Fuchsia Dunlop on ‘The Food of Sichuan’

Fuchsia Dunlop, the preeminent writer on Chinese cuisine in the English language, has published a completely revised and updated version of Land of Plenty, her classic book on Sichuan cookery, containing 70 new recipes. Her newest book is titled The Food of Sichuan. She joins Kaiser and guest host Jim Millward of Georgetown University in a discussion of this wildly popular cuisine — and how to get started as a Sichuan chef in your own kitchen.

12:18: Are there eight regional cuisines in China?

21:20: Sichuanese food going global

26:37: Sichuan cooking 101

35:01: Useful “hacks” for cooking and preparation

41:20: Food fads in China and how they migrate

Recommendations:

Jim: Give Fuchsia a follow on Instagram; Women and China’s Revolutions, by Gail Hershatter; and the Los Angeles–based Cambodian and American psychedelic rock band Dengue Fever. 

Kaiser: A Thousand Small Sanities: The Moral Adventure of Liberalism, by Adam Gopnik. 

Fuchsia: Away: A Novel, by Amy Bloom; The Cooking Gene: A Journey Through African American Cultural History in the Old South, by Michael W. Twitty; and the soon-to-be-released posthumous album, Thanks for the Dance, by singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen.