Banquet – Ten Courses to Harmony

Co-written with my partner, Greg Aitkin, Banquet – Ten Courses to Harmony was a social history and food book combined.  It looked at how the Chinese integrated into Australia through their links with food, and trawls the oldest, the latest, the best and the worst of “Chinese and Australian” cuisine.  Yum cha etiquette, the secrets of Chinatown, Chinese horoscopes, traditional festivals, even Chinese eateries as featured in the movies, and the importance of Chinese cuisine to some of Australia’s most celebrated chefs.  Oh – and recipes of course.  We were inspired to write this book to counter the racism off the back of Pauline Hanson’s political debut.  The book won Bronze at the 1999 World Food Media Awards.  It’s now out of print but I was recently told that the book is available on Amazon for $360.  To think how many I gave away!

Honouring the dead at Ching Ming