Invitation to a Banquet: The Story of Chinese Food

The Chinese are believed to be the earliest pioneers of “civilized gastronomy”. Fire and steam cooking techniques have been well documented for centuries. What makes a good/great banquet menu is somewhat deftly explained.Fuchsia Dunlop is well-known British author that lives in China and knows her stuff. Every grain of Rice, The Revolutionary Chinese cookbook and The Food of Sichuan are some of her cookbooks.

Just finished reading Fuchsia Dunlop's new book, Invitation to a Banquet: The Story of Chinese Food, and enjoyed it immensely! What struck me most was that instead of being a book of recipes, it delved deep into Chinese culture, heritage and philosophy through the prism of food — and its importance throughout the Chinese way of life. This anthropological masterpiece made me feel like Fuchsia, “makes the strange familiar” and “the familiar strange”. It's an eerily gratifying feeling as someone who was born and raised in Chongqing, China, now living overseas. Bought 20+ copies and going to send them as holiday gifts.

I can finally point my American friends to a book that explains properly what Chinese food is all about. I am so sick of "oh i love chinese food, sweet sour chicken is my favorite". Great book, nice read and accurate.

Illuminating exploration of Chinese food and culture.

Such a good book! Very interesting and informative. As always, Fuchsia Dunlop has given us an inside view of Chinese cuisine and culture.

I own every book Dunlop has published but this is the first I was disappointed in. For starters it is boring reading several hundred pages about all the rare cuisines in China that no westerner is likely to ever taste. I have spend a fair amount of time in China and I'm willing to bet few average people there will ever have a chance too. She makes it sound like the American version of Chinese food starts and ends with "chop suey." I've never eaten that in any restaurant myself. This could have been a much better book if she had dropped all the condemnations of westerners knowledge of Chinese food and stayed on the topic.

Great book. Informative, easy to read and well-organized. I have bought two more copies for my children and will pass my copy on to my chef son for whom it was originally destined when my wife is finished.

I love everything about this book. It is a story not a cook book. It gives an understanding of the Chinese approach to food - it is so not about just flavours. Wonderful

I have never met Ms Dunlop, but I have been enamored of her for over two decades. First there was Sichuan Cooking, the Land of Plenty, then ... Let me go back in time. I began cooking "Chinese" food in the mid-1960s, starting with the revolutionary work of Buwei Yang Chao. Buwei 'taught' the reader how to produce palatable food. Fuchsia is interested in methodology and gustotorial pleasure. Follow her and you will learn of tastes, smells and materials and keep your palate and gut happy.

This had been asked for by my daughter in law and she was really pleased, so the five stars is from her reaction.

This is a unique book and totally immersive, not a cookery book so much as a Chinese food love story but filled with so much deep experience and technical expertise.