Aria with sweet and sour
There’s a feast of home-cooked Chinese food topped with a song from opera singer, Mei, for you to see and hear at Imagine a warm sunny day in Chongqing, China. Wide expanses of lawn and gardens surrounded by apartment…
Penny
Communicating through cooking
Sesame oil, fresh ginger, garlic and star anise are some of the key flavours of cooking in Chongqing in China. Charlie combined them all with beef to create a rich, succulent dish in his two-tier kitchen hanging over the…
One of the best experiences
Meet the fabulously delightful Charlie His wildly eclectic back-packers hostel in Chongqing, China, is perched on the very lip of the Yangtze River gorge. The building extends down the side of the gorge so, while we could…
My taste buds failed me
Probably the most daunting professional kitchen of my whole world tour: this was an authentic Chinese restaurant in one of the historic areas of Chongqing, the largest city in the world. Head Chef, Mr Dong, created two perfect dishes in…
Masterclass: Chinese breakfast dumplings.
Nothing like those floating-on-stew versions. These are delicate morsels of pork and leek wrapped in thin dough “skins” and steamed for the people of Chongqing to eat on their way to another busy working day – and so much healthier…
Pleasing powerful Ladies who Lunch.
Imagine your very first cookery demonstration: not even in a kitchen; supported by a chef who barely speaks English; an audience of the most powerful women in the world’s largest city. Daunting or what? I desperately fell back on the…
Chocolate Masterclass.
Cooking alongside another young blind woman in China, together we learned a classic chocolate Mousse during a session with Intercontinental chef, frank ( ). Lisa was intrigued by the talking thermometer and I was too by the practical demonstration as…
Living with blindness.
People have often asked me about how I can manage with no sight at all. Here are some of my most important aids: Voice-activated. Voice activated is all about using one’s voice to make things happen – rather than…
Good taste in China.
Wong Lin is a tiny young woman with very little cooking experience. But she was enthusiastic and fun as together we made her first Waldorf salad (). She was amazingly confident and relaxed to attempt perhaps her first unfamiliar western…
Pressing the flesh: rare, medium or well-done?
Two young blind masseuses spent an afternoon with the top Intercontinental chefs and me in Chongqing, China. We were all trying to learn from each other: some basic cooking, Chinese medical massage and living with blindness. Head chef Jack taught…