Irene Kuo: Difference between revisions

From Citizendium
Jump to navigation Jump to search
imported>Hayford Peirce
(minor editing in the lede)
imported>Hayford Peirce
(added photo of slippery beef in oyster sauce)
Line 16: Line 16:


=== The Key to Chinese Cooking ===
=== The Key to Chinese Cooking ===
{{Image|Irene Kuo Slippery Beef.jpg|right|150px|A dish of beef in oyster sauce, prepared by first using her technique of "slippery beef".}}
In 1971 Kuo pitched the idea of a Chinese cookbook to [[Judith Jones]], who knew of her through her appearance and mention in the popular and print media of the time. Jones was impressed by Kuo's extensive knowledge of the cuisine, her articulate prose, as well as the sincerity of her voice.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /> Together with copy editor [[Suzi Arensberg]] and the illustrator [[Carolyn Moy]], Jones and Kuo worked for more than five years on the manuscript, polishing it to make the concepts and organization understandable for the intended Western audience.<ref name=":1" /> It was also written in a way to provide a cultural glimpse into the Chinese psyche as well as being a guide and recipe book for Chinese cuisine.<ref name=hsu2015/> The [[Seal (East Asia)|Chinese seals]] in the book were designed by Kuo's husband.<ref name=":4" /> The book was eventually published in 1977.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book|title=The Key to Chinese Cooking|last=Kuo|first=Irene|publisher=Knopf|year=1977|isbn=9780394496382|location=|pages=}}</ref>
In 1971 Kuo pitched the idea of a Chinese cookbook to [[Judith Jones]], who knew of her through her appearance and mention in the popular and print media of the time. Jones was impressed by Kuo's extensive knowledge of the cuisine, her articulate prose, as well as the sincerity of her voice.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /> Together with copy editor [[Suzi Arensberg]] and the illustrator [[Carolyn Moy]], Jones and Kuo worked for more than five years on the manuscript, polishing it to make the concepts and organization understandable for the intended Western audience.<ref name=":1" /> It was also written in a way to provide a cultural glimpse into the Chinese psyche as well as being a guide and recipe book for Chinese cuisine.<ref name=hsu2015/> The [[Seal (East Asia)|Chinese seals]] in the book were designed by Kuo's husband.<ref name=":4" /> The book was eventually published in 1977.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book|title=The Key to Chinese Cooking|last=Kuo|first=Irene|publisher=Knopf|year=1977|isbn=9780394496382|location=|pages=}}</ref>


Kuo's intention in writing and working on the book was "...to leave something permanent".<ref name=":2">{{Cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1977/11/10/cooks-as-authors-a-kitchen-quartet/12b1ea8d-7bb6-412a-a0c4-096ec6c3485a/|title=Cooks as Authors: A Kitchen Quartet|last=Rice|first=William|date=November 10, 1977|work=The Washington Post|access-date=March 20, 2017|archive-url=|archive-date=|dead-url=}}</ref> Indeed, the cookbook was an enormous success and was the standard resource for Chinese cuisines in North America and abroad for the decade to come.<ref name=":0" /> It continues to influence food and cookbook writers to the likes of [[Barbara Tropp]], [[Eileen Yin-Fei Lo]],<ref name=":0" /> [[Fuchsia Dunlop]],<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.fuchsiadunlop.com/books-interview/|title=Fuschia Dunlop on Chinese Food|last=|first=|date=July 5, 2011|website=The Browser|archive-url=|archive-date=|dead-url=|access-date=}}</ref> [[Anne Mendelson]],<ref name=":4">{{Cite web|url=http://zesterdaily.com/book-reviews/judith-jones-guides-irene-kuos-classic-chinese-cookbook/|title=Classic Chinese Cookbook|last=Mendelson|first=Anne|date=November 9, 2011|website=Zester Daily|archive-url=|archive-date=|dead-url=|access-date=}}</ref> and [[Grace Young]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.graceyoung.com/2017/01/chow-chop-suey-and-florence-lin/|title=Chow Chop Suey and Florence Lin|last=Young|first=Grace|date=January 5, 2017|website=GraceYoung.com|archive-url=|archive-date=|dead-url=|access-date=}}</ref>
Kuo's intention in writing and working on the book was "...to leave something permanent".<ref name=":2">{{Cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1977/11/10/cooks-as-authors-a-kitchen-quartet/12b1ea8d-7bb6-412a-a0c4-096ec6c3485a/|title=Cooks as Authors: A Kitchen Quartet|last=Rice|first=William|date=November 10, 1977|work=The Washington Post|access-date=March 20, 2017|archive-url=|archive-date=|dead-url=}}</ref> Indeed, the cookbook was an enormous success and was the standard resource for Chinese cuisines in North America and abroad for the decade to come.<ref name=":0" /> It continues to influence food and cookbook writers to the likes of [[Barbara Tropp]], [[Eileen Yin-Fei Lo]],<ref name=":0" /> [[Fuchsia Dunlop]],<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.fuchsiadunlop.com/books-interview/|title=Fuschia Dunlop on Chinese Food|last=|first=|date=July 5, 2011|website=The Browser|archive-url=|archive-date=|dead-url=|access-date=}}</ref> [[Anne Mendelson]],<ref name=":4">{{Cite web|url=http://zesterdaily.com/book-reviews/judith-jones-guides-irene-kuos-classic-chinese-cookbook/|title=Classic Chinese Cookbook|last=Mendelson|first=Anne|date=November 9, 2011|website=Zester Daily|archive-url=|archive-date=|dead-url=|access-date=}}</ref> and [[Grace Young]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.graceyoung.com/2017/01/chow-chop-suey-and-florence-lin/|title=Chow Chop Suey and Florence Lin|last=Young|first=Grace|date=January 5, 2017|website=GraceYoung.com|archive-url=|archive-date=|dead-url=|access-date=}}</ref>

Revision as of 11:13, 5 October 2017

This article is developed but not approved.
 Main Article
 Discussion
Related Articles  [?]
Bibliography  [?]
External Links  [?]
Citable Version  [?]
 
https://en.citizendium.org/wiki/index.php?title=Irene_Kuo&printable=yes
This editable, developed Main Article is subject to a disclaimer.
© Photo: Helen Marcus
Irene Kuo on the rear flap of the dust jacket of The Key to Chinese Cooking, 1980.

