Pan Macmillan

Emma Chen’s Emperor Can Wait features on Mail & Guardian books editor Darryl Accone’s list of the top “walls, wars, food and games” reads that 2009 brought us – the only SA book to make the cut. Congratulations to Chen!

I must disclose immediately that I am a friend of Emma’s. It would be remiss, however, not to acknowledge her book. The global hit Sophie’s World by Jostein Garder was described as “The detective novel that thinks it’s a philosophy book”, a formulation that could have been reversed. Emperor Can Wait is a memoir punctuated with anecdotes about food and recipes to accompany those.

Most media coverage has focused on the recipes, but to use the Sophie’s World formulation: “Emperor Can Wait is a recipe book that knows it’s a memoir.” It knows that it is about family, friends and food; about life, love and literature; about where home and the heart are to be found.

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Book details

• Emperor Can Wait by Emma Chen
  EAN: 9781770101678
  Find this book with BOOK Finder!

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.”

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Book details

• Emperor Can Wait by Emma Chen
  EAN: 9781770101678
  Find this book with BOOK Finder!

For chef Marlene van der Westhuizen, cooking is very much a calling, a labour of love. Her passion for food and entertainment is tangible when paging through her delightful new book, Sumptuous.

You too can become a super chef by learning from the master herself: van der Westhuizen gives private cooking classes. She and her marble slab (which up to fifteen aspiring chefs can crowd around) recently appeared in a Property Magazine feature on South Africa’s top kitchenistas:

Marlene took a long detour through her life to become a chef. ‘I was in Brussels with Deon [her husband]. There was a little chef shop on a tiny little street. It was an amazing place: the deeper you went in, the bigger the pots became. I walked through this shop and I suddenly realised that yes, you are a good cook but you know fuck all. It was bit of a moment. I was 34 years old. I’d wasted fabulous opportunities and now – what was I going to do? I talked to Deon on the plane back and said either I do it now or I shall regret my life forever.

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Book details

• Sumptuous: Food from the heart of France to the Cape by Marlene van der Westhuizen
  EAN: 9781920075910
  Find this book with BOOK Finder!

The Red Chamber is celebrating its 20th anniversary. Hilary Biller spoke to owner Emma Chen about the milestone and the launch of her first book, Emperor Can Wait
 
You started your restaurant when the average South African’s idea of Chinese food was a Cantonese take-out, deep-fried and dripping in sweet-and-sour sauce. How difficult has it been to educate our palates about real Chinese food?

It has been a gradual process. I do get Chinese people criticising me for not serving authentic things like whole chicken, chicken feet and tripe. I’m not here to shock people but to slowly introduce authentic Chinese food to the customers’ palates.

In the beginning, we had the standard Chinese set menu, now hardly ever.

• Complete article in the Sunday Times

Book details

• Emperor Can Wait by Emma Chen
  EAN: 9781770101678
  Find this book with BOOK Finder!

Restauranteur Emma Chen’s memoir, Emperor Can Wait, was launched last week in Johannesburg. Here’s an excerpt from the book that takes us back to Taiwan:

Beer houses became popular in Taiwan around the time I started at university in the late 1970s. They sprang up like bamboo shoots after the spring rain. Simple wooden structures with canvas awnings gave them an informal feel; during the day, they probably looked shabby.

All the beer houses I knew were decorated with Christmas-tree lights: they were everywhere — around the wooden balustrades, the pillars and even the roof trusses. These hundreds of little lights didn’t illuminate the beer houses, but they did provide an exotic and festive atmosphere.

Their business started at dusk and ended at dawn and my college friends and I would meet up for dinner there. The beer came in full-size bottles, much like wine bottles, and was served in basic cold drink glasses.

• Complete article in the Mail & Guardian

Book details

• Emperor Can Wait by Emma Chen
  EAN: 9781770101678
  Find this book with BOOK Finder!

Emperor Can Wait… but not Emma Chen’s fans! The popular restaurateur and owner of the Red Chamber restaurant in the Hyde Park Shopping Centre in Joburg was inundated with book signing requests before her book launch even began on Tuesday, 3 November.

The launch was held at the mall’s Exclusive Books branch, literally “just around the corner” from Chen’s famous restaurant. Guests were treated to divinely delicious Chinese food and tea. Arts critic and academic Darryl Accone, the featured speaker, began by saying, “We come not to eat Emma’s food and drink in her words – but to praise them”.

