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

by Michelle T. King

A remarkable food-infused cultural history, centered on the life of celebrity television chef and cookbook author Fu Pei-mei―the Julia Child of Chinese cuisine. In 1949, a young Chinese woman arrived in Taiwan, fleeing from the chaos of war on the mainland. At the time, Fu Pei-mei had no idea how to cook. Yet as a young housewife she taught herself and launched a career as a television instructor that would last four decades, entrancing millions of viewers who grew up watching her prepare thousands of delectable dishes with skill and verve. As her fame grew, she traveled beyond the borders of Taiwan, teaching the rest of the world how to cook Chinese food. Woven into this lively account of Fu’s life and times are Michelle King’s own family stories, personal reflections, and contemporary oral history, raising questions about food, gender, diaspora, and cultural identity.  Chop Fry Watch Learn is a revelatory work, a rich banquet of past and present tastes that will resonate deeply for all of us looking for our histories in the kitchen. 22 illustrations

Genres: Food, Nonfiction, History, Cookbooks, China, Biography, Audiobook

336 pages, Hardcover

Published May 7, 2024

Reviews

[Merle Shao · Rating 5 out of 5]

At certain age of our life, we always wonder how we get to where we are. I had that discussion with my mother some years, years ago. And now my son has the same question just several weeks ago - “How did you survive without any help?” I hardly know where to begin to answer that. And this book is just godsend.

I think most of us, the first generation Asian American immigrants from Taiwan, armed with a copy of Fu Pei-mei cook book (培梅食譜) and Ta-Tung rice cooker (大同電鍋) when coming to America, and struggle to learn cooking as survival skill, to feed our family. Fu is an iconic figure in Chinese cooking like Julia Child as to French food.

After reading so many Chinese American writers all these years, finally I found the book that talks about our experience and our relationship to our next and future generations. 

The book is “Chop, Fry, Watch, Learn (切炒觀學） - Fu Pei-mei and the Making of modern Chinese Food”by Michelle King, who is the associate professor of history at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, specializing in Gender(Women) and food History. 

This non-fiction historical book using the rising of Fu and her TV cooking shows in Taiwan to weave together Michelle’s own personable experiences with her family through food, the Fu’s success, to the progression of women’s role in our generation, to women in the current society, and to the identity of Chinese American. 

History aside, she has pinpointed the FOOD’s universal role to family/generation connections, and social changes.

Her research of the history of Chinese food is thorough, from Yuan Mei’s recipes in 1792 (袁牧的隋園食單)，F.T. Cheng’s Musings of a Chinese Gourmet in 1952 (食論)，Huang Yuan-Shan’s first cookbook in 1950s (媛姍食譜, Fu’s contemporary) to the traditional woman’s role in thousand years old Admonitions for Women (女誡). As I read, I mentally thinking if you talk about this, you have to talk about that, and sure enough she covered it. 

I also very impressed by her academical analysis of the society changes at the time in Taiwan. Right on the money!  I love the kitchen conversations to gain a difference perspective of working mom vs stay home mom. I think these perspectives are easy to identify with for women who lived through them, no matter you are Asian or not, even in today’s world.

I think it will be fun to have a discussion of your experience of learning to cook and what role FOOD plays in yours and your children’s life.

The book just released on May 7. After halfway through it, I texted my son and said you have to read this! It answers many of your questions.

You can lookup the dishes mentioned in this book in YouTube. It is amazing what Fu can do in a 5 minute video. Sorry, she speaks Chinese in the videos, but just seeing her knife skills, and quickness requires no explanation.

Blow is a link to Fu’s Videos -

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLt...

[Kevin · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story of Fu Pei-Mei, the Julia Child of Chinese cookery.

[Ava Farquhar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Super educational read about the cultural history of food in Taiwan and China and how Fu Pei-Mei impacted women's lives in an era of large political and social changes. I also learned a lot about the geopolitical history of this region which was insightful. I love reading about food, and I really enjoyed how King gives so much respect and weight to women's contributions to the world from the lens of the kitchen and beyond! Also another huge Midland Michigan mention! I can't wait to go to her author talk! in Midland!

