A friend of mine absolutely loves cookbooks and has been thinking about learning Chinese cuisine. I know that she’s interested in Cantonese and Szechuan cooking, but I know she would enjoy books on any of the other six regions.
I don’t know if it makes a difference, but the friend in question is a professional chef, and extremely well-read on world cuisine in general, to the point that I can ask her “Tell me about <dish>” and get a 40-minute lecture on where each of the major ingredients came from, how their historical use changed, and at what point in time the dish in question assumed something resembling its modern form.
So with all that in mind, are there any specific books I should be looking at for her?
I would recommend “The Breath of a Wok” by Grace Young. It focuses specifically on wok cooking, but I don’t think you can learn how to cook authentic Cantonese or Szechuan without learning how to use a wok. The book has many recipes and is absolutely wonderful. I would at least start with that book.
I heartily recommend *The Chinese Kitchen: Recipes, Techniques, Ingredients, History, and Memories from America’s Leading Authority on Chinese Cooking * by Eileen Yin-fei Lo.
I have numerous cookbooks on Chinese cuisine and her’s is the one I refer to time and time again. My wife is Chinese and very picky about her traditional dishes being done “right”, and Eileen’s book has never let me down!