The Art of Chinese Cooking
Written by the Benedictine Sisters of Peking (Sister M. Francetta and Sister Regia)
First Edition 1956
Written By: Summer Vo
The Art of Chinese Cooking was written by two American nuns that spent 15 years in China as missionaries, but moved to Japan. They wanted to share the recipes they learned from their cook, Ta Shih Fu, with their friends in Japan. While the book was published in 1956, they were writing it closer to the time of World War II as they were in China when the bomb dropped on Pearl Harbor. After the bomb was dropped, they were put into civilian concentration camps for the remainder of the war. However, their migration was not over here, once out of the concentration camps, they were forced out of Kaifeng by the communist during the rise of the Chinese Communist Party residing in Shanghai then Formosa. In 1950 the American Consul decided that Formosa may become too dangerous and they moved to Tokyo. It was in Tokyo that the two started a home economics school where they would grow from 6 students to 150 a week. Many of these recipes were used in their school and were compiled into this cookbook with the purpose of sharing them with a Western audience. The women were very mindful of the availability of ingredients and hoped they would be able to be prepared in any part of the West.
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