Chop Fry Watch Learn: Fu Pei-mei and the Making of Modern Chinese Food

This biography of one of the first globally influential cooks and cookbook writers, Fu Pei-Mei (1931-2004).

Born in China Fu Pei-Mei moved to Taiwan at 18 and through a somewhat circuitous route began establishing herself as an authority on Chinese home cooking, building her skills as a teacher and writer.  Eventually, she would become best known for a legendary three-volume set called Pei Mei’s Chinese Cookbook, published between 1969 and 1979.

While other women, such as Julia Child, would become authorities in a single country, Fu’s work became a touchstone not only in Taiwan but worldwide. As Michelle T. King, a professor of gender and food history points out, this was the result not only of her skills as a cook and teacher, but because of her insights into media and marketing.

King’s account is revealing not only because details of Fu’s life have not been abundantly detailed in English, but because she is also careful to place the author’s work in the context of both of Chinese expatriate experiences around the world, but also the social forces which were reshaping women’s roles inside and outside the home. She reveals Fu’s influence in the lives of multiple generations and cooks, including many who are still cooking today.

Hardcover. Black-and-white photographs