The Last Chinese Chef by Nicole Mones -- Discussion Questions and Recipes

7/27/2019 The Last Chinese Chef by Nicole Mones -- Discussion Questions and Recipes

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About the Book

Nicole Mones transports readers to the fascinating world of elite cuisine in modern China with the story

of an American food writer traveling in Beijing. Recently widowed Maggie MacElroy is unexpectedly

called to China to settle a claim against her late husbands estate. Shocked that he may have led a secret

life, she immerses herself in work as a palliative. She is sent to profile Sam, a Chinese-American who is

the last in a line of gifted chefs tracing back to the Imperial Palace. As he prepares an elaborate banquetas his audition for the Cultural Olympics, Maggie learns to appreciate the beauty and balance, ritual and

meaning of Chinese cooking and cultureand finds the secret ingredient that will bring solace to her

heart.

About the Author

Nicole Mones, the author of the New York Times Notable Book Lost in Translation and A Cup of Light,

is a frequent contributor to Gourmet magazine. Her work, in print in eleven languages, has won the Janet

Heidinger Kafka Prize for the best work of fiction by an American woman and the Pacific Northwest

Booksellers Association Award. She started a textile business in China at the close of the Cultural

Revolution and ran it for eighteen years before she turned to writing about that country. She lives in

Portland, Oregon and has a website at www.nicolemones.com.

Questions For Discussion

1. In the beginning of the book, Maggie has tried to deal with her husbands death by shrinking her life

to a pinpoint. She disconnects from people and seems to be trying to make her world and herself smaller

and smaller.When you suffered a loss in your life, did you also feel like withdrawing from the world? If

you didnt, how did you feel? And if you did, how did you find your way back?

2. Maggies trip to China is weighted with deep emotionsconfusion over her late husbands possible

betrayal of her, nostalgia for the time they spent in Beijing, shock, grief. What does she ultimately findtherapeutic about her time there? Do you think people are generally more open to enlightening

experiences when they travel? If so, how or why?

3. Maggie approaches China, especially Chinese cuisine, with an initial reluctance.What is it about the

culture and the food in Beijing that helps to win her over? What connections does Maggie find between

this new world of cuisine and her writing specialty, American regional cuisine?

4. The Last Chinese Chefcould be described as a novel about human healing through the lessons and joys

of cuisine and the bonds between people. Several readers have written to say they felt a healing echo in

themselves from reading the novel. Did you sense any of this yourself? How did the book affect you?

5. As the book illuminates Chinas gastronomical philosophy, we learn that Chinese cuisine is not only

about fine ingredients and unique skills; it is also aboutguanxi, or relationship. Isguanxi a concept that is

solely Chinese, or do other cultures honor connections and relationships in the same way through

food? What does Chinese food teach Maggie aboutguanxi ? What did you learn that might change the

way you dine and eat?


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6. Of all the chefs vying for a spot in the Chinese Cultural Olympics, it could be said that Sam raised

in America, the son of an American Jewish mother and an expatriate Chinese fatheris the least

Chinese. Yet his food is described as the most traditional. Why is it important to Sam to honor the

traditions of his father and grandfather before him? What do his culinary interests reveal about him and

his mixed heritage?

7. Sam hones his culinary skills under the tutelage of his three uncles.How do these men influence

Sams cooking, and in what way does he work their instructions into his own culinary vision? In your

own life, who has most influenced or encouraged your interest in food and/or traditions?

8. Sams relationship with his father is complex and strained at times.Why has the elder Liang made the

choices he has, and how have his choices contributed to the relationship with his son? Do you empathize

with his decisions?

9. What is the significance of the book-within-the-novel, Sams grandfathers work,The Last Chinese

Chef? What deeper cultural understanding do the translated excerpts offer to Maggie, and to you as a

reader?

10. Her interview assignment starts as a side note to her main reason for coming to China: investigation

into the claim against her husbands estate. How does her unexpected assignment end up changing how

she feels about her husbands death? How does her meeting with the claimants serve as a breakthrough

for her? How did you feel about her ultimate handling of the claim? What does the experience teach her

about herself ?

11. When Maggie first learns about Gao Lan she is not disposed to feel friendly, yet as she gets to know

the full storyslowlyher perspective on Gao Lan changes. Do you sympathize with the shift in

Maggies attitude toward this woman? Has this ever happened to you? Have you ever started out againstsomeone and then, as you got to know more about them, slowly changed your view?