[millie · Rating 3 out of 5]

this book covers a wide variety of topics: food, cooking, history, politics, women's roles. it wasn't bad, but it wasn't written in a way that was particularly captivating and exciting. some chapters were more enjoyable than others.

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love me a social history of food

[Sher · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an very interesting read. To westerners in the know, she has been dubbed as the Chinese Julia Childs. I was not in the know as this book was my introduction to Fu Pei-mei and her long history as an educator (via a popular TV show and her cookbooks) to the general public of Taiwan at first and then eventually finding a much wider audience worldwide.

A lot of research went into this book, which is not entirely surprising given that the author is a history professor at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. It is a bit academic in tone, which did not bother me but some other reviewers couldn't handle it or the fact that there weren't any recipes in the book. I admit, one of the first things I did before sitting down with it was a flip through of the book looking for the recipes. Her recipes are not easy to come by as all her cookbooks are out of print (and I live in Europe, so it's an even tougher find) and as iconic as she is, finding information/recipes in English is not easy.

Perhaps this book will provide some inspiration for food bloggers of Chinese cuisine to highlight some of her recipes. Here's hoping!

On second thought, maybe it wasn't so much her recipes as her teaching methods and influence on the culture of Chinese home cooking for the general audience (non-professional cooks) that we should focus on. I'm still curious though.

[Marjorie Elwood · Rating 3 out of 5]

2 stars for the writing; an extra star for the topic

You can tell the author is a gender studies professor – this is a pretty academic look at Fu Pei-mei, who led cooking demonstrations on TV while living in Taiwan in the 1950s and revolutionized how the world thought about mainland Chinese cooking. It was interesting to read the contemporary accounts by family/friends of how Fu Pei-mei influenced them and to hear about the differences in the Chinese version versus the English version of Fu's cookbooks – there were explanations of geography, for instance, in the latter.

What could have been improved:
• In the middle of the book, there’s a multi-page aside about at a different woman, a politician. I found it jarring and didn’t think it needed to be included.
• The author notes that Fu doesn’t include a list of detail about China in her books so as not to bore her US audience, but then the author goes ahead and does so….
• The photos (where possible) should have been in color.
• The comparisons with Julia Child were tiresome and smacked of insecurity.

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

one of my favorite things to learn about is how geopolitics influences cultural cuisines, so this book was exactly what i wanted. as much a book about history & culture as it is about food. my favorite read of the year so far

[Maureen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Back in the early eighties, a friend who had lived in Taiwan recommended a cookbook to us, saying that Pei-Mei was a famous television cooking personality, and that we’d love and use this bilingual book. Indeed we did. Forty years and ten moves later, “the physical heft of the original hardback, splattered with stains and smudges, offers us the most direct connection with our culinary pasts” ( loc 3415). So how could I not investigate this new book by Michelle King that is both a memoir and a political and cultural history?

Pei-Mei was a young housewife, recently relocated from mainland China to Taiwan in the exodus from the new Communist government. Her husband was very traditional, and unfortunately, Pei-Mei didn’t know how to cook! So she very industriously used her own dowry money to hire chefs from different restaurants, with different cuisine styles from all over China, to give her private cooking lessons. Soon enough she was giving cooking lessons to other relocated wives who couldn’t cook either. [ #1 It was the fifties! That’s what wives were supposed to do! #2 Away from the societal model where upper-class women had hired help and on an island overrun by wealthy refugees at a time when young women could earn better wages in factories and offices, the tai-tais had to figure out a way to manage.]

Television was a new phenomenon, and PeiMei was invited to do a live show demonstrating preparation of dishes that women could replicate at home. And so it began. She had a forty-year career on television. People loved that she was friendly, motherly, competent, but also human. Occasional mistakes were made ( it was almost always live tv!). “I figured, everyone is human, who has never failed? If you know something, you know it, and if you don’t know something, you don’t know it. Best not to mislead your students for the sake of saving face” (loc 839). Interestingly, she adapted to changing times, and not only showed viewers how to integrate new technologies like microwaves into their meal prep, but also worked with industrial manufacturers to create better tasting frozen foods and instant noodles.

