Reading List
Fuchsia Dunlop
Food Writer and Cook
Fuchsia Dunlop is an English writer and cook who trained at the Sichuan Institute of Higher Cuisine in Chengdu, the first Westerner to do so, and has written about Chinese food ever since.
Sichuan Cookery (2001) and Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook brought regional Chinese cooking to English kitchens on its own terms rather than as adaptation. Shark’s Fin and Sichuan Pepper (2008) is a memoir of learning to eat and cook in China; Land of Fish and Rice covers the lower Yangtze; and Invitation to a Banquet (2023) sets out the history and philosophy of Chinese cuisine.
She has won several James Beard Awards.
China to Chinatown
Chinese Food in the West
by J. A. G. Roberts
“For example, in the West there have been these weird stereotypes that have swung between seeing Chinese food as either cheap and trashy – dumbed down to a set menu of sweet-and-sour pork and egg-fried rice – or else as terrifying exotica – dog meat, penises and strange rubbery things. Actually, if you talk to Chinese people who are not acquainted with Western food you find the same horror and incredulity.” — via Interview, November 2017
The Food of China
by E. N. Anderson
“It offers a good counterpart to the KC Chang. It’s very well researched and comprehensive, covering all aspects of Chinese cooking – ingredients, cooking techniques, history, agricultural system and so on. But although Anderson is an anthropologist, The Food of China is written in a slightly more accessible style, halfway between that of a popular book and a very scholarly book.” — via Interview, November 2017
Food in Chinese Culture
Anthropological and Historical Perspectives
by K. C. Chang
“This is more of an academic book, a collection of essays about food culture by leading China scholars which came out in 1981. It was probably the first book in English to bring serious academic scrutiny to Chinese food culture, and to use the scholarly techniques applied to other subjects to food, offering the views of different experts on different periods of Chinese history. There’s so much information in it.” — via Interview, November 2017
Classic Food of China
by Yan-Kit So
“It has the most fantastic introduction, which talks about the history of Chinese food culture and introduces some of the classic texts of Chinese cuisine – an overview of different culinary regions, the way people thought and wrote about food, and celebrated festivals. But it also includes a collection of recipes from all over China, many of them with introductions that explain the history and some of the background.” — via Interview, November 2017