12. Readers have written to Nicole Mones to note that there are no villains in the book. The people who

seem to have done wrong to Maggie in the beginning (like Matt and Gao Lan) become just human people

who have made mistakes by the end. One reader wrote that she felt the re were only two villains in the

book: the system and the obstacles we place in front of ourselves. In your personal life story, what are

your villains, in other words, what forces

13. Reviewers have described this book as tantalizing, mouthwatering,delicious.What about

Moness descriptions make them so tempting? Was there a particular food scene that you found especially

memorable or mouthwatering?

14. How has Maggies experience in Beijing altered her by the books end? What kind of future do you

imagine for her, for Sam?

15. Maggie finds her way back through grief by way of a cuisine that insists people be bonded together,

over and over, at every meal. How does food and all that it representscommunity, nourishment,


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connection with the pastserve as a balm in both Maggies life and Sams life? When have you been

similarly affected by the way you eat? When you finished the book, did you feel at all differently about

how you cook and eat with others in your own life? If you felt you would like to change one thing about

this aspect of your life, what would it be? Could you do it? Why or why not?

A Conversation with Nicole Mones

Your novel comes to life against the unusual background of serious Chinese cuisine.Why did you choose

this setting?

Because there is a magnificent world of Chinese food that remains invisible to most Americans. What we

call Chinese food in this country is a hybrid cuisine, different and limited, so most Americans have never

experienced true Chinese foodeven though it is beginning to be available in this country and can

usually be found in U.S. cities with strong Chinese communities.

When did you become interested in Chinese food?

From the moment I arrived there in 1977, to do business in textiles. You can imagine what a shock it was

to sit down to my first banquet in the Peoples Republic. I had never dreamed such dishes existed. In the

eighteen years I did business in China, I came to see that the cuisine itself constituted a kind of language.

Formal meals sent signals without words. Often in those years I would hear foreign businessmen

complain that they had sat through a three-hour banquet only to have every attempt to discuss business

rebuffed. They did not understand that the banquet itself was the conversation.

Was there much of a restaurant scene then?

No. In the early fifties, the government allowed only a few restaurants to stay open; they shuttered the

rest. By the nineties, that had changed. Privatization arrived and the restaurant industry was one of the

first tobloom. You might say that food, formerly reviled as decadent, was one of the first of lifes

pleasures to be rehabilitated in the new free-market China. Now its really big. Theres keen competitionto create great cuisine. Its a boom time for the art form.

What was it like when you first got there?

The Cultural Revolution had just been formally ended by the National Peoples Congress six weeks

before.We had no diplomatic relations. To enter China, you had to go to a rural border village north of

Hong Kong and cross on foot. British authorities would exitstamp you to walk across a covered wooden

bridge with your suitcase. I remember being surprised that I made it across without fainting. It was very

surreal. At that time China was premodern; to enter it was to fall back in time to the 1940s. And people

were completely traumatized by the Cultural Revolution and the famine that had preceded it.

A few years later, just as I was gaining the ability to converse in Chinese, the curtain of silence was

starting to lift on recent traumas such as the Cultural Revolution. I found Chinese people everywhere

filled with the need to tell their stories. In those years I absorbed countless tales of peoples lives. This

prepared me to write novels with Chinese characters.

What were the three most fascinating things you learned aboutChinese cuisine?

First, to a much greater degree than other cuisines, Chinese food consciously seeks to reflect and

comment on its culture through a web of references and allusions. It encompasses a world, and maybe


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thats why its seen there as a fine art form. Second, Chinese food aims to engage the mind, not just the

palate. There is a whole tradition of artificedishes come to the table looking like one thing but turn out

to be something else. Other dishes call up events in history or great works of art. Still others aim to spur

the creation of poetry at the table. Third, the highest lesson of Chinese food, its single most important

aspect, is the focus on community. All food in China is shared. Nothing is ever plated for the individual

the opposite of cuisine in the West. Through the ritual of eating together every day, the human bondsthat hold the world together are forged and reinforced. Thats the journey at the heart ofThe LastChinese

Chef.

Recommended Recipes

Many readers ofThe Last Chinese Chefhave been inspired to explore Chinese cuisine further. Nicole

Mones has gathered the following recipes and offers them as a starting point for your own culinary

adventures.

Readers can also taste these dishes at the source by visiting their home restaurants. For current addresses

and additional recommendations, visit www.nicolemones.com and click on Food Lovers.

