Fu Pei-mei

{{Infobox person

| name = Fu Pei-mei

| image = 家庭食譜傅培梅主持 1982.jpg

| caption = Fu in 1982

| native_name = 傅培梅

| birth_date = {{birth date|df=y|1931|10|1}}

| birth_place = Dairen, Kwantung Province, Empire of Japan

| death_date = {{death date and age|df=y|2004|9|16|1931|10|1}}

| death_place = Beitou, Taipei, Taiwan

| other_names =

| occupation = Chef

| years_active = 1962–2002

| website =

}}

Fu Pei-mei ({{zh|t=傅培梅|poj=Pòo Puê-muî|p=Fù Péiméi}}; 1 October 1931 – 16 September 2004) was a Taiwanese waishengren chef. She wrote over 30 cookbooks on Chinese cuisine, and produced and hosted cooking programs on Taiwan Television and Japan's NHK. In 2012, she was posthumously awarded the special award at the 47th Golden Bell Awards ceremony.

Life

Fu was born in 1931 in Dalian, under Japanese rule at the time. Aged 15, she left the city due to the events of the Chinese Civil War, and took on clerical work, where her company provided meals to its workers. {{cite journal |last=King |first=Michelle T. |title=The Julia Child of Chinese Cooking, or the Fu Pei-mei of French Food?: Comparative Contexts of Female Culinary Celebrity |journal=Gastronomica |volume=18 |issue=1 |date=Spring 2018 |pages=15–26 |doi=10.1525/gfc.2018.18.1.15 |jstor=26362502 |quote=As a result,[...]including Fu herself.[...] These war-time refugees, who came to be known as "mainlanders" (waishengren,[...] |quote-page=16}} Fu moved to Taiwan at age 18, as Chinese Communist forces consolidated control over the mainland. Before becoming a cook, she worked in a trading company and appeared in television commercials promoting electrical appliances. Fu left her career behind to marry Cheng Shao-ching, whom she met on a blind date. Cheng expected Fu to cook, and she tried to learn while raising a family, but she did not have time to focus on cooking until her children began attending school. Fu sought chefs from several well-known restaurants in Taipei to teach her how to cook, mailing a note that read, "Seeking famous chefs to learn cooking from, high pay." Fu spent two years, 1957 and 1958, as well as the entirety of her dowry, on sessions with these chefs, then began teaching students of her own in 1961.{{cite news |title=A woking ambassador |url=https://taiwantoday.tw/news.php?post=25268&unit=20,29,35,45 |access-date=12 September 2021 |work=Free China Journal |date=1 September 1992}} At first her audience were mainly Taiwanese housewives. Fu later taught wives of United States Armed Forces stationed in Taiwan.{{cite news |last1=Davis |first1=Emily |title=The Joy of Chinese Cooking |url=https://endeavors.unc.edu/the-joy-of-chinese-cooking/ |access-date=12 September 2021 |publisher=University of North Carolina |date=17 August 2020}} It was one of those students that helped her contact a producer at Taiwan Television, where she began her television career.{{cite news |author1=Han Cheung |title=Taiwan in Time: It's Fu Pei-mei time |url=https://taipeitimes.com/News/feat/archives/2021/09/12/2003764222 |access-date=12 September 2021 |work=Taipei Times |date=12 September 2021}}

