The Seventh Daughter: My Culinary Journey from Beijing to San Francisco

by Cecilia Sun Yun Chiang, Lisa Weiss

A pioneer in the food world, Cecilia Chiang introduced Americans to authentic northern Chinese cuisine at her San Francisco restaurant, the Mandarin, in 1961, earning the adoration of generations of diners, including local luminaries such as Marion Cunningham, Ruth Reichl, and Chuck Williams. In THE SEVENTH DAUGHTER, Chiang presents a classic collection of recipes framed by her gripping life's story. Beginning with her account of a privileged childhood in 1920s and 1930s Beijing, Chiang chronicles a 1,000-mile trek on foot in the wake of the Japanese occupation, her arrival in San Francisco, and her transformation from accidental restaurateur to culinary pioneer. The book's recipes feature cherished childhood dishes and definitive Mandarin classics, while showcasing Cecilia's purist approach to authentic Chinese home cooking.

   • The signature recipes and extraordinary story of Cecilia Chiang, the grande dame of Chinese cooking in America.
   • Includes more than 80 recipes, 20 full-color styled food photographs, and archival photography from Chiang's private collection.
   • Recipes feature in-depth notes on sourcing ingredients and tips on simplifying the recipes.
   • Features menus for putting together Chinese banquets and dinners at home.

Genres: Cookbooks, Food, Cooking, Memoir, Biography, Nonfiction, Biography Memoir

256 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2007

Reviews

[Wendy'sThoughts · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 Soul of a Banquet Stars
* * * * * A Sneaky Film Review of Soul of a Banquet-Netflix
I was one of the very lucky ones to have experienced The Mandarin Restaurant in San Francisco many times. I had no idea of how groundbreaking the cuisine was and the way it came to be. As a huge documentary lover, I stumbled on the film, Soul of a Banquet.
Neflix has this as the Details:

In this mouth-watering documentary, director Wayne Wang (The Joy Luck Club) profiles Cecilia Chiang, the matriarch of modern Chinese cooking, as she relates her fascinating history and cooks up a sumptuous, once-in-a-lifetime banquet.

In my opinion, it was so much more. It was a journey relived by Cecilia Chiang, of course, but it was also told through interviews of food critics and woman chefs. The love, affection, and wonder each of these friends and peers brought to this telling was something to behold.

I also learned so much of the times, the loss of food culture from the revolution and take over by Mao. One knew of all the horrors, labor camps etc. but with all the loss of cultures through the ages, we sometimes forget the other things that were so important to the people. The arts, the music, the creativity, of course...the food.

This film told by Ms. Chiang through interview and then actual participation in a banquet for her friends was a feast for the eyes, mind and heart. I highly recommend it if you are interested in how food is made and love of it.

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[Michele · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think this is the first memoirs recipe book I've read. I can't tell you what I liked best the recipes or Cecilia's account of her childhood and Life adventures. I was encouraged and related to so many of her experiences. Having a good life as a child and experiencing hardships and challenges as an adult. I love Asian foods so I look forward to the tea eggs, sesame shrimp and especially the clear soups. When you're able to do then do it! You don't have to wait for all the ducks to be in a row. Just move toward the goal in mind.

[Cindy Dyson Eitelman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yes, it's a recipe book and yes, I knew that when I bought it. But it's also a beautiful, touching memoir. Cecilia Chiang speaks of her childhood in Bejing, her harrowing journey to live with her uncle in Chongquing during the Japanese occupation of China. (Chongquing was the war capital of Chiang Kai-shek's exiled government.) Then she tells of fleeing to Tokyo during the communist revolution and eventually opening a Chinese restaurant there with a group of other expatriates. Then, last and first, opening The Mandarin in San Francisco.

If these are the kinds of recipes she served there, I want to eat them! So imagine my disappointment when I realized, they all have meat in them! Okay, not all. Of the first eleven recipes in the book, nine have meat in them. One had shrimp and one is a dessert.

I shouldn't have been surprised. For one thing, many of them are restaurant dishes. And for another, she grew up in a very wealthy family. Her mother observed the rules for certain days (holy days?) to eat only vegetables, but she didn't impose them on her husband or children. Before the war, I imagine that they ate meat and fish every day. The quantities of it were small compared to the SAD (standard American diet) of today.

Now that I have sources for free-range meat, I should be able to cook a few of them. But I'm not sure about the "good country ham from Smithfield, Virginia" that she says you can substitute for Yunnan ham.

Back to the book--it's a keeper and a re-reader. Often.

[Ramesh Naidu · Rating 5 out of 5]

A inspiring , heart wrenching story of an extraordinarily talented and persistent woman . The bonus is that this remarkable book is also filled with delicious recipes !!

[Pat · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book for anyone who was into the San Francisco restaurant scene in the 1970s and 1980s when Cecilia Chiang ran the Mandarin Restaurant in Ghirardelli Square, which includes me. The Mandarin was one of the first, perhaps actually the first, Chinese restaurant to offer both a fine dining experience as well as Chinese cuisine other than Cantonese. The book is full of recipes. I always get my books from the library, but I've decided that I need to get my own copy of this book. Not so much for the story - Cecilia was born and brought up in Beijing and left China toward the end of the civil war since she and her husband were heavily tied to the Chiang Kai-shek regime - which is interesting, but not that interesting, but for the recipes. These are great recipes - just reading them makes me salivate. Can't wait to make them!

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of those cookbooks that you find yourself reading as a book before bed as Ms. Chiang's story is as interesting as the food itself. One of the (if not the) best compliation of authentic Chinese food I've come across. The recipes are easy to follow, the book's beautiful and it is guaranteed to make you crave Chinese food and San Francisco.