I was fascinated by how Pei-Mei became a representative and spokesperson for the Nationalist Taiwan government. They had her speak at overseas events, and presented her and Taiwan as a modern contrast to the Communist mainland society. As well, in its struggles on the island where the Nationalists had pushed locals to fringes, “Taiwan Television tried to promote the positive image of people who came from mainland China. Fu Pei-Mei was very much being used for a political purpose in this show”(loc 2942).

I was also struck by how she adhered to such a traditional marriage model, having her husband handle all her financial affairs and accepting that he would only dole out money to her when she requested. Indeed, the whole cooking venture only came about because he complained so bitterly about her cooking!

A differentiating element in Pei-Mei’s career, that made her stand out from other television chefs and cookbook authors, was that she had the brilliant idea to produce a bilingual cookbook. Every recipe is written in English on the right leaf, and in Chinese on the left leaf of an open page. If you need to check an ingredient at the local Asian store, just compare the characters on the item to the (likely) corresponding item in the ingredient list. But it wasn’t just straight translation; she adjusted techniques, even ingredients, so that the recipe would be accessible to non-Chinese speakers. This was also helpful to second- and third- generation Chinese who had left a Chinese language environment but wanted the foods of their culture and their youth.

And I very much appreciated the philosophical message of the book, that food is an intricate and intimate element of culture. Pei-Mei was alive to “the possibility of connecting distinct peoples and cultures through food” (loc 1584).

Even if you don’t have one of her books on your kitchen shelf (but especially if you do!), check out this one.

[Max Chang · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked up this book without really knowing anything about Fu Pei Mei and really thought it would be an anthology of modern Chinese food like General Tso’s chicken. Then when I realized that it was actually a book about a Taiwanese culinary legend and did a deep dive into the intersection of food and culture, in particular with what it was like to navigate Taiwan as a woman and how these have a modern day impact on even western/American culture it instantly became much more exciting for me. While the book may not be 5 stars in the sense that it is perfectly written, it talks about a topic really near and dear to my heart and also felt extremely genuine. I enjoyed the author’s personal musings and input and I felt like it described some of what it feels like to grow up as an Asian American. In particular, I felt like the ending of this book captured the importance of food in Chinese/Taiwanese culture and how that is very antithetical in American culture and also how hard it is to be a minority/outsider and to not be able to connect with your culture in such an important way (ex. Bringing Chinese food to school as lunch).

[Charles · Rating 4 out of 5]

A history of how Chinese food and cooking methods spread first through Taiwan and then across the world, all because one housewife, Fu Pei-Mei, wanted to learn how to cook for her family. After spending a fortune learning to cook foods from different regions of China, she started teaching her neighbors, which launched a decades-long TV career. Fu's cookbooks traveled the world in the suitcases of Taiwanese emigrants. On a personal note, the author is a daughter of immigrants and grew up in Michigan - and experienced Chinese food in much the same way I did, as a form of love and connection.

[Emily (em.is.all.booked) · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75 rounded up. A little dense at times and slow going, but I completely understand that any book exploring the nuances between the history of Taiwan and China would be complex. Overall though a fascinating deep dive on Fu Peimei, the “Julia Childs” of Chinese cooking. I always enjoy exploring the twining of food with culture and this book was a great example of that.

[Anne (Not of Green Gables) · Rating 4 out of 5]

February 2025 : Book 4/28. (I'm behind, ssshhh)

This was fascinating to me. I had not heard of Fu Pei-mei prior to picking up this and it was an absolute joy to learn about her impact on the entertainment food industry. Women are bloody wonderful.

[ryan harrington]

i’m still not rating academic books !

another amazing read, so excited to really dissect this for research questions, just so much niche content to pick over.

shoutout prof. rav for suggesting it !!

