food – billy x yang

Inside my quarantine kitchen

I’ve always enjoyed cooking at home, but when the pandemic spread and the city began to shut down, homemade meals felt more necessary. Boy, was I ever glad that I knew how to cook.

Salt Lake City’s most Instagramable sandwich is at Pretty Bird

After much anticipation, Pretty Bird is now open in Salt Lake City. The downtown restaurant specializes in hot chicken, but I’m predicting the sandwich will be the social media star of the menu. Just look at it:

Society of Professional Journalists award

This news is coming a little late, but I guess late is better than never. Earlier this summer, I won a Society of Professional Journalists award for a Salt Lake magazine piece I did last year. I took home the second place prize in the Best Magazine Writing category for my story documenting Chinese diasporaContinue reading “Society of Professional Journalists award”

Leftovers | Handle

A couple of months ago, I posted a photo of an interior shot of Handle in Park City, Utah, which was featured in Utah Style & Design. But I think some of the food pics and portraits that I shot turned out pretty well, too.

That’s a wrap, 2014

My career took a few unexpected turns in 2014. I moved from newspapers to magazines, my photography started garnering more attention than my writing and I had photos featured in three different national publications including, AFAR Magazine, Eater.com and Wine Enthusiast. Locally, here in Salt Lake City, I got to be part of the launchContinue reading “That’s a wrap, 2014”

Leftovers | Eva’s Bakery dinner session

I photographed a dinner event at Eva’s Bakery for Salt Lake Magazine a couple of weeks ago. You can find that story here. Here are some of the outtakes from that photo shoot.

The Pago & Finca sessions

I met Scott Evans for coffee one day last winter and it turned into an impromptu interview. We were talking about my upcoming projects and when told I was going to write a story about Salt Lake dining, I realized that he would definitely need to be included. Evans currently runs two successful restaurants with completely different concepts and he has moreContinue reading “The Pago & Finca sessions”

Leftovers | Publik Coffee Roasters

The Utah Review published a pictorial I did about Publik Coffee a few weeks ago. Here’s another look at the place with some alternates from that photo shoot.

The Copper Onion photo sessions

As I mentioned in my previous post, I worked on a story where I tried to trace the people and restaurants that are responsible for shaping the Salt Lake City dining scene the way it is today. No such story would be complete without Ryan Lowder and The Copper Onion. Lowder spent a stint at theContinue reading “The Copper Onion photo sessions”

Forage photo session

Back in December, I talked to an editor at LA Times about putting together a feature on the dining scene in Salt Lake City. She gave me the go ahead but specified that I had to work on spec (i.e., do it without a guarantee of being published). Fair enough, I thought. I conducted halfContinue reading “Forage photo session”