If the spice ginger had a best friend, it just might be Stella Fong.

Fong's bulbous drawing of a ginger root, her favorite spice, is part of a book Fong wrote and illustrated for the Parmly Billings Library's upcoming fundraiser, Illustrate a Story. But it was her caricature of wasabi with his bad boy snarl and loud high-top tennis shoes that steals the show in Fong's book, "The Asian Flavor Players.'' It will be auctioned off Thursday night along with 20 other books at the College of Technology.

Fong has been teaching cooking classes in Billings and sharing her appreciation for that pungent friend, ginger, since she and her husband, radiologist Joe Dillard, moved to Billings 10 years ago. An accomplished Asian chef and community supporter, Fong helped organize the first Illustrate a Story fundraiser two years ago. She grew up working alongside her father in the kitchen of her family's apartment near Berkeley in the San Francisco Bay area of California.

Fong's father, now 91, was the youngest of 11 children so he had the most time to spend with his mother, learning how to cook traditional dishes in his homeland of China. After moving to the U.S., he became a grocer, working long days, often until 8 p.m., but the family always waited supper on him so they could sit down together and share a meal.

"Cooking came about because it was a way to communicate with my parents,'' Fong said. "We'd have these great conversations around the table. Food is one of those things that's bonding.''

Fong said she learned to cook by standing behind her father and jotting down notes while he created. He was meticulous about cooking, but he seldom used recipes and often measured ingredients with a pinch of this, or a fistful of that.

"On weekends, my dad would experiment. He'd make beef jerky in the oven and smoked duck. My mom did the everyday cooking, but it was my dad who made the special dishes,'' Fong said.

Until recently, Fong's father hosted a big party for the Chinese New Year creating eight dishes to serve because the number eight in Chinese has a similar sound as the word "prosperity.''

When Fong and her husband were living in San Diego, a friend asked Fong to show her how to create Asian dishes. It was about the same time that the Food Network was taking off and interest in cooking was high so Fong began offering community cooking classes, first in Chinese then in Japanese, Korean and Taiwanese. She took classes at the Culinary Institute of American, receiving her certification in baking and cooking. She also attended classes at schools in Napa, Calif., where she became interested in wine as well.

"Wine has a lot of adjectives and verbs that describe what wine is. I decided I love that training in the palette and I found ways I could carry those adjectives across to food to make a sensory analysis.''

Fong often donates her time to create dinners that are auctioned off as fundraisers. She also teaches wine classes through the Montana State University Billings' annual Wine and Food Festival.

"My favorite thing to do is to make people aware of different flavors,'' Fong said.

With degrees in biochemistry and computer engineering, Fong figures that chemistry is a theme that connects both sides of her brain, the creative side and the intellectual side. Both sides merge in her new book with the large, silly drawings of personified ingredients and detailed explanations, including where they came from and how they are used.

"I really had fun with it,'' Fong said.