Always eloquent, Accone spoke about how “Memoirs about food, family and homeland allow privileged glimpses into other cultures”. He called Chen “A citizen of the republic of letters, a vizier in the empire of grand cuisine” and praised her Red Chamber restaurant as a “home from home for many long-term patrons – a place of family, a community dedicated to excellence and humanism”.

Describing Emperor Can Wait Accone said, “It’s a memoir that knows it’s about family, friends and food, about life, love and literature, about where home and the heart are to be found”. He praised Chen for a “writer’s keen engagement with all the senses” in her book.

Sharing the Chinese greeting, “Have you eaten yet?” with the guests, Accone said the book captures the “centrality of food and social relations” in Chinese daily life. Telling of Chen’s childhood in the Republic of China in Taiwan, he recognised that, “Food carries with it the power of the old country”. For Emma Chen’s book he said, “Read it, buy it, treasure it”. He then invited Chen to step up to the mic to talk about her reasons for writing the book.

Chen immediately acknowledged Accone’s role in introducing her to her writing group and jokingly reminisced about his not-so-endearing previous role as a food critic!

She said once she started writing, she realised she “could not write anything else but my own childhood”. Speaking about her cultural heritage, she said, “The Chinese are a very reserved people, it is only through food that you feel you are being taken care of”. She added, “I think I wrote the book for myself… The process of writing made me feel that I didn’t lose my home”. And she laughed: “Everything in it is true!”
.
With a wink and a smile she invited guests to listen to her read from a chapter of Emperor Can Wait, titled with a Chinese swear word that might translate as “Jou ma se…”. The chapter told of a young Emma’s adventure out on a boat with a young boy. Her reading beautifully evoked her feistiness of spirit – a well-known part of the dynamic woman of today.

Emperor Can Wait promises to be a delectable read and includes Chen’s own recipes for her famous food at the end of each chapter.

Gallery

Book details

• Emperor Can Wait by Emma Chen
  EAN: 9781770101678
  Find this book with BOOK Finder!

Join Exclusive Books and Pan Macmillan at the launch of well known Johannesburg restaurateur Emma Chen’s book, Emperor can Wait. Emma will discuss her life in Taiwan prior to relocating to South Africa.

Event Details

• Date: Tuesday, 03 November 2009
• Time: 6:00 PM for 6:30 PM
• Venue: Exclusive Books, Hyde Park, Shop U30, Hyde Park Corner
  Jan Smuts Avenue
  Craighall, Johannesburg | Map
• RSVP: hydepark@exclusivebooks.co.za, 011 325 4298

About the book

In Emperor can Wait, well known Johannesburg restaurateur Emma Chen delicately prepares and serves up reminiscences of her fascinating childhood in the newly formed Republic of China in Taiwan and of her early adulthood in both Taiwan and South Africa. Emma’s evocative reflections are framed by the exodus of the Kuomintang from Mao Zedong’s communist China, and resonate with the popular Chinese saying ‘Emperor can wait – while we eat’, which captures the importance of food. The sights, sounds, smells and characters come alive through short vignettes that each centre on a traditional Chinese meal and it’s meaning to family and friends. Recipes for Emma’s renowned dishes are provided at the end of each chapter for those readers who would like to try their hand at preparing them.

Book Details

• Emperor Can Wait by Emma Chen
  EAN: 9781770101678
  Find this book with BOOK Finder!

‘Emperor can wait – while we eat’ is a popular Chinese proverb that captures the importance of food. I heard it often as a child growing up in a military camp in Taiwan.

The men were young soldiers who’d just lost the war and, along with it, their homeland to the Communists, and had had to flee to Taiwan. Their wives, too, suddenly found themselves in a crowded military setting, barely able to make ends meet.

Patriotic slogans could be seen everywhere during those times. The most popular was 反攻大陸, ‘Fight back to Mainland’ – everyone believed that Taiwan was only a temporary base and that we would return to our real home, Mainland China.

But we talked about food more than anything else.

– Preface, Emperor can Wait by Emma Chen

In Emperor can Wait, well-known Johannesburg restaurateur Emma Chen delicately prepares and serves up reminiscences of her fascinating childhood in the newly formed Republic of China in Taiwan and of her early adulthood in both Taiwan and South Africa.

