Emperor Can Wait Author Emma Chen Lets Her Stomach Do The Remembering

December 10th, 2009 by Nina

Joburg connoisseurs of Chinese cuisine have long frequented the Red Chamber, Emma Chen’s restaurant in Hyde Park. You might say it’s a bit of an institution. Chen’s recently added to the bliss with the publication of her beautiful memoir-plus-recipes, Emperor Can Wait. In a fashion reminiscent of Marcel Proust and his madeleine, food envokes powerful memories for Chen, which are beautifully captured in her book. Here, wine writer Neil Pendock appreciates both writer and book:

If the past is another country, the East is a whole new continent. As Johannesburg restaurateur the Red Chamber in Hyde Park Emma Chen notes in her beautiful memoir Emperor can Wait Picador Africa, 2009 “clams taste like I imagined the Sea Dragon Princess’s tears would taste like. Subtle and concentrated, each drop carried as much sea freshness as the whole sea.”