Florence Lin, doyenne of Chinese cooks in America, dies at 97
She once had a very notable pupil
Adapted from a story by The Washington Post’s Emily Langer.
Florence Lin had little experience as a cook when she arrived in the United States in 1947 from her native China, where she had once joined Chiang Kai-shek’s nationalist army in the struggle against Japanese invaders. She was a young wife and mother, married to a New York stockbroker, and was hungry for the flavors of home.
By the time of her death, Mrs. Lin was regarded as a doyenne of Chinese cooks in the United States — one who helped expand the American palate beyond chop suey and sweet-and-sour pork to include the tastes and aromas of steamed bread, Peking duck and fresh lotus root salad.
But Mrs. Lin’s “recipes had a level of authenticity, sophistication and detail” not previously seen by American cooks, Grace Young, an authority on Chinese cooking and the author of books including “Stir-Frying to the Sky’s Edge,” wrote in an email.
Her life
- Born Shen Han Ju in 1920 in Hankou, in southeastern China, and spent part of her childhood in Ningbo, near Shanghai. She was the daughter of a prosperous silk merchant.
- Her life was thrown into turmoil when Japan invaded China in 1931. Over her family’s objections, she joined the youth army under Chiang Kai-shek, surviving bombings in which she was later assigned to count the bodies of the dead, according to information provided by her family.
- After the war, Mrs. Lin took a job at an accounting office, where she met and became engaged to Lin Kuo Yung. They were married in the United States, where they settled in part through the assistance of his uncle, the noted Chinese writer Lin Yutang. In America Mrs. Lin adopted the first name Florence.
- Mrs. Lin, like other Chinese immigrant women, sought to re-create her favorite dishes. She had a reputation for her sumptuous curry puffs.
- By 1960, she had begun teaching Chinese cooking at the China Institute in Manhattan, where she established herself as a revered instructor. At that time, interest in Chinese cooking was growing.
- Among her pupils over the years was Julia Child. They had five lessons.
- Despite having perfected English only when she came to the United States, Mrs. Lin became a regular contributor to publications including the New York Times and received numerous culinary awards.
- Her husband died in 1976 after 29 years of marriage. Survivors include two daughters, Flora L. Lee of Lake Oswego, Ore., and Kay S. Lin of Fayetteville, N.Y.; and two grandchildren.
Cookbooks
Years after their publication, her books remain classics.
- Chief contributor to “The Cooking of China,” a 1968 installment in the Time-Life “Foods of the World” series.
- First independent cookbook was “Florence Lin’s Chinese Regional Cookbook” (1975), in which she presented the lighter fare of imperial Peking, the hotter Szechuan and Hunan cuisine, the soy-sauce-inflected flavors of Shanghai, and the stir fry of Canton.
- “Florence Lin’s Chinese Vegetarian Cookbook” (1976)
- “Florence Lin’s Chinese One-Dish Meals” (1978)
- “Florence Lin’s Cooking With Fire Pots” (1979)
- “Florence Lin’s Complete Book of Chinese Noodles, Dumplings and Breads” (1986)
Her contributions
In her culinary commentary, Mrs. Lin sought to weave in flashes of Chinese culture, to expose readers not only to Chinese ways in the kitchen but also Chinese ways of life.
She valued practicality, allowing her students to make substitutions, such as white bread for steamed buns, when needed.
She insisted, however, that chopsticks — more than Western-style forks and knives — enhanced the flavor of Chinese meals.
“There are no gifts except food,” she told the New York Times in 1986, recalling her hometown tradition of offering relatives live chickens, yellow fish, ham or yellow rice wine at the new year. A chicken, she said, may make the rounds among givers and receivers of gifts during the holidays.
“That poor chicken,” she quipped. “Sometimes it goes around so much it gets dizzy.”