For forty years, from 1962 to 2002, Fu hosted a series of cooking programs at Taiwan Television titled {{ill|Fu Pei-mei Time|zh|傅培梅時間}}, presenting over 4000 Chinese cuisine dishes. Her programs were exported to Japan, the United States, the Philippines and other Asian countries. Fu's show won a Golden Bell Award in 1997. She could speak the Jiaoliao Mandarin dialect natively, and was additionally fluent in standard Mandarin, Sichuanese, Cantonese, and Hokkien, as well as English and Japanese.{{cite news |title=Fu Pei-Mei, a Celebrated Chef |url=https://www.taiwan-panorama.com/Articles/Details?Guid=1302b865-0fb7-485a-8a45-c394f7401544&langId=3&CatId=11 |access-date=31 December 2024 |work=Taiwan Panorama |date=February 1980}} Fu was frequently invited to appear on Japan's NHK,{{Cite web|url=http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2004/09/17/2003203220|title=Legend of Chinese cooking dies at 73|work=Taipei Times|date=17 September 2004 |access-date=2017-05-31}} while her English-language programs were aided by a daughter.{{cite news |last1=Newman |first1=Jacqueline M. |title=Fu Pei Mei---Tribute to a Recipe Master |url=http://www.flavorandfortune.com/ffdataaccess/article.php?ID=540 |access-date=12 September 2021 |work=Flavor and Fortune |volume=12 |issue=3 |date=2005 |pages=31; 35}} Fu published an English–Chinese bilingual edition of her first cookbook in 1969, translating the text herself. Pei Mei's Chinese Cook Book ran for three volumes.{{cite news |last1=Tsai |first1=Luke |title=Why a Small Sebastopol Farm Has 1,000 Copies of This Iconic, Out-of-Print Chinese Cookbook |url=https://sf.eater.com/2020/11/17/21570459/radical-family-farms-fu-pei-mei-chinese-cookbook-taiwan-cook-off |access-date=12 September 2021 |work=Eater |date=17 November 2020}} Fu wrote over 30 cookbooks in Chinese and English and ran a cooking class.{{cite news |last1=Tsai |first1=Luke |title=She Raised a Generation of Taiwanese Home Cooks |url=https://tastecooking.com/raised-generation-taiwanese-home-cooks-taught-american-kids/ |access-date=12 September 2021 |work=Taste |date=27 June 2019}}{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6G27J_ltiEMC&dq=fu+pei&pg=PA106|title=Islands Magazine|date=April 1999|language=en}} Fu helped develop a number of flavorful precooked food products, including Manhan Noodles, an instant noodle product marketed by Uni-President, and a product line of five entrees for Ajinomoto.{{cite news |title=Three Minutes to Go |url=https://taiwantoday.tw/news.php?post=12808&unit=8,29,32,45 |access-date=12 September 2021 |work=Taiwan Journal |date=1 June 2007}}{{cite news |title=Fast, Fresh And Fancy |url=https://taiwantoday.tw/news.php?post=22451&unit=12,29,33,45 |access-date=12 September 2021 |work=Free China Journal |date=1 September 1992}}

Fu died on 16 September 2004 of pancreatic cancer, aged 73.

Legacy

In 1971, Raymond A. Sokolov of The New York Times stated that Fu Pei-mei "could be called the Julia Child of Chinese cooking."{{cite web|last=Sokolov|first=Raymond A.|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1971/07/25/archives/peimeis-cold-and-hot-salads.html|title=Pei-Mei's cold (and hot) salads|newspaper=The New York Times|date=1971-07-25|page=39 (SM section)}} - To view the narrative content, one must go into the "TimesMachine" as the HTML page does not yet display the relevant text as of 12/18/2023. Fu Pei-mei had a positive reception to the comparison.{{cite thesis|last=Pan|first=Chien-wei|url=https://era.ed.ac.uk/bitstream/handle/1842/37564/Pan2020.pdf|title=A Bite of Taiwan Culinary Intimacy in Contemporary Taiwanese Food Narratives|publisher=University of Edinburgh|year=2020|page=99}}

In 2012, she posthumously received the special Golden Bell Award.{{cite news |last1=Chung |first1=Jake |title=Golden Bells honor living and dead |url=http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2012/10/27/2003546217 |access-date=12 September 2021 |work=Taipei Times |date=27 October 2012}} In October 2015, a Google Doodle was dedicated to her.{{Cite web|url=https://doodles.google/doodle/pei-mei-fus-84th-birthday/|title=Pei Mei Fu's 84th Birthday|website=www.google.com|access-date=2017-06-07}}

A mini-series about Fu's life, sharing the same name as her autobiography, What She Put on the Table, aired in Taiwan during the summer of 2017.{{cite news |last1=Eng |first1=Jess |title=Remembering Fu Pei-mei, who taught a generation to cook Chinese food |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/food/2024/05/20/fu-pei-mei-chinese-cooking-teacher/ |access-date=31 December 2024 |work=Washington Post |date=20 May 2024}} It was available globally starting in the fall of 2018 through the online streaming platform, Netflix.{{Cite web|url=https://taiwantoday.tw/news.php?unit=18&post=119361|title=Four Taiwan TV series made available globally on Netflix |agency=Ministry of Foreign Affairs|date=2017-08-02|work=Taiwan Today|language=en|access-date=2018-11-15}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.netflix.com/title/80189209|title=What She Put on the Table {{!}} Netflix|website=www.netflix.com|access-date=2018-11-15}}

TV shows

Chinese Cooking with Fu Pei-mei, (aired on RPN (now RPTV) and later on ABS-CBN as part of Saturday morning program, respectively){{cite news |last1=Alvaro Limos |first1=Mario |title=Remember Chef Fu Pei Mei? Her life story is now on Netflix |url=https://www.spin.ph/life/guide/fu-pei-mei-chinese-cooking-show-a4349-20230614 |access-date=31 December 2024 |work=Spin |date=14 June 2023}}

Fu Pei-mei

Life

Legacy

TV shows

Books

Television

See also

References

Further reading