STEAMED CLAMS AND EGGS

12 Manila clams, scrubbed

4 eggs

cup lukewarm unsalted chicken broth (lukewarm water and powdered chicken bouillon may be

substituted)

Salt

Freshly ground white pepper

Sesame oil

Light soy sauce1 tablespoon minced scallion

In a large pot fitted with a steamer rack large enough to hold 4

(8-ounce) ramekins, bring a quart of water to a boil. Divide

clams among ramekins.

In a small bowl whisk 1 egg until frothy. Whisk in an equivalent amount of chicken broth and a dash of

salt and white pepper.

Pour the egg mixture over the clams in one of the ramekins. Repeat with the remaining eggs. Place

ramekins on the steamer rack in the pot.

Cover the pot and simmer for 12 minutes. Remove ramekins. Garnish each with a small drop of sesame

oil, a few drops of soy sauce, and a sprinkle of scallions. Serves 4 as an appetizer.

courtesy ofWang Haibo, Green Village, San Gabriel, California.

BEGGARS CHICKEN

One of the most famous Chinese dishes in the world, this is also one of the more elusive. Perhaps the

traditional method of first marinating the bird, then wrapping it in lotus leaves, then sealing it in mud

before long baking seems too dauntingfor not many restaurants actually offer it, at least without


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ordering ahead. One exception is Lou Wai Lou, which is one of several places where beggars chicken

may have originated. Because they produce so many orders each day, they have abandoned the mud-seal

technique in favor of successive layers of lotus leaves and modern baking bags.

When Wu Xunqu, chief chef at Lou Wai Lou, divulged this recipe, he cautioned that it was most but not

all of the recipe, since he had a few secret ingredients he wanted to keep to himself. He also insisted onstarting with the life of the chicken. This is one of the poultry-cooking secrets of Chinese haute cuisine:

the last two weeks of a chickens life must be spent outdoors, running free.

At home, however, you may start with a whole chicken, cleaned, and 46 whole lotus leaves, soaked 20

minutes in warm water. With one hand in the cavity of the bird and the other hand on the outside, snap as

many bones as you can, leaving the whole chicken intact. Create 34 cups of concentrated soup broth

from pork bone, beef bone, ham, and chicken feet (good quality canned broth may be substituted), onion,

ginger, and meiling soy sauce (its a tiny bit sour).

When cool, combine with rice wine, starch powder, white pepper, salt, and a little soy. Marinate chicken

30 minutes.

Remove the chicken to wrap in soaked lotus leaves, first pouring over and inside 1 cup of the marinade

(fortified with about 1 cup of extra slivered ham, other cooked meats left from the soup, and/or soaked,

slivered mushrooms).

Follow a layer of lotus with a layer of parchment and then another layer of lotus. Use plastic-style baking

bags and a foil wrap to create a tight seal.

Roast at 400 degrees for hour, then at 350 degrees for up to 3 hours, depending on the birds size and

age.

courtesy ofWu Xunqu, Lou Wai Lou, Hangzhou, China.

PORK SPARE RIBS IN LOTUS LEAF

These tender steamed ribs, which Uncle Xie teaches Sam to make in Hangzhou, are infused with the

delicate herbal musk of the lotus leaf. They are the creation of Henry Chang, owner and chef of

Changs Garden in Arcadia, California. Chang was trained from childhood in an old-school

apprenticeship in Taiwan, a place where all Chinas cuisines are represented. As a result, he is adept in

the cooking of every Chinese province. Lately the cuisine of Hangzhou has captured his creative

attention, and he has opened this restaurant to showcase the subtle dishes of that city.

1 lb pork spare ribs

2 dried lotus leaves

Crumbled glutinous rice scented with 5-spice seasonings :

2 T chopped scallion

1 T chopped ginger


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1 T each soy sauce, oil, sugar, soybean paste

T sesame oil

Trim all possible fat from spare ribs. Cut ribs into pieces 1 inch wide, 2 inches long, then marinate in

seasonings hour. Cut lotus leaves into eight pieces and soak in hot water 20 minutes. Remove

marinated ribs and discard scallion and ginger. Add crumbled rice and thoroughly mix with rib pieces.Divide ribs into eight small portions. Place each on a soaked lotus leaf, fold, and roll to make a package.

Place with the smooth side down in a bowl or deep plate. Steam over high heat for 2 hours until tender.

Put a serving plate face-down over the bowl and turn over. Serves 4.

courtesy ofHenry Chang, Changs Garden, Arcadia, California.

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The Last Chinese Chef by Nicole Mones -- Discussion Questions and Recipes