The Last Chinese Chef

The Last Chi­nese Chef by Nicole Mones. A Trade paper­back from 4th Estate, an imprint of Harper­Collins Publishers.

‘A story of food, heal­ing and love’ reads the blurb.

It’s that … and more. Food writer, Mag­gie goes on a quest to Bei­jing, China, to dis­cover the truth behind her late husband’s infi­delity and sub­se­quent pater­nity suit. The search coin­cides with the oppor­tu­nity to inter­view ris­ing culi­nary star, Sam Liang for a magazine.

The story seems like a straight for­ward piece like the many emo­tion­ally unat­tached sto­ries she’s writ­ten before, but she is soon cap­ti­vated by China and dis­cov­ers a food steeped in ancient his­tory and phi­los­o­phy. She can­not help being drawn into Sam’s world—and begins to under­stand his pas­sion to re-connect with famil­ial culi­nary roots.

He gives her a sump­tu­ous insight into Chi­nese cui­sine and she begins a gas­tro­nom­i­cally enchant­ing journey—one that ulti­mately sees her heal­ing from the tragedy of her husband’s untimely death and shock dis­cov­ery of his betrayal.

A great read for the food­ies and roman­tics out there.