Wu Wen "The Meaning of Cooking and How to Do It"

A guide to home cooking by Wu Wen, a culinary researcher from Beijing, China.

Wu Wen says that the most important thing in cooking is to make ingredients delicious. If you take the time to truly understand the ingredients, even a simple dish like stir-fried bean sprouts can become a feast. What's needed for this is to understand the ingredients well by asking "why does this happen?" and to use your ingenuity. This includes understanding the meaning behind cooking methods like stir-frying, stewing, and dressing, how to handle ingredients such as vegetables and meat, how to use seasonings like salt and oil, and how to plan menus that incorporate seasonal foods.
It's about having the wisdom of what cooking means and how to do it, which forms the core mindset when in the kitchen, and responding to the changes in the calendar and body through meals. "Cherish each day and eat seasonal foods as needed." This book is filled with an attitude towards food that one would want to pass down unchanged in an ever-changing world.
The book's classical yet fresh presentation and structure, which conveys wisdom accumulated over 23 years, are captivating, interwoven with recipes, her personal history, and her philosophy of Chinese home cooking. The diverse dishes at the beginning of the book are beautifully photographed in full color by Yurie Nagashima. The book design is by Tatsuya Ariyama and Chiharu Nakamoto (Ariyamadesignstore). It is published by "Tabure," a label by Yuko Ota, who was formerly the editor-in-chief of 'ku:nel'.