Emma’s evocative reflections are framed by the exodus of the Kuomintang from Mao Zedong’s communist China, and resonate with the popular Chinese saying ‘Emperor can wait – while we eat’, which captures the importance of food. The sights, sounds, smells and characters come alive through short, descriptive vignettes that each centre on a traditional Chinese meal and its meaning to family and friends. Recipes for Emma’s renowned dishes are provided at the end of each chapter for those readers who would like to try their hand at preparing them.

Through her stories, Emma explores what happens when one is ‘transplanted’ to a new environment, discovering that nostalgia can be a powerful agent of inspiration.

About the author

Emma Chen’s fascination with food as an ingredient that brings people closer together took root in her childhood in Taiwan. In the early 1980s, Emma travelled to South Africa to further her studies. While working as a waitress, her passion for the preparation and appreciation of food was re-ignited, leading her to open the award-winning, traditional-Chinese cuisine restaurant, Red Chamber, in 1989. Emma’s enthusiasm has ensured that the Red Chamber is widely regarded as the best Chinese restaurant in Johannesburg.

Book details

• Emperor Can Wait by Emma Chen
  EAN: 9781770101678
  Find this book with BOOK Finder!

Pan Macmillan and Boekehuis invite you to a very special event this Saturday: meet and talk with author and chef Marlene van der Westhuizen, author of Sumptuous: Food from the heart of France to the Cape.

Co-owner and chef of Food on the Move Rudie Stoop will talk with Marlene van der Westhuizen about her book, SA cooking and “brasserie luxe”, simple food that looks as good as it tastes.

Two special dishes from Van der Westhuizen’s book will be offered as refreshments. Translation: you don’t want to miss this – see you there!

Event Details

• Date: Saturday, 24 October 2009
• Time: 12:00 PM for 12:30 PM
• Venue: Boekehuis, Cnr. Lothbury and Fawley streets
  Auckland Park
  Johannesburg | Map
• Guest Speaker: Rudie Stoop
• RSVP: boekehuis@boekehuis.co.za, 011 482 3609

About the book

“The bright yellow sunflowers in the fields around Charroux, the smell of roasting chestnuts, rich onion soup, a classic salad Nicoise, cassoulet or pot au feu, fennel and endive, lemon tarts, malva pudding and the wild food of the places where I live”.

These are the memories that Marlene van der Westhuizen, the author of Sumptuous, wants to convey to her readers. Sumptuous, the second cook book written by van der Westhuizen, takes readers on a journey through France and the Cape without having to leave the comfort of their own homes.

Each chapter begins with descriptions of elements of her life in France such as the markets, Bagatelle, sunflowers, statues and antiquing on a Sunday as well as her life in Cape Town such as the Food Studio and life amongst the vineyards. All these points of reference make the reader feel as though they too reside in the beautiful French countryside or that they too experiment in the Food Studio in Green Point, inspiring one and all to try their hand at these delicious recipes.

Prize-winning photographer and stylist, Gerda Genis’ exceptional photographs provide the perfect visual accompaniment to van der Westhuizen’s descriptions of the food, places, people and values that are described.

Book Details

• Sumptuous by Marlene van der Westhuizen, photographed by Gerda Genis
  EAN: 9781920075910
  Find this book with BOOK Finder!

Pan Macmillan and Kalk Bay Books are delighted to invite you to the second Cape launch of Marlene van der Westhuizen’s Sumptuous.

The author divides her time between her homes in Green Point, Cape Town and Charroux, France. In both places, Marlene runs cooking schools in which she shares her love for and skill in preparing “brasserie luxe”.

Many of her favourite recipes are available to a broader public in her first cookbook, Delectable, and now in the gorgeous follow-up, Sumptuous.

Complemented by the exquiste photography of Gerda Genis, Sumptous is as much a visual feast as it is a source of inspiration to anyone who loves good, simple, beautiful food.

Editor, journalist and friend, Heather Parker will introduce Marlene and discuss the book with her on this occasion.

We look forward to welcoming you.

Event Details

• Date: Friday, 04 September 2009
• Time: 6:00 PM for 6:30 PM
• Venue: Kalk Bay Books, 124 Main Road
  Kalk Bay | Map
• Guest Speaker: Heather Parker
• RSVP: 021 788 2266, books@kalkbaybooks.com
  http://www.kalkbaybooks.co.za/author-events-detail.php?id=72

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