The Key to Chinese Cooking (First Edition)

Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1977. First edition (stated). First printing. Fine in a fine jacket. Glossy decorated boards; red endpapers. A tight, clean copy with very slight foxing to the text-block edges. Publisher’s original price ($15.00) printed on the front jacket flap. . 8vo, 532 pp., with index. Illustrated with drawings by Carolyn Moy; calligraphic seals designed by C. C. Kuo. Irene Kuo’s influential guide explains the fundamental techniques, ingredients, and principles of Chinese cooking. Irene Kuo, née Irene Hsingnee Yuan, was an influential popularizer of Chinese cuisine in the United States and the West during the 1960s and 1970s. Developed over more than five years with editor Judith Jones, copy editor Suzi Arensberg, and illustrator Carolyn Moy, The Key to Chinese Cooking was shaped to explain Chinese ingredients, techniques, recipes, and culinary traditions to Western readers while also conveying the cultural outlook behind the cuisine. The book became a standard reference for Chinese cooking in North America and abroad, went through numerous printings, and influenced later writers including Barbara Tropp, Fuchsia Dunlop, Eileen Yin-Fei Lo, and Grace Young. Her appearances on American talk-shows such as Johnny Carson's and Joan Rivers', as well as her successful restaurants, were instrumental in her popularization and education efforts.