Sichuan Cookery by Fuchsia Dunlop

Sichuan Cookery has been a runaway success and could not have gained more plaudits if it had tried. Already an award winner, its author, Fuchsia Dunlop recently won the much-prized Guild of Food Writers' Jeremy Round Award for Best First Book. With the Glenfiddich Awards approaching, more accolades must be on their way.

Sichuan in China is a country no larger than France, with a reputation that ‘China is the place for food but Sichuan is the place for flavour'. This statement surely sets the scene. The province is renowned for its hot and spicy food, which boasts 5000 different dishes. The country is rich in food, both cultivated and in the wild and the whole province is looked upon as a larder. Chillies play a large part in Sichuanese cooking and they are either dried in the sun or pickled in salt and wine.

Besides its fiery food, Sichuan is famous for its well-salt, which has been made in the same area for two thousand years. The salt mines were founded by the irrigation expert Li Bing in the Third Century and are amongst the earliest in the world. Sichuan pepper is well-known for its fragrance and fiery, numbing qualities and is one of the defining characteristics of Sichuan cooking. It is one of the ingredients of the Chinese spice mixture Five Spices.

Interestingly, the spicy food is believed to combat the damp weather that Sichuan is accustomed to, by driving out the moisture from the body to restore health. A point in which Fuchsia's Sichuan friends say is a diet that is particularly suited to those living in England. Even more reason to delve between the pages and start cooking.

It has taken many years of research to bring this book to fruition and Fuchsia Dunlop is one of the few food writers who has researched her subject well and truly on the ground. She was the only foreigner to have trained as a full time student at the Sichuan Institute of Higher Cuisine in Chengdu, the capital, where she lived from 1994 to 1996. She was able to draw on the expertise of some of the province's most celebrated chefs and writers. The province's chefs are celebrated for their cutting skills, subtle control of heat and flavouring techniques. Fuchsia has absorbed all this and managed to put her findings onto paper in very easy step-by-step instructions.

Sichuan Cookery explores all this in great depth, looking at the history of the province, local life and culinary customs with great élan and even if you fail to reach for your wok, you will be entertained by it. This is the first book of its kind that has appeared in English and will put a whole new perspective on Chinese cooking.

A few of the recipes require unusual ingredients or complex cooking methods, but Fuchsia has tested all the recipes at home, using her gas cooker, with ingredients which are available locally. Beginners will find this hugely reassuring, along with the list of stockists and ingredients at the back of the book. You can also find updates on Fuchsia's website, www.fuchsiadunlop.co.uk.

If you have an interest in Chinese food, and let's face it, who doesn't, Sichuan Cookery will push you into new realms. The Good Web Guide cannot recommend this book more highly. It will sit proudly on your shelves for many years to come and Fuchsia Dunlop deserves to join the ranks of some of our great literary food writers. Perhaps she will become the Elizabeth David of the Far East.

Publication details:
276 pp. Cover photograph by David Loftus. Inset photography by Tara Fisher.£20
Published by Michael Joseph
ISBN 071814404X
2001

Order directly from