Join us for a historical and sensory exploration of Chinese cuisine with Fuchsia Dunlop, a celebrated cook and food writer from the U.K. Dunlop will introduce us to her latest book Invitation to a Banquet: The Story of Chinese Food on Wednesday, December 13th at 4:30 pm EST. Dunlop’s books include Shark’s Fin and Sichuan Pepper: A Sweet-Sour Memoir of Eating in China, The Food of Sichuan and Every Grain of Rice: Simple Chinese Home Cooking. Invitation to a Banquet was published by W.W. Norton in the U.S. on November 7th.
Dwight Garner of The New York Times hailed Invitation to a Banquet as “A serious and intrepid work of culinary history.”
Jen Lin-Liu, author, culinary journalist, events director and culinary consultant at Chang Chang, a restaurant by Peter Chang in Washington, D.C., will conduct the conversation with Fuchsia Dunlop.
This program is made possible with the support of The Ruth H. Kuo and Rhoda How Memorial Foundation.
About Fuchsia Dunlop
Fuchsia Dunlop is a James Beard award-winning food writer and cook specialising in Chinese cuisine. She trained as a chef at the Sichuan Higher Institute of Cuisine in the 1990s and has been researching Chinese food for nearly three decades. She is the author of seven books, four of which have been translated into Chinese, and has won numerous awards, including four from the James Beard Foundation. Fuchsia has appeared in TV shows including Ugly Delicious and A Bite of China. A Mandarin Chinese speaker, she also leads culinary tours of China. Her latest book is Invitation to a Banquet: The story of Chinese food.
About Jen Lin-Liu
Jen Lin-Liu was born in Chicago and grew up in Southern California. She is the author of two culinary memoirs, Serve the People: A Stir-Fried Journey through China and On the Noodle Road: From Beijing to Rome with Love and Pasta. She is the events director and a culinary consultant for Chang Chang, a restaurant in Washington D.C. by Peter Chang. Since Chang Chang opened in October 2022, the restaurant has attracted a list of formidable women, and Jen has had the pleasure of serving Michelle Obama, Amy Tan, Alice Waters, and Grace Young.
Jen graduated from Columbia University in New York City, receiving a bachelor’s degree in Urban Studies and a master’s from the Columbia School of Journalism. She developed a lifelong passion and career in Chinese cuisine after receiving a Fulbright Fellowship to China in 2000. She has written for The New York Times, Newsweek, The Economist, and Saveur. In 2008, she founded a cooking school in Beijing called Black Sesame Kitchen. Jen is married to Craig Simons, an author and diplomat. With their two children, they have lived in Chengdu, China and Havana, Cuba, and Beijing, China. They currently live in Washington D.C.