Invitation to a Banquet, Fuchsia Dunlop
Invitation to a Banquet, Fuchsia Dunlop
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Invitation to a Banquet
The Story of Chinese Food

Author: Fuchsia Dunlop

Narrator: Fuchsia Dunlop

Unabridged: 17 hr 20 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 11/07/2023

Categories: Nonfiction, Cooking


Synopsis

The world's most sophisticated gastronomic culture, brilliantly presented through a banquet of thirty Chinese dishes.

Chinese was the earliest truly global cuisine. When the first Chinese laborers began to settle abroad, restaurants appeared in their wake. Yet Chinese 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 Invitation to a Banquet, award-winning cook and writer Fuchsia Dunlop explores the history, philosophy, and techniques of Chinese culinary culture. In each chapter, she examines a classic dish, from mapo tofu to Dongpo pork, knife-scraped noodles to braised pomelo pith, to reveal a distinctive 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 food producers, chefs, gourmets, and home cooks as she tastes her way across the country, Fuchsia invites listeners to join her on an unforgettable journey into Chinese food as it is cooked, eaten, and considered in its homeland.

About Fuchsia Dunlop

Fuchsia Dunlop was the first Westerner to train as a chef at the Sichuan Higher Institute of Cuisine, and has been traveling around China, researching and cooking Chinese food, for thirty years. Her James Beard Award-winning and bestselling books include The Food of Sichuan, Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper, Every Grain of Rice, and Land of Fish and Rice, several of which are now published in translation in China. Based in London, she speaks, reads, and writes Chinese.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Mai

Non-fiction November I am probably one of the largest proponents of OwnVoices. However, Fuchsia has studied the many faceted Chinese cuisine in China, and speaks wonderful Mandarin. You may have seen her on Parts Unknown. With my soy allergy progressively getting worse as I age, the one cuisine I miss......more

Actual rating: 3.5 stars! Thank you to Penguin Press UK and NetGalley for my advanced reader copy of this book in return for an honest review. As somebody that was raised at a Chinese takeaway shop in England, I loved the sound of this book. In it, James Beard award-winning cook and writer Fuchsia......more

Goodreads review by Sonia

I am a fan of all books written by Fuchsia Dunlop - this is not a recipe book per se however it is a fantastic delve into the culture and cuisine of China. I have mixed heritage and brought up with the customs and dishes of Hong Kong. The book gives me background to my lived experience of being part......more

Goodreads review by Chalida

You can feel Dunlop's enthusiasm, passion and incredible knowledge of Chinese food jump off the page reading this triumph of a book. When I attended her book talk last month (where I met Amy Tan in person!), a millennial in the audience thanked Dunlop for being an ally. In my head, I thought, really......more

Goodreads review by Natalee

Although I was aware that westernized and authentic Chinese cuisine had little in common, I was unaware of how diverse Chinese cuisine truly is. Fushia Dunlop invites you into the kitchens, restaurants, and banquet halls of China to understand the development of their culinary culture. A mouth water......more