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Invitation to a banquet

£25.00

Chinese was the first truly global cuisine. When the first Chinese labourers began to sojourn and settle abroad, restaurants appeared in their wake. Yet Chinese food has the curious distinction of being both one of the world’s best-loved culinary traditions and one of the least understood. For more than a century, the overwhelming dominance of a simplified form of Cantonese cooking has ensured that few foreigners have experienced anything of its richness and sophistication – but today that is beginning to change. In ‘Invitation to a Banquet’, the James Beard Award-winning cook and writer Fuchsia Dunlop explores the culture, history and philosophy informing real Chinese cookery.

In stock

Description

‘A brilliant, passionate and spellbinding tour de force’ Claudia Roden
‘Fuchsia Dunlop is one of the world’s best writers on Chinese food’ Ken Hom CBE


The epic tale of the world’s most sophisticated gastronomic culture, told
through a banquet of thirty Chinese dishes

Chinese was the earliest truly global cuisine. When the first Chinese labourers began to sojourn and settle abroad, restaurants appeared in their wake. Yet Chinese food has the curious distinction of being both one of the world’s best-loved culinary traditions and one of the least understood. For more than a century, the overwhelming dominance of a simplified form of Cantonese cooking ensured that few foreigners experienced anything of its richness and sophistication – but today that is beginning to change.

In this book, the James Beard Award-winning cook and writer Fuchsia Dunlop explores the history, philosophy and techniques of China’s rich and ancient culinary culture. Each chapter examines a classic dish, from mapo tofu to Dongpo pork, knife-scraped noodles to braised pomelo pith, to reveal a singular aspect of Chinese gastronomy, whether it’s the importance of the soybean, the lure of exotic ingredients or the history of Buddhist vegetarian cuisine. Meeting local food producers, chefs, gourmets and home cooks as she tastes her way across the country, Fuchsia invites readers to join her on an unforgettable journey into Chinese food as it is made, cooked, eaten and considered in its homeland.

Weaving together historical scholarship, mouth-watering descriptions of food and on-the-ground research conducted over the course of three decades, Invitation to a Banquet is a lively, landmark tribute to the pleasures and mysteries of Chinese cuisine.

Additional information

Weight 0.72 kg
Dimensions 23.6 × 16.4 × 4.6 cm
Author

Publisher

Imprint

Cover

Hardback

Pages

480

Language

English

Edition
Dewey

641.5951 (edition:23)

Readership

General – Trade / Code: K