Food Writers Take the Festival by Storm!

It’s no surprise that many words we associate most closely with the pleasure of eating—taste, appetite and hunger, for instance—are the same words we use when talking about the pleasures of books.

We ‘hunger’ for a new title by a much-loved author.

We ‘devour’ books by the bagful.

And we ‘savour’ the words and phrases of our favourite writers.

Reading is clearly a very sensual pleasure.

So this year’s Festival line-up has a particular treat in store for festival-goers. For the first time ever, food writers are on the agenda.

We will have acclaimed three food writers with us in Hong Kong in 2012: Fuchsia Dunlop, Cheryl Tan and Tracy Griffith.

All three writers are experts when it comes to tickling the tastebuds, and each has her own speciality.

Photo Credit: Andi Sapey

Fuchsia Dunlop is a prominent cook and highly regarded food-writer from the UK. She is Chinese cuisine specialist. Her newest book is Every Grain of Rice: Simple Chinese Home Cooking. She has also written a memoir, Shark’s Fin and Sichuan Pepper, and two critically-acclaimed Chinese cookery books, Revolutionary Chinese Cookbookand Sichuan Cookery. Fuchsia has a deep passion for Chinese flavours and cookery techniques, and speaks Mandarin Chinese.

You can follow Fuchsia’s at-home adventures in the world of food on her blog at http://www.fuchsiadunlop.com/blog/. She writes about everything from new Chinese greens she’s unearthed in London, to the politics of the pork trade, through to the exact technique required for making jellyfish jelly!

Chef Tracy Griffiths is one of the few female sushi chefs anywhere in the world. Before becoming a trained sushi chef, she acted in Hollywood and also released a country music CD. But now she rocks the world of sushi, in inimitable style. Tracy turns our preconceived notions of sushi upside down and inside out.

Our third food writer not to be missed is Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan, a New York-based writer whose memoir A Tiger In The Kitchen shares how she discovered her Singaporean family by learning to cook with them. Born and raised in the eating mecca that is Singapore, Cheryl is an avowed foodie.

Cheryl’s blog http://atigerinthekitchen.com/ is regularly updated with tales from the kitchen bench, the dining table and beyond. You might find her talking about how durians (which, as she says, do look a little like mediaeval weapons), are famously banned on Singapore’s public transportation system, or extolling the pleasures of a simple lobster roll.

All three writers are set to be a blast at the Festival this year—so come along, grab a seat and get ready to chow down on a feast that will revolve around all things food!