Yet even with that early honor, I stepped away from writing for what became twenty‑three years.
I may have stopped creative writing, but I never stopped telling stories. Instead, I told them through food. Cooking became how I cared, how I reflected, and how I channeled my creative energy. Meals became a language of love — a way to nurture the people in my universe as I raised my family and built a career in a country that had become my home.
Then, one winter morning at 5 a.m., a voice from 9,000 miles away — from a singer I did not know, singing in a language I had left behind half a century ago — awakened something in me. It began as a gentle pull and grew into a persistent tug. What emerged was a book I never expected to write, yet somehow was meant to be. In the stillness of dawn, that small, improbable spark guided me back to the dream I had set aside decades ago.
Today, I live between New York and Las Vegas, where I continue to work and write. As an immigrant who has called this country home for more than fifty years, I remain grateful for the American dream and deeply believe in the power of saying yes to inspiration.
My forthcoming memoir, Inspiration from 9,000 Miles Away (releasing July 2026), brings together everything that shaped me — the girl who loved stories, the immigrant who built a life from the ground up, the entrepreneur who embraced reinvention, and the writer who found her voice again.
Beliefs That Shape My Life And Work
Drawn from the epigraphs that open each chapter of my memoir.
The right thing happens at just the right time.
Dreams do not expire. They simply rest.
Food carries memory and keeps our stories alive.
When the heart leads, even the smallest act becomes a story worth telling.
True flavor, like true self, does not ask for approval. It simply is.
Simplicity is not the absence of depth. It is the clarity that reveals it.
True growth begins the moment we dare to crack open what we fear most.
Authenticity is revealed, not crafted.
Understanding is about laying something solid beneath what follows.
The seed does not resist the soil, trusting it will bloom in the dark..
To begin again is not to return. It is to rise with new purpose.
Transformation does not always roar. Sometimes, it whispers.
Joy needs no grandeur, no justification.
A Glimpse of My Life Today
For more than thirty years, I lived in Seattle, one of the most beautiful cities in the world, nestled within the Evergreen State. With generous rain falling nearly year‑round, everything is lush and green.
The downside is the unrelenting overcast sky so gray it muted my days. I remember one year when we didn’t see the sun for more than forty consecutive days. It was then I decided to move to a place where the sun was not intermittent but a daily companion.
Now I spend part of my year in Las Vegas, where the desert sun paints the sky a vibrant blue almost every day. The other half of my year is spent in New York, where I hug and dote on my grandbabies. And thanks to modern technology and an exceedingly competent team in my office, I’m able to work from anywhere in the world.
I still cook with joy and exuberance, hosting gatherings whenever occasions call for it. I still travel when food calls me. This year, I’m hoping to make it to Piedmont for its truffle festival. And I still follow the quiet sparks that lead me toward what is meaningful.
In this season of my life, I am enormously grateful for the experiences that shaped me, for the dreams I returned to, and for the stories I trust will continue to unfold in purposeful ways.
Closing Reflection
Thank you for stopping by.
If you are standing at a crossroads you didn’t expect — a new chapter, a quiet turn, or a pull you can feel but cannot yet explain — I hope my journey, sparked by an improbable moment, inspires you to embrace it as a gift. May it remind you that dreams do not disappear; they simply rest until the moment we are ready to return to them.
Whether your return comes through a book, a song, a meal, or a moment of serendipity, I hope you follow it gently. The quietest things often carry us the farthest.
Wherever you are on your path, I’m honored to have you here with me.