Fuchsia Dunlop
Author of Every Grain of Rice: Simple Chinese Home Cooking
About the Author
Fuchsia Dunlop is the author of four Chinese cookbooks including The Food of Sichuan. She speaks, reads, and writes Chinese, and lives in London.
Image credit: Tang Yuewu
Works by Fuchsia Dunlop
Associated Works
A Fork in the Road: Tales of Food, Pleasure, and Discovery on the Road (2013) — Contributor — 115 copies, 2 reviews
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Birthdate
- unknown
- Gender
- female
- Education
- University of Cambridge (Magdalene College)
Sichuan University
School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London - Awards and honors
- British Guild of Food Writers (Food Journalist of the Year Award, 2006)
- Agent
- Zoe Waldie (Rogers ∙ Coleridge and White)
- Short biography
- Fuchsia Dunlop is a cook and food-writer specialising in Chinese cuisine. She is the author of the award-winning Land of Fish and Rice: Recipes from the Culinary Heart of China (a collection of recipes from the Jiangnan or Lower Yangtze Region in eastern China), Every Grain of Rice: Simple Chinese Home Cooking; Shark’s Fin and Sichuan Pepper: A Sweet-Sour Memoir of Eating in China, an account of her adventures in exploring Chinese food culture; and two other critically-acclaimed Chinese cookery books, Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook, and Sichuan Cookery (published in the US as Land of Plenty).
- Nationality
- UK
- Places of residence
- Oxford, Oxfordshire, England, UK
- Associated Place (for map)
- England, UK
Members
Reviews
This book starts from the days of nineteenth century America and the bastardized Cantonese cooking that is still popular today. Coming from a global perspective it speaks of how interlinked food is with colonialism, control and ignorance. It is not a cookbook, but rather a history of stories of racist laws and prejudices about people and culture. This still exists to the present day as comments about the Wuhan wet markets during the coronavirus were widespread. That's not to say there isn't show more A LOT about food here too. Dunlop has an infectious enthusiasm for wide-ranging experiences she has had as a student, a chef, a traveller, and an eater of Chinese cuisine. I learned a lot. It makes me want to revisit regional Chinese restaurants in my native town. show less
This is one of the best books I have read about China, in my whole life. It is really a memoir about the author's escapades in China's kitchens and restaurants, but it is also so much more. The author, Fuchsia Dunlop, starts with her first visit to China, where she after a few months end up as the first foreigner in the chef's school in Chengdu, Sichuan province. Her fascination with the Chinese foods are truly contagious. Duck, tendon, dumplings, spicy peppers, soy sauce, all is described show more in exquisite prose and vivid words. It is very personal, but also very easy to relate to. Fuchsia is not afraid of showing her opinions about politics and environmental disasters, and as the author of a 'revolutionary cookbook' and someone that has eaten many endangered species through her time in China, she battles with her guilty conscience as well as local politicians and bureaucracy.
The book is a fantastic introduction to the Chinese culture. Aside from the food, and a few recipes too, she tackles everything from traveling undercover to areas closed to foreigners, the disdain for Western food as well as the love for it by the Chinese people (apple pie is strange, McDonald's is OK), the influence of history and famine on food culture, and the economic boom in the last 15 years and its environmental and food consequences.
Her love of China and Chinese food seeps from the pages, and it makes me want to visit some of the more remote parts. I also want to find a restaurant close to us that make real Chinese food, not the Americanized hodge-podge most serve.
Read more: http://pondpond.blogspot.com/search/label/book%20review#ixzz0iaPe0y2o
Under Creative Commons License: Attribution show less
The book is a fantastic introduction to the Chinese culture. Aside from the food, and a few recipes too, she tackles everything from traveling undercover to areas closed to foreigners, the disdain for Western food as well as the love for it by the Chinese people (apple pie is strange, McDonald's is OK), the influence of history and famine on food culture, and the economic boom in the last 15 years and its environmental and food consequences.
Her love of China and Chinese food seeps from the pages, and it makes me want to visit some of the more remote parts. I also want to find a restaurant close to us that make real Chinese food, not the Americanized hodge-podge most serve.
Read more: http://pondpond.blogspot.com/search/label/book%20review#ixzz0iaPe0y2o
Under Creative Commons License: Attribution show less
Initially very engaging, then progressively more and more...stomach-turning? Certainly I am not as gastronomically bold as the author. Descriptions of eating fish eyes, clawed turtle's feet, and pig's kidneys, have put me off reading this book before bed. But when I'm feeling a bit bolder, I think I will continue - Dunlop does tell a rollicking good story. Best travelogue of China I've read so far; often eye-opening, with a good balance between action and reflection. Thought-provoking and show more exciting to read, and possibly one of the few food memoirs that will not (always) stimulate your appetite. show less
When Fuchsia Dunlop moved to China in the early 1990s, it was still a rarely visited backwater overflowing with traditional culture and lacking in technology. She quickly abandoned her plan to study Chinese minority cultures in favor of studying Chinese cooking. A few months later, she was enrolled as the first and only foreign student in Sichuan's prestigious cooking school.
This is a truly excellent food and travel memoir. Rather than gawking at the strange (to Western taste) things the show more Chinese eat, Fuchsia learns to appreciate the textures of goose intestines and sauteed caterpillar. This makes for some occasionally disgusting reading, but for the most part, I admired the author's unusual ability to fully join another culture. The food is vividly, beautifully described in away that inspires me to open my own culinary horizons. And, although food is the focus, Fuchsia doesn't neglect the cultural, historical and ethical situations that come along with it. I particularly appreciated the last chapters, in which she wrestles with a Communist banquet thrown at the expense of struggling peasants and the environmental impact of the appetites of China's newly wealthy. This is a satisfying book on many levels, and I think almost every reader would enjoy it. show less
This is a truly excellent food and travel memoir. Rather than gawking at the strange (to Western taste) things the show more Chinese eat, Fuchsia learns to appreciate the textures of goose intestines and sauteed caterpillar. This makes for some occasionally disgusting reading, but for the most part, I admired the author's unusual ability to fully join another culture. The food is vividly, beautifully described in away that inspires me to open my own culinary horizons. And, although food is the focus, Fuchsia doesn't neglect the cultural, historical and ethical situations that come along with it. I particularly appreciated the last chapters, in which she wrestles with a Communist banquet thrown at the expense of struggling peasants and the environmental impact of the appetites of China's newly wealthy. This is a satisfying book on many levels, and I think almost every reader would enjoy it. show less
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Statistics
- Works
- 13
- Also by
- 3
- Members
- 2,392
- Popularity
- #10,728
- Rating
- 4.2
- Reviews
- 36
- ISBNs
- 48
- Languages
- 6
- Favorited
- 1