[Lynn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting if somewhat academic story of Fu Pei-mei’s remarkable career as cookbook writer and tv celebrity. A self-taught cook, she taught generations of fans how to make traditional Chinese food.

[Khris Sellin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating history

History of not just Fu Pei-mei and Chinese cooking but also the sociopolitical history of China and Taiwan. Very enlightening.

[Michael Yang · Rating 5 out of 5]

Truly delightful read! Beyond following Fu’s career, I loved the exploration of Taiwan’s history (particularly in relation to the mainland), changing societal dynamics across the latter 20th century, and the mix of oral history segments

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars rounded up. This book was fascinating. I learned so much about not only food history for China and Taiwan, but through that, a lot of 20th-century sociopolitical history as well. There is so much food for thought in this book about how identity shifts and developes, how food pathways shift, how legacies can be complicated, and how history is found in even the most mundane things. I do wish some recipes had been included. There are extensive end notes and an annotated further reading section. I'd have preferred footnotes and an annotated bibliography.

[Ashley Finafrock · Rating 3 out of 5]

  Warning: side effects of reading this may include feeling incredibly hungry for Chinese/Taiwanese food 😁. A decent read if you wanted to learn more about the "Julia Childs of Chinese food," Michelle King explores how Fu Pei-Mei immigrated from mainland China to Taiwan with abysmal culinary skills to becoming an international celebrity television chef. I personally have actually never heard of Fu prior to this book, yet it was somehow nostalgic reading about guatatory Chinese cuisine and how Taiwan embraced the cooking program at the adventure of adoption of the TV 📺 usage in family households.

  I also think King does a good job of contextualizing the political landscape at the time--how Taiwan became a time capsule of many traditional mainland Chinese dishes, fused together onto an island, as the mainland shut its doors to Taiwan and underwent their cultural revolution. I thought it was really poignant when King pointed out that in terms of family heirlooms, in a lot of other countries, you may see large pieces of furniture like precious grandfather clocks, but on Taiwan, for many fleeing from mainland, what people took with them to the island was minimal in size. What was ported over was gustatory culture, which prevailed popularly, especially amongst those who felt homesick for homecooked food of mainland China.

  What brought down my rating were 2 things:
    1.) At times it felt like we lingered on random players for too long (what so-n-so said, unrelated to Fu Pei-Mei, but relevant to the cultural events at the time), so I felt detached from the main "narrative" of Fu during these parts.
    2.) Not feeling deeply moved. Admittedly I do feel inspired to learn to cook more Chinese/Taiwanese recipes, however I don't feel inspired on a deeper level as I did when I read, say, The Worlds I See about Fei-Fei Li, the AI researcher who emigrated from China to the U.S. and went to build the precursor that made technologies like OpenAI possible. I think if King could have used more life accounts of Fu somehow to humanize her further, readers would feel like championing her more as they read, especially for those who are learning about Fu for the 1st time in this book.

[Bookworm · Rating 2 out of 5]

I can't remember how I came across this book but I was super intrigued. What you think of as "Chinese food" in the United States can vary. Is it orange chicken from Panda Express? How about restaurants that put pad thai and sushi and tandoori, etc. all on the menu and still call themselves a Chinese restaurant (vs. Asian fusion). How did learning how to cook Chinese food spread across the globe?

Admittedly I had never heard of Fu Pei-mei but this sounded very interesting! We might see the Julia Childs or Gordon Ramsays but never think about how they came to be (Child, for example, has a very interesting background that you might never know if you only watched her cooking shows and absolutely nothing else). So I wanted to know more about this woman who fled China for Taiwan and brought Chinese food to the world.

I hate to say it, but this book was not about Fu Pei-mei herself but what the author thought about her and her history. This book really, truly needed better/more editing to sift out Fu Pei-mei's story and to get away from the commentary about anything: feminism, why Child was not as good, Chinese/Taiwanese politics/history, her own family, etc.

