CHOP FRY WATCH LEARN

A well-researched biography of the woman the New York Times called “the Julia Child of Chinese cooking.”

Fu Pei-mei (1931-2004) was a chef and an author who taught countless women how to cook, and her soft diplomacy skills helped bolster Taiwan’s global image. In the mid-1950s, she was a young mother struggling to feed her family tasty and nutritious meals with little or no help. The problem was, she didn’t know how to cook. Raised in a wealthy family in China, Fu didn’t enter the kitchen until after her marriage. Using funds from her own dowry, she hired chefs from local restaurants to teach her how to make the cuisine of China’s six diverse regions. More often than not, the chefs—all male—ignored her questions and cooked the complex dishes without a word. Undaunted, Fu took copious notes and tried to make the dishes herself the next day. She shared this hard-won knowledge with other women, and her advice became so popular that she opened a cooking school. In 1962, Taiwan Television came calling, and her shows stayed on the air for almost 40 years. Her cookbooks, written in both Chinese and English, became reference staples in kitchens around the world. King adeptly tracks Fu’s career as a cooking pioneer as well as de facto ambassador for Taiwan. “In the context of postwar Taiwan, Fu’s television cooking demonstrations did more than teach women how to cook,” writes the author. “Her comprehensive televisual survey of Chinese regional cuisines united an otherwise fractious and fragile nation, brought together by the universal Chinese appreciation for good food.” King adds reminiscences by elder relatives and friends of cooking from Fu’s cookbook, and these personal touches freshen the drier narratives of Taiwan’s history.

An appealing story of a determined home cook who taught generations how to prepare authentic Chinese food.