Chinese Heritage Cooking From My American Kitchen

Chung is the owner of Ms. Chi Café, Culver City, CA, and was a finalist on the popular television show Top Chef. This delightfully visual cookbook provides at-home opportunities to try the Beijing-born author's recipes. Most notable is Chung's personal and humorous writing style, as she introduces the work with a brief biography about her beginnings as a chef and her path to success, including a section on Chinese ingredients and an illuminating "To Wok or Not To Wok" article. The work is organized nicely into categories such as "Meat Dishes from My Chinese American Kitchen" and "Everyone Can Cook Fish and Shellfish" and concludes with a useful index. Each recipe shows the completed dish in an exquisite full-color photograph on the facing page. Chung's instructions adhere to a similar template as her recipes: the name of the dish, followed by a paragraph describing the meal, most often with a personal anecdote. A column of required ingredients and serving sizes accompanies a highly detailed set of written steps. VERDICT Fans of Chung's cooking and Chinese food in general will find much to enjoy and attempt with these clever recipes.--Jason L. Steagall, formerly with Gateway Technical Coll. Lib., Elkhorn, WI