I can appreciate what the author was trying to do, but this was a case of the author letting the work and research shine for itself and to actually make it about the subject and the food, rather than trying to be something else. As others noted, there are are no detailed recipes (I know it's not a cookbook but you'd think as a study this might have been a really great opportunity to analyze how various dishes have been changed/adapted for either cultural contexts or TV viewing, etc.).

This book will certainly be of interest and has an audience for it but unfortunately the author let too much of herself get into the text. I'd personally skip this one unless you have a genuine and specific interest in either the subject or the historical/cultural context. For a layperson who wanted to know more about someone who does not get the coverage of the well-known modern TV chefs/bakers/food personalities, etc. this might be a slog.

Borrowed from the library and that was best for me.

[Danielle T · Rating 4 out of 5]

This felt like a nice followup to Taste Makers: Seven Immigrant Women Who Revolutionized Food in America (which I belatedly realized I never actually reviewed, whoops) as Chao Yang Buwei gets a mention later in the book coming at it from the Western side of publication. Food, culture, and politics are all intertwined, so Pei-mei's television show and cookbooks are a strong soft power component to the Republic of China asserting itself as the true China in exile while also being a comforting bit of home to students and workers going abroad. This also reminded me of the blindspots of not knowing other country's media- thousands of episodes over several decades is a lot!!

Throughout the book, Michelle King also interviews other diaspora people who've learned from the Fu Pei-mei cookbooks, and reminisces about her childhood in the Midwest where her parents moved for academia. Even in small-town Michigan they had a community of 80-90 Chinese families which shows you can find enclaves anywhere (my own grandparents are also from the midwest diaspora). She references The Making of Asian America: A History (another one of my favorites) when talking about waves of Chinese immigration and recognizes she is part of that second post-1965 wave, with the first being the exclusion era predominantly Cantonese/Taishanese immigrants (and that's where I come from!), thinking about how where people migrate from also influences how we see food. American Chinese cuisine really has its origins in modified Cantonese in so many ways because that's almost entirely who was here, but more recent waves are Fujianese (and the 70s-80s also brought in flavors from Hong Kong, Taiwan, etc.)

[salmonluvr · Rating 4 out of 5]

Content is very good and interesting like history and identity of china Chinese diaspora through food included/excluded in her cookbook/tv show and her career and life spanning over big historical events and like the idea of a canon for Chinese food linked to nuances of language belonging translation family etc but I think a little clunky in trying to weave like fu pei mei bio with the like academic like here is how her life represents these things like Chinese womanhood/conception of housewife and how it reflects history but also she’s shaping the landscape and then it’s like more muddy with like the personal essays or like more personal ruminations on her legacy like already kind of clumsy in being like here’s a humorous story about fu and her first airing here’s a critique about what she was presenting and that’s like maybe the easiest transition but then I think it loses a little bc it’ll b like this is what Chinese food means to me and then it’ll be talking about nationalists vs PRC with nothing to do at all with fu to bridge it!

Not to say the connections she makes aren’t good but i think she relies on “discussed in chapter x” a little bit too much and i think it’s hard to not sound corny when it’s like we’re all contributing to a bigger heritage to humanity there is no singular Chinese experience - which also I think the way she writes this in the end is actually very cute about her parents and how there’s too much they want to say to each other that they can’t say but each picture of food they share between them is so meaningful … but yeah I think it succeeds in making me want to learn more about fu pei mei! And I think it definitely is effective in encouraging critical engagement but I think it’s just a little bit too disjointed at times but a lot of really good thoughts but also some corny ones but ultimately all good

[Yofish · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mostly, this is a biography of a Taiwanese cook, who became a bit of a sensation there with a cooking show. (Fu Pei Mei is sometimes known as “The Julia Child of Taiwan.”) But it also wants to discuss the culture of food, especially in Taiwan and the Chinese/Taiwanese diaspora. And it seems a little like an excuse for the author to talk about her own family. (Her parents immigrated from Taiwan to get graduate degrees shortly after US laws eased up on immigration in the 60s and 70s.)

