‘Julia Child of Chinese food’
Cecilia Chiang 1920 - 2020 Restaurateur rejected cultural stereotypes
Cecilia Chiang, the elegant San Francisco restaurateur who earned the title the “Julia Child of Chinese food,” died Oct. 28 at home in San Francisco. She was 100.
Chiang was raised in a 52- room Beijing mansion with servants. But she had to endure a 1,600- km journey across China to avoid Japanese invaders; a hasty flight off the mainland during the Communist revolution; and an entry into the hospitality business, with no experience running restaurants.
( Her son, Philip, would later co-found P.F. Chang’s.)
Her restaurant, the Mandarin, in San Francisco, rejected the orthodoxy of Chinese restaurants in mid-20th- century America: It didn’t serve chop suey, wasn’t located in Chinatown, and didn’t deal in cultural stereotypes. (No red, no gold, no dragons, no lanterns.)
Yale University history professor Paul Freedman included the Mandarin in his book Ten Restaurants That Changed America.
Chiang was born Sun Yun in 1920 near Shanghai, the 10th of 12 children. Her mother ran the household, but could stand only for short periods, her feet having been bound in the old Chinese custom.
Chiang’s father refused to follow tradition, which would help two of his girls flee Beijing on foot.
Chiang married businessman Chiang Liang in 1945 and had two children while living in Shanghai. The Communist army’s march into the city forced them to flee on the last commercial flight out of town. In Tokyo, she opened a restaurant, a hit among Chinese refugees and Japanese natives.
In 1960, Chiang learned that her brother- in- law had died, leaving her sister alone in San Francisco. She secured a three- month visa to the U. S. During her stay, two Chinese friends persuaded her to help open a restaurant. Chiang negotiated a 10-year lease and put down a US$10,000 deposit.
Within days, the two partners pulled out. “I was embarrassed to admit to my husband that I lost $ 10,000 of his money,” she wrote in her memoir and recipe book The Seventh Daughter ( 2007). “I decided I would try to make the best of it.”
The Mandarin became a magnet for tourists, chefs and celebrities. There she hosted cooking classes, teaching Alice Waters, Chuck Williams ( founder of Williams- Sonoma), Julia Child and James Beard.
Chiang is survived by her two children, three grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.