The woman credited with changing the way Americans see Chinese food has died at the age of 100.
The San Francisco Chronicle reports Cecelia Chiang died Wednesday of undisclosed causes. The restauranteur moved from Japan to San Francisco in 1958 and expressed shock at what she considered the blandness of Chinese food.
She went on to open The Mandarin in 1961 in San Francisco and taught Chinese cooking to such legends as Julia Child and James Beard, according to NPR.
“They think chop suey is the only thing we have in China,” said Chiang. “What a shame.”
The Mandarin broke every stereotype about Chinese food and proved that a high end Chinese restaurant could succeed. The family lineage continues in the restaurant industry.
Her son founded P.F. Chang’s and the son of one of her chefs opened Panda Express.
“I never cooked in my whole life before I came to this country, because in the old days the girls were not supposed to go to the kitchen. I never cooked, but I knew exactly what the food should taste like and look like. I have a very good palate and good memory. And that became the recipes,” she told the Wall Street Journal, according to the Chronicle.
The Mandarin would move from its Polk Street location to the city’s famed Ghirardelli Square. It would later open a second location in Beverly Hills.
“I’m just very lucky that I have a good nose, a good palate,” Chiang said in an interview on Padma Lakshmi’s Taste of the Nation. “This is something either you have or you don’t. Just like a lot of wealthy people are very wealthy, but they don’t have good taste. That’s something money cannot buy.”
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