Retired Hong Kong couple write the definitive Chinese recipe book

When publisher Phaidon was looking for someone to write the China version of its cookery book series about national cuisines, it turned to a Hong Kong couple who have lived in China and have the culinary experience and pedigree to take on the daunting task.

But Chan Kei-lum, 75, and his wife, Diora Fong Hui-lan, 65, refused – twice – to take it on, pointing to the 12 months they were being given to compile all the recipes and background information for the book, and the fact they were busy with their own projects. While they have written a dozen cookbooks in Chinese, Phaidon’s China: The Cookbook, would be more difficult, as it had to be written in English.

WATCH the authors talk about compiling the recipes and cook a dish

However, with the encouragement of friends, they relented. The book, which will be launched globally on September 27, features more than 650 recipes from the eight great regional cuisines of China, and from Xinjiang, Tibet, Yunnan, Inner Mongolia and Taiwan. It joins the likes of The Nordic Cookbook, France: The Cookbook, The Lebanese Kitchen, and Peru: The Cookbook.

Chan is the son of Chan Mong-yan, a former chief editor of Hong Kong newspaper Sing Tao Daily, who was also a food columnist and cookbook author. The younger Chan learned early on how good food is made.

“I was his favourite son in terms of food because I loved to spend a lot of time in the kitchen, and help out whenever I could. One time when I was eight or nine years old, I tried to roast a duck for him. It wasn’t very well done because I was tired [of turning it over the fire], but that was the first time I tried to make something for a banquet. That stayed in my memory because he said you have to cook with your heart, not with your hands. That has stayed with me over 60 years and this is the motto we put in our cookbooks.”

On the day we interviewed the Chans, it was their 39th wedding anniversary, and Fong says that in all that time, they have never argued.