A Banquet for Cecilia: How Cecilia Chiang Revolutionized Chinese Food in America

Gr 1-5–As a young girl growing up in a wealthy family in Beijing, Cecilia Chiang (1920–2020) developed a strong interest in learning how the meals she was served were prepared. She ultimately became a successful restaurateur in the U.S., where she served authentic Chinese cuisine that reflected the food of many different provinces and changed people’s understanding of it. Covered is Chiang’searly interest in observing the two chefs in her family’s kitchen and listening to her father’s description of what made each dish perfectly prepared. Her life changed drastically when Japan invaded Beijing, and she and a sister traveled on foot to the new Chinese capital, a distance of more than a thousand miles. During their six-month trip, Chiang saw the different regions of China and tasted many different cooking styles. After the war, she joined one of her sisters in San Francisco. Chiang was disappointed in what restaurants there offered as “Chinese food,” so she opened her own restaurant, offering a wide variety of over 200 dishes from the different regions of China. The restaurant was a huge success. Detailed descriptive writing brings this story to life. The food being prepared in her family’s kitchen, for example, is described: “Hot steam whistled out of bamboo baskets.” The illustrations provide additional information that supports the text: a map of the route Chiang walked with her sister shows the different regions they passed through, and the accompanying illustrations show the food in that region being prepared.