A Banquet for Cecilia: How Cecilia Chiang Revolutionized Chinese Food in America

From the moment war rattled her childhood home in China, seventh-daughter Cecilia Chiang found fierce hope in the crackle of chili oil and the perfume of star anise drifting from her mother’s stove. That bold hope carried her across an ocean to fog-coated San Francisco, where she opened The Mandarin and stunned curious Americans with velvet-textured potstickers, fiery Sichuan peppercorns, and a banquet style no chop-suey counter had ever dared. Chiang’s delicious rebellion rewrote the nation’s palate, offering a living syllabus on Immigrant Rights—how flavors cross borders even when people struggle to—and Gender Equality, proving a woman can command both kitchen and industry with fearless finesse. Each dish in this vibrant picture-book biography invites readers to taste resilience: the tangy pickles of homesickness, the sweet almond whispers of belonging, the slow-simmered courage that turns strangers into diners at a shared table. Will your class let these fragrant stories drift away like steam, or grab chopsticks and chew on what it means to welcome new voices to the American table? Savor the journey and feast on change today.