Golden Globe and Emmy-winning actress and comedian Nora Lum, widely known as Awkwafina, is stepping into professional kitchens alongside her paternal grandmother for a new eight-episode Apple TV docuseries, Awkwafina: The Unlikely Cook. Set for a global premiere on Friday, November 6, 2026, the unscripted program follows the 38-year-old star across the United States—including a featured filming stop at a landmark restaurant in San Francisco's Chinatown—as she attempts to overcome her complete lack of kitchen skills to revive her family's historic New York restaurant legacy.

Produced for Apple TV by Twofour, the studio behind the Emmy-nominated series The Reluctant Traveler With Eugene Levy, the project is executive produced by Lum alongside David Brindley, Itay Reiss, and Caroline Davies, according to Televisual. The series blends culinary training with personal family history, building toward a high-stakes opening night where Lum must cook for her toughest critic: her grandmother.

A San Francisco Chinatown Filming Stop

While the central narrative revolves around Lum's roots in Queens, New York, a portion of the cross-country road trip was filmed on location in Northern California. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Lum visited and dined at House of Nanking, a storied Shanghainese restaurant in San Francisco's Chinatown that opened in 1988 and is well known for its sesame chicken, garlic noodles, and chili oil-tossed pork wontons.

House of Nanking co-owner and chef Kathy Fang shared behind-the-scenes photographs of the production visit on Instagram on October 28, showing the pair talking over a meal inside the dining room and posing outside the building. "Never thought I would share a screen with Nora, aka Awkwafina, especially since I love watching her," Fang wrote in the post.

The stop continues Lum's longstanding professional ties to the Bay Area. She previously filmed scenes at Fisherman's Wharf, Ghirardelli Square, and the Fairmont Hotel for Marvel's 2021 blockbuster Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, and later served as the grand marshal for San Francisco's 2024 Lunar New Year Parade. Her visit to House of Nanking is also part of a broader autumn production wave in the city, arriving alongside the recently wrapped 28-day shoot for the third and final season of Ted Danson's Netflix comedy A Man on the Inside and ongoing location work for Dan Pritzker's 1930s noir film Fog City.

Reclaiming a Queens Restaurant Legacy From Scratch

The core premise of Awkwafina: The Unlikely Cook relies on the comedic and emotional tension between Lum's inherited culinary pedigree and her nonexistent abilities at the stove. In the show's official trailer, which debuted on October 1, she states plainly: "I can't cook. Like, at all."

According to the South China Morning Post, the early episodes show Lum admitting she cannot even "steam an egg," while struggling with smoking vegetable oil, clattering utensils, and burning trays of spare ribs. Yet her family holds a notable place in New York dining history. Back in the 1950s, her great-grandfather Jimmy opened Lum's in Flushing, Queens—one of New York City's earliest Chinese-American restaurants, which helped popularize Cantonese and Chinese-American staples like orange chicken and barbecue ribs before closing in 1982, prior to Nora's birth.

"The restaurant is how we came to this country," Lum told the Guardian. "It closed in 1982, so I wasn't born. But it was so important. The way they talk about it is like a family member that passed away."

Coverage of the series frames the ultimate objective of her training slightly differently across publications. While the Guardian characterizes the show as a personal effort to learn from a new generation of Asian American chefs in hopes of reviving the long-closed Cantonese institution, entertainment outlets such as CNET and Character Media emphasize the cross-country culinary exploration and the immediate pressure of preparing a modern menu for an opening-night family test.

To prepare for that final service, Lum's itinerary spans multiple states and culinary traditions:

  • Taking a foundational crash course at the Culinary Institute of America.
  • Traveling to Texas to prepare smoked barbecue alongside actor and comedian Jimmy O. Yang.
  • Receiving hands-on instruction from celebrated chefs and television personalities Roy Choi and Martin Yan.
  • Visiting Hawai‘i to examine the mid-century tiki culture that influenced her grandmother's restaurant aesthetic.
  • Working a live restaurant shift in Los Angeles' Chinatown alongside her visit to San Francisco's House of Nanking.

A Poignant Tribute to Her Grandmother

Beyond the kitchen mishaps and chef appearances, the docuseries serves as an intimate tribute to Lum's paternal grandmother, Powah, who stepped in to raise Lum after her mother died when she was four years old. Having previously made appearances in Lum's earlier television work, including her Comedy Central sitcom Awkwafina Is Nora from Queens, the family matriarch plays a central role in the Apple TV project as the VIP diner whose approval carries the ultimate weight.

The series takes on added emotional weight following recent family news. According to the South China Morning Post and the Guardian, Lum's grandmother passed away in August 2026 at the age of 92, several months after filming and initial promotional interviews for the series concluded.

During those interviews, Lum also reflected on how looking back at her earlier semi-autobiographical television work and family history prompted personal introspection, including telling the Guardian that re-examining her past left her feeling bad for her exes. By centering the new Apple TV release on her family's immigrant story and the woman who raised her, Lum shifts from scripted comedy to a permanent document of her family's shared history.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Awkwafina's new show filmed entirely in San Francisco?

No. While Awkwafina filmed a segment at House of Nanking, a famed Shanghainese restaurant in San Francisco's Chinatown, the eight-episode series is a cross-country road trip that also features stops in New York, Texas, Hawai‘i, and Los Angeles.

What is the difference between House of Nanking and Lum's restaurant?

House of Nanking is the landmark Shanghainese restaurant in San Francisco owned by chef Kathy Fang and her family, where Awkwafina filmed a stop for the show. Lum's was the Cantonese and Chinese-American restaurant in Flushing, Queens, opened by Awkwafina's great-grandfather in the 1950s and closed in 1982, which serves as the inspiration for her culinary training.

When and where does Awkwafina: The Unlikely Cook premiere?

The eight-episode docuseries premieres globally on Friday, November 6, 2026, exclusively on Apple TV.

Sources