The Last Chinese Chef by Nicole Mones

Newly widowed Maggie McElroy travels to China for a writing assignment for Table magazine and to address a personal problem her husband may have left behind.  Sam Liang has left his home in Chicago to reconnect with his Chinese family.  He is already a well regarded chef but his grandfather was the last chef to the Emperor - the last Chinese chef.  The Maggie and Sam story is a complicated romance but the story of the Chinese cuisine is something else entirely.  One of the things I know for sure, I have never eaten real Chinese food - even in China.  The connection of food with history and family and mood and intention makes me long for a whole different relation with my dinner.  Apparently "the last Chinese chef" is a character of fiction but you could have fooled me.