Fu Pei Mei moved to Taiwan from Mainland China at the end of the revolution---like a million other people. She didn’t really know how to cook when she got married, learned (by paying a lot to chefs at local restaurants), and decided to try to teach others in more or less her position. She sort of stumbled into a TV spot in Taiwan in 1962, and that turned into a decades-long career.

Part of the point of the book is that, because people from all over China squeezed into Taiwan, there were many different cuisines. Fu kinda mastered them all. And since the mainland went through a few decades of famine, the survival of different regional cuisines depended on Taiwanese cooks. (Or so the author argues; seems not completely implausible.)

When emigration---from Taiwan, Hong Kong, PRC---started in earnest in the 60s and 70s, food was a way that people kept a connection to “home”/community/etc. And a good many American immigrants had Fu’s cookbook(s) as a guide.

The book is interrupted three times for direct interviews with Chinese Americans (of the age where they might have learned from the TV show, and used the cookbooks); they were interesting, but maybe should have been more interesting and longer.

[Michelle Heinrich · Rating 4 out of 5]

I will admit that I knew next to nothing about Fu Pei-Mei before I started this book. In fact, I knew very little about the history and culture surrounding Chinese food… I only knew I liked it. But Michelle King’s biographical exploration of the life and impact of “the Julia Child of Chinese cuisine” opened by eyes to a new and fascinating world of Chinese culinary history.

And it’s all about Taiwan! Fu grew up in a pre-war Chinese family that fled to Taiwan with the rise of communism. Initially, she knew nothing about cooking, but after being humiliated by her husband, spend her dowry on cooking lessons that she soon parleyed into a career teaching others. Settled in Taiwan, a small island which harbored the cultural traditions of exiles from various mainland Chinese provinces, Fu began teaching the art of cooking in her backyard. This eventually led to a harrowing live cooking spot on fledgling Taiwanese television and eventually parlayed itself into a small, tidy empire of cookbooks, cooking shows and sponsorships. It was a fascinating journey that spanned several mid-Century decades.

Fu changed the face of Chinese food, bringing it into focus for world consumption. She, her dishes, and cooking methods transcended cultural and language barriers, and yet remained fundamentally Chinese, providing many a taste of their homeland overseas. Perhaps the ultimate comfort food is the food of one’s own homeland, and Fu truly brought that to her people around the world. Humble, feminine, and steely resilient, she carved an indelible mark for herself in the culinary world.

All in all, it was an enjoyable book, but ai advise not to read on an empty stomach.

[Leah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Chop Fry Watch Learn is a wealth of knowledge about someone important to the realm of Chinese home cooking! I knew nothing of Fu Pei-Mei prior to reading this book. Now, I will be looking up her videos and seeing what more I can learn about cooking. Although I know about Julia Child, I was surprised to learn Fu Pei-Mei came first and was glad that this was highlighted. Also, that Fu Pei-Mei didn’t start out a good cook but later became the face of Chinese cooking for decades gives me hope in improving my own skills.

This book gives a solid view of how Chinese cooking in Taiwan changed over time and grew from book to television to online. I thought the author did a great job telling us the perspective of a mainland immigrant to Taiwan while acknowledging the Taiwanese view towards the end when Taiwan’s national identity rose to prominence. The book switches between stories to add context about how Fu Pei-Mei’s work intersected with the lives of others and showed its effects.

I loved reading this book and would recommend it, especially to people interested in Taiwan, culinary history, or food culture. Despite being an academic book, it’s not dry and the anecdotes make it engaging to read. However, if you’re looking for recipes, skip this book and go for Fu Pei-Mei’s actual recipe books. Chop Fry Watch Learn is more of a biography combined with commentary and pieces of autobiography.

