Finalist for the 2022 IACP Award in Literary or Historical Food Writing
KCRWBest Culinary books of 2021
WBURHere & Now Favorite Cookbooks of 2021

Part memoir of life in Taiwan, part love storya beautifully told account of Chinas brilliant cuisineswith recipes.

At the Chinese Tabledescribes in vivid detail how, during the 1970s and 80s, celebrated cookbook writer and illustrator Carolyn Phillips crosses Chinas endless cultural and linguistic chasms and falls in love. During her second year in Taipei, she meets scholar and epicurean J. H. Huang, who nourishes her intellectually over luscious meals from every part of China. And then, before she knows it, Carolyn finds herself the unwelcome candidate for eldest daughter-in-law in a traditional Chinese family.

This warm, refreshingly candid memoir is a coming-of-age story set against a background of the Chinese diaspora and a family whose ancestry is intricately intertwined with that of their native land. Carolyns reticent father-in-lawa World War II fighter pilot and heroeventually embraces her presence by showing her how to re-create centuries-old Hakka dishes from family recipes. In the meantime, she brushes up on the classic cuisines of the North in an attempt to win over J. H.s imperious mother, whose father had been a warlords lieutenant. Fortunately for J. H. and Carolyn, the tense early days of their relationship blossom into another kind of cultural and historical education as Carolyn masters both the language and many of Chinas extraordinary cuisines.

With illustrations and twenty-two recipes,At the Chinese Tableis a culinary adventure like no other that captures the diversity of Chinas cuisines, from the pen of a world-class scholar and gourmet.

Line drawings throughout