User:Redwiteblk/Natalie Keng

Natalie Keng is a Chinese-American entrepreneur, manager and owner of a self-run home business called Chinese Southern Belle, which offers cooking classes, catering services and Asian market tours in Atlanta, GA and surrounding areas.

Natalie, the youngest of three, was born and grew up in Smyrna, Georgia to Edward and Margaret Keng, who immigrated to the U.S. from Taiwan in the early 1960s. She got her hands on the culinary industry at the early age of eight, when she started working at the cash register "on a beer box" and helping in the kitchen as an apprentice at her family's Chinese restaurant in Smyrna. She loves and supports local, organic food and healthy diets.

She later relocated to the northeast to pursue her undergraduate education from Vassar College in Asian studies and a master's degree in public policy and management from Harvard Kennedy School. For the following ten years or so, Natalie worked for a broad range of companies and organizations, from state and local governments and Fortune 500 companies, to nonprofit organizations and international universities. Her expertise includes strategic planning, communications and social marketing, and her previous customers include IBM, the U.S. Department of Education, Office of the Attorney General in Massachusetts, and the Atlanta City Council.

Natalie has now moved back to Atlanta to manage her Chinese Southern Belle venture, along with a family history project in the form of a book and short film to document her family's journey from China to the Deep South. She is bilingual in English and Mandarin Chinese.