New year has come and our mind is realizing that we shall turn over a new leaf. To retrospect and start from a clean slate, a great opportunity is to have your goal accomplished. So, if you are a Chinese food lover, maybe it’s time for you to sit down and prepare a list of cooking books about Chinese gastronomy.
Let’s start with some of the best Chinese cooking cookbooks in English to excite and inspire you this year. From foreign food writers’ insights to overseas Chinese chefs and writers’ perspectives, you will probably step further toward Chinese food world.
Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper
The award-winning British food writer Fuchsia Dunlop is an expert in Chinese cuisine. Tracing back to the year of 1994, she lived in Chengdu, the capital of Southwest China’s Sichuan province as a student. Keeping up her passion for food, Dunlop dived herself into Chinese ways of eating and became the first western to be trained as a chef at Sichuan Institute of Higher Cuisine. Throughout the past years, Dunlop has kept exploring Chinese culinary art across China.
Shark’s Fin and Sichuan Pepper recalled her food adventure in Sichuan back in 90s and it's a kind of sweet and sour memoir of her eating across China. She does not only describe her exotic food journey in Chengdu as one of the very few foreigners, but she also explains the lesser-known Sichuan gastronomic culture and recipes. The Chinese version made its debut in July and it soon became a bestseller.
Chinese Heritage Cooking From My American Kitchen
Born and raised in China, the chef and food author Shirley Chung emigrated to the United States. After following her passion for food, she was trained in culinary school. She has co-worked with famous chefs such as Thomas Keller, Guy Savoy, and Mario Batali. She was the runner-up behind Brooke Williamson on the Season 14 of the American reality television series Top Chef, too.
Chung’s new book was published in October: it might be described as a discovery of authentic flavors and it recollects a series of easy-to-reach, vibrant, modern recipes. You will have the simple cooking finished at home, meanwhile you can enjoy bold flavors like you dine in top-notch restaurants.
Cooking South of the Clouds
Southwest China’s Yunnan province is a land of diversity. Known as China’s largest ethnic minority groups’ habitation, Yunnan offers multi-faceted cuisines. Thanks to the vast varied terrains and climates, Yunnan is home to a variety of ingredients from precious truffle in the old-growth forest to river seafood in the subtropic region.
The new book by Georgia Freedman, an American food and travel writer, was published in September and it talks about China's Yunnan province: it describes an incredible journey across an unknown wonderland both for Chinese and foreigners, from produce to people and traditional recipes.
Stir Crazy: 100 Deliciously Healthy Stir-Fry Recipes
Ching-He Huang is a British Chinese food writer, TV chef and foodie entrepreneur. Huang has been known as a Chinese cooking ambassador in England. Original from Taiwan, he carries on Chinese cooking all the way.
Specifically, Huang is obsessed with stir frying, a classic Chinese cooking technique. Therefore, Huang delivers her love in her latest book Stir Crazy, awarded the Best UK Chinese Cookbook at Gourmand World Cookbook Awards.
Huang teaches you how to fry ingredients in a wok with very hot oil in a quick, easy, and delicious way. Throughout a collection of recipes, you will learn the essences of Chinese stir frying.
The Dim Sum Field Guide
Chinese Cantonese dim sum is world-widely known, but how many secrets behind the classic delicacies do you know? The Dim Sum Field Guide probably be a perfect way to know much more about them.
The author, Carolyn Phillips, is an American food writer who is addicted to Chinese food: in the book, she features the Cantonese culinary arts in details, such as shrimp dumpling, siu mai, rice noodle roll, egg tart. Besides, Phillips indicates the art of Chinese tea to pair with dim sum.
The book provides an inside scoop on eating well like a native Cantonese.