There is no “Chinese cuisine”

Mon, 03 Dec 2012 12:45:00 +0000

The first book you’ve chosen is Yan-Kit So's Classic Food of China. But can you define what is the core cuisine of a country like China, which is so large and disparate?

People sometimes think that Chinese cuisine is the equivalent of French cuisine or something like that, but actually China is more a continent than a country. One of the main characteristics of Chinese food is that it is so varied and multi-faceted, which makes it an over-simplification to talk about Chinese cuisine. For example, Sichuan province, where I lived for some time and about whose cuisine I wrote my first book, is roughly the size of France. But there are certain cultural things that the different cuisines of China share.

How effectively does Yan-Kit So draw those out?

Salon.com > Alex Butterworth

There is no “Chinese cuisine”