Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper

Fuchsia Dunlop was the first Westerner to train at the Sichuan Higher Institute of Cuisine, and has been travelling around China and collecting recipes for more than two decades. Her previous books include the Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook (Ebury 2006), Sichuan Cookery, Every Grain of Rice: Simple Chinese Home Cooking and Land of Fish and Rice. She speaks, reads and writes Chinese, and she lives in East London.

"Britain's most informed Sichuan food expert" -- Terry Durack Independent "The best writer in the West - and perhaps in the world - on Chinese food" -- Bee Wilson Sunday Telegraph "I, for one, am grateful to be living in an era when I can read Fuchsia Dunlop's erudite writing. Her latest, Shark's Fin and Sichuan Pepper is filled with personal and humorous observations that make for fascinating reading. It is not only a memoir about food but also of culture from one of the world's oldest civilisations." -- Ken Hom "Fuchsia Dunlop is not just one of the world's experts on Chinese regional food, but a beautiful writer too. You can almost smell the Sichuan pepper and fish fragrant aubergines wafting off every page. She captures Sichuan life with a keen eye and elegant pen, at a time where China was on the cusp of opening up to the West. It's as evocative and eloquent picture of Chinese food and culture as you'll ever read, quietly erudite yet utterly addictive." -- Tom Parker Bowles "Fuchsia has a rare ability to convey an encyclopaedic knowledge of Chinese cuisine in a compelling and totally delicious way; this is a great book" -- Heston Blumenthal