A banquet for Cecilia How Cecilia Chiang revolutionized Chinese food in America

If it hadn't been for Cecilia Chiang, Americans might still be under the impression that Chinese food is limited to chow mein, egg foo yong, and chop suey. This biography recounts Chiang's upbringing in a privileged home in Beijing, where she lingered around kitchens that were off-limits to her, delighting in the scents and sounds of the fine meals. When China was invaded by Japan in 1939, her family split apart; Chiang and her sister traveled on foot for thousands of miles seeking safety, along the way noting a variety of cooking styles and recipes. They settled in Shanghai until the Cultural Revolution forced the family to escape to Tokyo. There, Chiang opened a restaurant that served the foods she missed. Later, she did the same in San Francisco, opening the Mandarin, a restaurant that served dishes from all over China. Illustrated in exquisitely detailed watercolor and pen, A Banquet for Cecilia is a visual and textual feast for the senses and an important story of yet another way immigrants contribute to society.

Leung and Iwai present an engaging biography of entrepreneur Cecilia Chiang (1920--2020), whose San Francisco restaurant challenged the American impression of Chinese food as "cheap, fast dining." The telling begins with Chiang's privileged upbringing in a Beijing palace. At mealtimes, her father notes what makes each chef-prepared dish "perfect." But after the Japanese invasion of Beijing in 1937, Chiang must flee the city; journeying across China by foot, she and her sister "saw how cuisine... changed from province to province." As an adult in San Francisco, Chiang is disappointed by the Chinese food she encounters, and happenstance leads to her opening a restaurant serving ample dishes "that would showcase the best flavors from China's many regions." Interspersed with images of Cecelia's life and travels, loosely rendered mixed-media artwork places dishes atop maps to situate their origins. The result is a lively food atlas that spotlights care as the finest ingredient. Background characters are portrayed with various skin tones. An author's note concludes. Ages 4--8. (Apr.)

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. VERDICT Words and illustrations provide an excellent introduction to how one woman brought her love of fine Chinese food to the United States.--Myra Zarnowski

Take a compelling story of an indomitable chef, add heaps of immersive sensory details, stir in a warm palette, then devour this tasty introduction to Cecilia Chiang (1920-2020). Born in an old Beijing palace, young Cecilia loved the kitchen best, with its enticing aromas and iconic clamor of cleavers and sizzling wok oil. Her family enjoyed these delicious meals and savored each unique bite. When the arrival of Japanese troops in China in 1937 caused the family to scatter for safety, Cecilia and her sister fled to the countryside, where Cecilia discovered new cuisines. This education would inform her future, as she moved to Tokyo in 1949 to escape the Chinese civil war and later opened a Chinese restaurant to share flavors of home. After moving to San Francisco, she became determined to change Americans' perception of Chinese food as "cheap and greasy." Her second restaurant, the Mandarin, featured a fine-dining, two-hundred-item menu that would "showcase the best flavors from China's many regions." Excellent reviews and celebrity clientele brought fame, but what mattered most were sharing the tastes of her childhood and bringing customers joy. Leung's straightforward and thoughtful prose never glosses over Chiang's difficult life but lingers instead on the poetry of cooking, which is expertly paired with Iwai's watercolors that offer heartwarming and mouthwatering details on every spread. An author's note provides photos of Chiang and additional information in this story steeped in foodways and family. J. Elizabeth MillsMarch/April 2025 p.97 (c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Leung and Iwai offer an account of the woman who changed the way Americans regard Chinese cuisine. The seventh daughter in a wealthy Beijing family, Cecilia Chang (1920-2020) loved peering into the kitchen to watch the chefs preparing pork dumplings and sweet soup. At dinner each night, her father drew the family's attention to subtleties of the meals--words that Cecilia eagerly drank in. When Japan invaded Beijing (and then the rest of the country) in 1937, Cecilia left the city, embarking on a harrowing wartime journey that took her throughout China as she learned about each region's culinary specialties. In 1949, after civil war broke out, Cecilia escaped to Tokyo and then settled in San Francisco. She was disappointed by the Chinese food in restaurants, which was often cheap and greasy. "Chinese food is not just chop suey," she complained. In 1961, she opened her own restaurant, the Mandarin, which boasted a menu of over 200 dishes that highlighted flavors from all over China. The Mandarin soon became a fine-dining destination that redefined Americans' perceptions of Chinese food. Iwai's muted watercolor-and-ink artwork relies on a mixture of vignettes and full- and half-page spreads to capture the details of Cecilia's trek. Close-ups of the various dishes paired with sumptuous descriptions, along with maps of the regions where they originated, emphasize the richness of Chinese cuisine.(This review has been updated for factual accuracy.)Inspiring and delicious. (author's note, photos)(Picture-book biography. 5-10) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.