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cecilia Chiang recently passed away just after reaching her 100th birthday and was a chef/entrepreneur who I discovered via a random public access television show "The Kitchen Wisdom of Cecilia Chiang" in 2018 which I quickly became obsessed with.

After her passing, I felt the need to return to her story and recipes, and this book did just that. A perfect combination of autobiography and recipe compendium, the book does a deft job of balancing the drama of a sweeping 20th century life and recipes from a late 1960's Chinese restaurant kitchen. While I can't ignore the fairly consistent privilege of Cecilia, it is clear by the end of the story this is equally due to birthright and grit. She took lemons and made lemonade, and this cookbook covers both that journey, and the recipes that helped make her a success. Too much deep frying? Maybe, but you can't fight delicious.

Now time to make some minced squab in lettuce cups!

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

While this does include many amazing recipes that I'm eager to try, it's also an incredible memoir of her life in China, Japan and being the founder of the first fine dining Chinese restaurant in San Francisco (after starting the first Chinese restaurant in Tokyo!). What she lived through and experienced was quite amazing.

[Kerry Shoji · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating read about a Cecilia Chiang's life in China, her move to San Francisco and the opening of her Mandarin cuisine restaurant. The recipes are a bonus.

[Larry · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cecilia Chiang came to America in the 60s from China by way of Japan, and almost inadvertently started a Chinese restaurant in San Francisco celebrating the food of China that wasn't available in the U.S. Her restaurant met great acclaim and success and had a profound influence on American dining tastes. This is her story of growing up in China and coming to the U.S., interwoven with some of her favorite recipes. (Her son, Philip, is the culinary influence behind the PF Chang chain of Chinese restaurants, and some of the recipes will be very familiar to PFC partisans.) This is a short, easy read but a fascinating account of China at a time.

[Garrett · Rating 4 out of 5]

A brief biography of Cecilia Chiang, famous icon of the culinary world based out of San Francisco and a solid collection of recipes. I'm ashamed to say I had never heard about Cecilia Chiang before, but a foreword by Alice Waters proves that Mrs. Chiang looms large in the foodie community. The recipes seem to be chosen with care, sticking with a heterodox approach to Chinese cuisine, and the biography is well written. Overall, an excellent cook book with an interesting if at times disheartening story.

[John Jung · Rating 5 out of 5]

A unique book by a pioneer who helped introduce northern Chinese cuisine to North America in the late 1960s with her successful Mandarin Restaurant in San Francisco (I lived four blocks away from her first restaurant on Polk St. but as a youth couldn't afford to eat there). Her book contains recipes for many dishes that her restaurant introduced sandwiched between chapters of her well-written memoir about her family's life in Beijing before and during WW II as their fortunes were lost over the course of the war before she was able to immigrate to the US.

[Lily · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't really know quite what to expect when I picked up this book, although I had the general idea that Cecilia Chiang might use her recipes as a kind of memoir through food. I had no idea who she was when I started, either, and definitely wasn't expecting the emotional 'whomph' of her life story, or that the traditions she grew up with so closely mirrored my own. A lot of the recipes she includes in her book are ones that I grew up with and the ones I specifically request from my mother for each visit home.

[Moyna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked the part of this cookbook-memoir that was a memoir. I would try some of the recipes since I like simple asian cuisine, but what I really enjoyed was Mrs.Chiang's story telling, and in her stories her descriptions of food. My mom REALLY loved this book, she kept borrowing it! (Yes, Mom, I'm telling on you ;P
I want to try the veggie dishes, and the noddle dish, that was in the "street snack" section, and that I forget the name of (Ugh!)

[Evin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have read most of the narrative passages in this book and felt for the sincerity with which the author shared her family memories. I've not tried any of the recipes yet, but they look delicious. I attended a luncheon at Santa Clara University at which all the dishes were made with her recipes and she was present to answer questions and sign copies of this book. What a delightful day that was!

[Phyllis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved her story...makes me want to try her restaurant, which I haven't had a chance yet. Helps me get connected to my culture. I loved the part where she describes her 50th birthday party and how she got what she wanted. She's smart. The recipes however seem a little complicated, but I eventually was slowly getting it.

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a memoir & cookbook. It tells the story of how a girl of some privledge in China becomes the owner of a top rated restaurant in San Francisco. She recalls her childhood, an escape from japanese occupied China, her life abroad and her return to communist china.

I haven't tried the recipes yet, but the story of her life was very well written.

[Amber · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting. I liked this because it was an interesting story about an interesting life, but it was not bogged down in detail. She kept her narrative fairly short. I am dying to try some of the recipes.

[Anina · Rating 5 out of 5]

A combined cookbook and biography. Cecelia Chiang is a very glamarous and interesting woman who ran a famous Mandarin restaurant in San Francisco, I liked the biography part. The recipes are different and yet a lot of them are pretty simple, don't require a lof of hard to find ingredients.

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some nice recipes, but what really makes this one stand out is the memoir. especially of Ms. Chiang's sheltered early life in China in an upper middle class family - something there's little about here in the West

[Abby · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cecelia Chiang's journey and accomplishments were interesting - along with the recipes. A small group of us tried some of the recipes, but not all. The ones we tried were good. I will definitely try others in the future.

[Foodie3 · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this with a culinary fiction book club I was in with my friend Jill. I tried the recipes from here and they were really delicious too - one of our favorites we make often is Chinese spaghetti. I would recommend the book.

[seri · Rating 5 out of 5]

bright, easy read with exactly what i was looking for: legit chinese recipes written in english. and they're not all that complicated.

[Joyce · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really enjoyed the history part. Learned a lot about local Chinese culture as well. I also purchased my own copy online after I read it.