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a tough one to rate. While it is not what I expected, I did find the content to be interesting. Unfortunately, for a book supposedly about Fu Pei-Mei, this book had a disappointingly small amount of information about her. It hits the highlights of her life but I don't feel like I learned much about her. This book is much more about the time period in which she lives, the history and politics of the time, and yes, the lives and treatment of women. It is quite obvious that the author specializes in gender studies. Not that anything King says is bad or wrong, but there is a definite focus on and reckoning with, women being the primary ones responsible for cooking for the family.

I did also learn a lot about the politics and culture of Taiwan that I had no idea of before. Like too many Americans, pretty much all I learned about Taiwan in school is that it is where the good Nationalists filed after the evil Communists took over the mainland. This dives a little more into some of the complexities behind it. Nothing in depth. Just a taste. There is also a strong focus on the impact of Fu's influence, and household modernization which was interesting as well. Like I said, good book, but not what I thought it would be.

[Betsy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dr. Michelle King's book about Fu Pei-mei is beautifully written and provides historical, geographical, and cultural context about Chinese food while communicating a personal message that food is family and food is love. To read this book is to understand the values that many families of Chinese descent hold dear, and Dr. King does this through anthropological facts and personal anecdotes. I found the origin story of Fu Pei-mei inspirational, knowing that she, as a postwar housewife, made Chinese food accessible to many through her cookbooks and tv show, starting with her wanting to solve a problem in her own kitchen - how to cook for her family having no prior knowledge or skill in it and before cookbooks were common. Above all, from my perspective as an American-born Chinese, this book gave me moments of joy and pride as it affirmed some of the stories my mom told me about our culture and food, and revealed new knowledge about a woman who was a trailblazer. As Dr. King's book expresses, filling a freezer with homemade dumplings should be considered its own delectable, love language.

[Amber Lee · Rating 2 out of 5]

An incredibly well researched book, but one that lacks emotional depth to Fu's story. This book leans heavily on the political history of China and Taiwan, and less on a deep connection to Fu Pei-Mei's personal story. While the history of China and Taiwan does have important context to Fu's story, her story often takes a backseat in many chapters of this biography. As a result, I found the title a bit misleading.

The tone of writing is academic and can feel off-putting when Fu’s personal life is mentioned. At times, it can come across as blunt and cold, with the author's own biases apparent. I found King’s comparisons of Fu Pei-Mei to Julia Child unfair and a bit hypocritical.

I admire how Fu Pei-Mei was able to foster human connection through food given the complicated history of China and Taiwan. I picked up this book eager to learn more about her story through King's writing. Instead, I was taught the history of male gourmets and politics, with snippets of Fu's story spliced throughout. This was an unexpected read for me-albeit a very interesting and informative one. In the end, Michelle T. King’s writing left me hungry for emotional connection and warmth.

[Russell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Michelle King starts this charming book telling how her mother, returning to her home from a visit, has filled King's freezer with carefully labeled homemade Chinese meals. Tracing those threads leads the reader through the history of the relationship between mainland China and Taiwan, and thus to the main subject of the book: Taiwanese cookbook writer and TV personality Fu Pei-mei, who for over 40 years presented weekly (and sometimes daily) presentations where she prepared dishes from the many different Chinese regions. Fu's resilience, patience, and creativity all come through King's clear prose. King devotes the last third of the book to examining the impact that Fu's cookbooks had on people far outside Taiwan, like her own family, and the huge part Chinese cuisine has played in Western attitudes towards Taiwanese and Chinese persons and institutions.

[Jewlsbookblog · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a really good read! It’s not dry like an academic text, although there’s plenty of notations to document King’s research. I found the book to be a love language of history, food, and culture and how they mingle together through generations, regardless of location or physicality. I have never heard of Fu Pei-mei before this book, however, I did google her videos online and they were fun to watch. Using Fu Pei-mei’s popularity and exposure, King also interweaves a lot of information regarding China, Taiwan, important political movements, as well as gender roles and perception. Covering first and second generation immigrants to the United States and their reminiscent connections with Pei-mei’s cookbook kind of brought things full circle for me. Overall, a very fascinating read.