The Last Chinese Chef: A Novel
by Nicole Mones
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Book Summary Information
Author: Nicole MonesEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2008-06-06
ISBN: 0547053738
Number of pages: 304
Publisher: Mariner Books
Book Reviews of The Last Chinese Chef: A Novel
Book Review: Surprisingly perceptive, more than just a contemporary novel
Summary: 5 Stars
I was pleasantly surprised by "The Last Chinese Chef." While at first, it seemed just to be a contemporary novel, the type that women enjoy about love, betrayal, loss and redemption, it turns out that the book is far deeper than that.
The story revolves around a widow, Maggie, a food writer. Upon her husband's accidental death (I am giving nothing away here, not part of the plot surprise elements) she begins to discover secrets about his work in China. Forced to go and deal with the most pressing of these revelations, she takes a trip to the Middle Kingdom and also works on a story about a half American, half Chinese chef who is competing in Beijing in a sort of "Top Chef" competition.
The author takes time to tell the story of the upheavals of the Cultural Revolution (stories that sounded a lot like ones told to me by people I used to work with in Beijing who were my contemporaries in age.) And she goes into the cultural background of Chinese Imperial cuisine, a cultural element nearly lost after the revolution. This is all set against the background of the change in China due to economic growth. Her portraits of some of the ex-pats living there are remarkably perceptive. The historical background, and the fact the author takes time to tell many stories of the past take this fiction from ordinary to extraordinary.
The story has many aspects; a standard love story, a competition, exploration of a new culture and history. The only disappointing aspect was that the discussion of the actual cuisine was a bit disjointed and vague; if you don't know anything about Chinese cuisine other than visiting the local take-out joint in your town, you will not really get a sense for it other than some rules of flavor and texture; you'd have to already understand the Yin versus Yang, moist versus dry, and the Five Elements (wood, metal, water, fire, earth) and how flavors (salty, sweet, sour, pungent, bitter) correspond to these elements and their place in medicine as well as cooking and how this relates to Traditional Chinese Medicine, which views food as the mildest level of treatment of ailments. For anyone not familiar with this tradition, the descriptions of the gourmet foods will be a bit puzzling. There is a lot here below the surface (Chinese regional cuisine, Buddhist vegetarian gourmet "mock" meat and a whole lot more.)
The varied aspects of the plot (mystery, love, betrayal) keep the reader interested and no part of the story ever bogs down. This is a rich novel, and the author juggles many balls in the air to keep the reader fascinated. If the character development is a bit thin, it is overshadowed by the deep background knowledge of the author, something that gives this novel authenticity and makes it well worth reading. Quite enjoyable in fact. I will be reading more of this author's work.
Summary of The Last Chinese Chef: A Novel
In her satisfying, sensual third novel, Nicole Mones takes readers inside the hidden world of elite cuisine in modern China through the story of an American food writer in Beijing. When recently widowed Maggie McElroy is called to China to settle a claim against her late husband?s estate, she is blindsided by the discovery that he may have led a double life. Since work is all that will keep her sane, her magazine editor assigns her to profile Sam, a half-Chinese American who is the last in a line of gifted chefs tracing back to the imperial palace. As she watches Sam gear up for China?s Olympic culinary competition by planning the banquet of a lifetime, she begins to see past the cuisine?s artistry to glimpse its coherent expression of Chinese civilization. It is here, amid lessons of tradition, obligation, and human connection that she finds the secret ingredient that may yet heal her heart.
Nicole Mones has mined the endless riches of China once again in The Last Chinese Chef. This time she hits the trifecta: the personal stories of Sam and Maggie, the history and lore of Chinese cuisine, and an inside look at cultural dislocation. Maggie McElroy is a widowed American food writer who is suddenly confronted with a paternity claim against her late husband's estate--by a Chinese family. Her editor offers her another reason to go to Beijing: write an article about a rising young Chinese-American-Jewish chef, Sam Liang. Having sold the home she had with her late husband Matt and reduced her possessions to only the barest necessities, with her life feeling as though it is contracting around her, Maggie embraces the oppportunity to sort out her feelings about Matt's supposed infidelity and do some work at the same time.
She and Sam hit it off right away, even though he is involved in a very important competition for a place on the Chinese national cooking team for the 2008 Olympics. They travel together to the south of China where she meets her husband's possible daughter--with Sam standing by to act as translator--and where Maggie meets much of Sam's family. He has been welcomed back with open arms, even though he occasionally feels that he has one foot in China and one in Ohio. The Beijing uncles and the Hangzhou uncle are a raucous, loving, argumentative bunch of foodies who advise Sam about menus, encourage a romance with Maggie, make him start over again when the dish isn't perfect, and alternately praise and criticize his cooking.
Maggie loves being in the middle of it all and finds herself more and more drawn to Sam. She begins, with Sam's help, to see food as "healing" and understands the guanxi or "connectedness" that takes place around food. At the beginning of each chapter is a paragraph taken from a book entitled The Last Chinese Chef, written by Sam's grandfather and translated by Sam and his father. Mones has written that book, too, which is an explanation of the place of food in Chinese history and family life. The novel is rich with meaning and lore and an examination of loving relationships. Don't even touch this book when you're hungry. The descriptions make the aromas and textures float right off the page. --Valerie Ryan
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