Verna Gao was born in Shanghai in the 1990s and moved to London in 2003 to live with her dad and stepmom after her parents’ divorce. Emotionally vulnerable and speaking very little English, Verna used cooking as a means of staying connected to her Chinese heritage and bonding with her father, who became the increasingly enthusiastic recipient of her culinary creativity. After leading an impromptu crash course in college to teach 14 friends how to cook "real Chinese food" and a stint traveling all over East Asia collecting recipes and expanding her foodie horizons, lockdown gave Verna the opportunity to share her cooking with the world. In two years, @vernahungrybanana has become the UK’s go-to platform for Asian food inspiration, with 209k Instagram and 216.6k TikTok followers.
