A taste for China

British food writer Fuchsia Dunlop and her newly published Land of Fish and Rice: Recipes from the Culinary Heart of China. [Photo by Yuki Sugiura/Bloomsbury Publishing]

Meanwhile, she says, most people interested in food now know that China's food is one of the world's great culinary cultures.

"Even in Chinatowns in the West," she says, "some people like their old favorites like sweet-and-sour pork, and that's OK. But there's also plenty of Sichuan and other dishes, so you don't have to eat lemon chicken and such anymore."

Dunlop was the first Westerner to train at the Sichuan Higher Institute of Cuisine, but it wasn't food that first brought her to China.

"I had been a student at Sichuan University, on a British Council scholarship to study history and minority cultures. However, I found it was more practical to study Chinese language first," she says.

"I'd always loved cooking, and I was asking around to see if I could cook in a small restaurant and learn. I heard about the institute from a friend and just cycled over. They let me sit in on sessions for a couple of months," she says.

After graduation from university, she went back to the culinary institute.

"I just popped in to say hello to my teachers there. They said, 'We're just starting a new course. Why don't you join?'

"I enrolled on the spot," she says. "A bit of luck, really."

Why does she consider the lower Yangtze region to be the center of Chinese gastronomy?

"It's the headquarters of one of the four great regional cuisines, but the area has also produced more literature about food than others," she says. "There's a particular refinement, a rich analysis of flavor and texture."