Irene Kuo, née Irene Hsingnee Yuan, (June 1919 – July 1993) was the author of The Key to Chinese Cooking and an influential popularizer of Chinese cuisine in the United States and the West during the 1960s and 1970s.[1] 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.[2]

Early life

Kuo was born in China in 1919 into a family of affluent Chinese literati intimately linked to the Qing dynasty government of China. Her uncle Yuan Li-jun was the tutor of Puyi, the last Emperor of China. She grew up exposed to the finest offerings of Chinese cuisine and showed keen interest in learning about food. She befriended the hired cooks in her household and was taught the techniques of preparing some of their more opulent dishes.[2] Her family's influence and affluence at the time also allowed her to travel extensively throughout China experiencing everything from the heavy meat-based dishes of North China to the fine vegetarian cuisine at family Buddhist retreats.[3]

Adulthood

Kuo went to Barnard College in the United States for her undergraduate degree and returned to China upon graduation. Because of the ongoing civil war in China between Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalists and Mao Zedong's Communists, however, she returned to the United States just after her 22nd birthday. She met her future husband, Chi-Chih Kuo, in Washington, D.C. in 1943 and was married the following year. The couple had two sons and, after traveling between her husband's posts in Washington and Italy, they eventually settled in New York. It was here that they opened their two highly successful restaurants:

  • Gingko Tree, opened in 1966 on the corner of 69th Street and Amsterdam near Lincoln Center. The Kuo residences were several floors above each restaurant.

Through grand publicity events such as holding Barbra Streisand's 20th birthday bash at the Lichee Tree in 1962,[4] commissioning composer Dick Hyman to lead an orchestra accompanied with Chinese cleavers for the Year of the Monkey,[5] and being in the public spotlight in radio, television, and newspapers throughout the 1960s and 1970s, the Kuos became relatively well known in American culture of the time.

The Key to Chinese Cooking

(CC) Photo: Hayford Peirce
A dish of beef in oyster sauce, prepared by first using her technique of "slippery beef".

In 1971 Kuo pitched the idea of a Chinese cookbook to Judith Jones, who knew of her through her appearance and mention in the popular and print media of the time. Jones was impressed by Kuo's extensive knowledge of the cuisine, her articulate prose, as well as the sincerity of her voice.[2][3] Together with copy editor Suzi Arensberg and the illustrator Carolyn Moy, Jones and Kuo worked for more than five years on the manuscript, polishing it to make the concepts and organization understandable for the intended Western audience.[3] It was also written in a way to provide a cultural glimpse into the Chinese psyche as well as being a guide and recipe book for Chinese cuisine.[1] The Chinese seals in the book were designed by Kuo's husband.[6] The book was eventually published in 1977.[7]


Kuo's intention in writing and working on the book was "...to leave something permanent".[8] Indeed, the cookbook was an enormous success and was the standard resource for Chinese cuisines in North America and abroad for the decade to come.[2] It continues to influence food and cookbook writers to the likes of Barbara Tropp, Eileen Yin-Fei Lo,[2] Fuchsia Dunlop,[9] Anne Mendelson,[6] and Grace Young.[10]

Later life

Following the sales of her restaurants and the completion of her cookbook, Kuo retreated from public life and moved to Glendale, California. There had been intention of publishing a follow-up to The Key to Chinese Cooking with 175 recipes, which Kuo indicated to Jones once on January 2, 1982, stating that it could be finished in a year. However the book was never completed and Kuo eventually ended contact with Jones for unknown reasons.[2]

Kuo was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in early 1993 and died later in July 1993, weeks after her husband's death.[2]

Quotes

  • “I do not eat just for the sake of eating, the dish has to be superb for me to eat a lot.”[11]
  • "To condense something with the depth and scope of Chinese cooking into one volume is impossible."[8]
  • "If there is anything the Chinese are perpetually serious about it is food."[7]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Hsu, Hua (2015-11-23). Chinese Food and the Joy of Inauthentic Cooking.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 Sen, Mayukh (2017-03-16). How America Lost 'The Key to Chinese Cooking'.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Jones, Judith (2008). The Tenth Muse: My Life in Food. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. ISBN 9780307277442. 
  4. ↑ Gabler, Neal (2016). Barbra Streisand: Redefining Beauty, Femininity, and Power. Yale University Press. ISBN 9780300220711. 
  5. ↑ Redlands Daily Facts from Redlands, California · Page 12, Redlands Daily Facts, February 13, 1968.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Mendelson, Anne (November 9, 2011). Classic Chinese Cookbook.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Kuo, Irene (1977). The Key to Chinese Cooking. Knopf. ISBN 9780394496382. 
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Rice, William. Cooks as Authors: A Kitchen Quartet, The Washington Post, November 10, 1977.
  9. ↑ Fuschia Dunlop on Chinese Food (July 5, 2011).
  10. ↑ Young, Grace (January 5, 2017). Chow Chop Suey and Florence Lin.
  11. ↑ The Pittsburgh Press from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania · Page 207, The Pittsburgh Press, February 23, 1975.
Retrieved from "https://citizendium.org/wiki/index.php?title=Irene_Kuo&oldid=855618"