“Edge’s mission is always about how we can shift the narrative and how art” — and, in this case, food — “can be a vehicle for this widening of the aperture,” Huey says.

Each session will be different, but at the most basic level, there will always be a personal storytelling component and a Q&A. Each chef will share samples of their food (either cooked while guests watch or prepared ahead of time) that connect in some way to the story of their immigrant experience or their cultural heritage.

For the inaugural workshop, Bake Sum’s Tang will pass out a small box of pastries to help elucidate her theme of “Past, Present and Future.” Attendees will receive a green onion croissant that evokes Tang’s childhood memories of eating green onion pancakes in Chinatown, an okonomiyaki Danish that speaks to the present day and her interpretation of a mooncake, which points toward the future of Asian American diasporic cooking.

Guests will sit at long banquet tables inside the gallery, in the heart of Chinatown, surrounded by the artwork in Edge on the Square’s current exhibition, Walking Stories — which, fittingly, is also centered on stories and storytellers.

Tickets for the workshops are pay-what-you-can, with a suggested donation of $20 — though Linda Lui, the art hub’s communications director, stresses that they don’t want the cost to deter anyone from coming. Past Edge on the Square events, like a mahjong night and a concept barter shop, have drawn college students, prominent Asian American intellectuals and activists, and the local “popo” who walks past the Chinatown gallery every night.

While the MSG series itself will run through May, that won’t be the end of the project. Edge on the Square is also collaborating with the Emmy-nominated San Francisco director James Q. Chan, who will be on hand to film the workshops, with plans to turn them into a six-part documentary series.

The MSG: Making, Sharing, Gathering workshops will be held approximately once a month, through May 2025, at Edge on the Square (800 Grant Ave., San Francisco). Tickets for each session will be released online 30 days in advance. The first workshop, featuring Joyce Tang of Bake Sum, will be on Saturday, Oct. 19, 4–5 p.m. Tickets are pay-what-you-can, but must be reserved ahead of time, as seating is extremely limited.