WorldJournal 12/25/07 write-up

陳方令儀 佳節教佳餚
【本報記者黃美惠洛斯阿圖報導】中國人過佳節必須要有佳餚，不論自家聚餐或者朋友之間的「百樂餐」（potluck），家庭主婦都希望得到製作方法簡單又好吃的點子。
聖誕前夕，烹飪家陳方令儀（Diana Fong Chan）說，她也忙著為家人親友準備聖誕夜的團圓飯，有些菜加上一點變化就相當不錯了。
比如一道蟹肉水果沙拉（Crabmeat Fruit Salad)，「每一次都大受歡迎！」陳方令儀說這道菜很容易做，端出來又漂亮。講究時用加州帝王蟹，聖誕聚餐可以改用龍蝦，龍蝦肉混合水果沙拉很美味，龍蝦頭尾可以當盤飾，添貴氣。
陳方令儀今年出版了英文食譜「輕鬆煮，健康吃」（暫譯：Easy'n Healthy Cooking），都是自己在灣區做菜的心得，很受到歡迎。談到佳節佳餚，她立刻想到的是炒蝦，她說蝦仁炒豌豆、蝦仁炒四季豆都是做起來容易又討喜的菜。上海的菜飯很適合素食者的胃口，又能在電鍋裡做，也是好選擇。
百頁結燒肉也是陳方令儀喜愛的，可應付客人多的場面，並建議加點綠色蔬菜在裡頭。雞的方面，她推荐「貴妃雞」；牛肉炒時蔬也是很容易做的主菜。
2007-12-25

READING: Borders Books, October 6, 2007

BOOK SIGNING
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 6th, 10:00A.M.

BORDERS BOOKS,
322 W EL CAMINO REAL, SUNNYVALE

TASTINGS from the cookbook!

DRAWINGS for bottled sauces from Lee Kum Kee!

Diana Chan is a creative innovator with a passion for cooking and baking. She was born in Shanghai, China and grew up in Hong Kong and Brazil where she watched her family’s Chinese chef prepare simple daily meals and elaborate banquet dishes. She is a maverick cookbook author and publisher who did most of the photography and all the illustrations for the book.

This cookbook presents a unique combination of Chinese, Fusion, and Western cuisine with 30-minute recipes and gourmet recipes for novice and experienced cooks who want to entertain in style. There are many vegetarian dishes, low-fat entrées and desserts that will delight health-conscious cooks, as many of the recipes are in the "lean cuisine" genre. These recipes are marked with red hearts for easy identification. The book has great ideas for home entertaining with make-ahead appetizers, desserts, and garnishes which add elegance to the presentation of food.

*** The cookbook has Many Festive Holiday recipes and gift ideas ***

" The recipes are selected to please both the novice and the expert Chinese chef in search of gourmet options. Illustrations of special ingredients…. step-by-step pictures…..a new genre of Chinese cooking. " Los Altos Town Crier “ the next Rachael Ray?... healthy food,. .. a new genre of Chinese cooking …very little oil… she has stuffed her cookbook full of recipes you 'll be happy to feed your family. ” Gentry Magazine. See website:

www.easyandhealthycooking.com

COMMENT: Vera Koo

I am so impressed with your published cookbook. It is so befitting with the time, since everyone nowadays has grown to be more aware of healthy eating habits and the nutritional value of foods.

Your recipes are easy to follow, even for an inexperienced cook such as myself. The cookbook certainly is a must for anyone who enjoys cooking Chinese food. And it will be a great gift idea too!

I have sent your cookbook to all my grown children and many of my friends. They all have positive results from using your recipes. They also have been recommending the cookbook to many of their friends.

I look forward to enjoy your recipes on the coming holidays with my family.

Vera

Vera Koo is a seven-time woman champion for the NRA National Action Pistol Championship and a 3 time World Woman Champion, and part of the US team that will compete at the 2008 World Action Pistol Championship in New Zealand. Check her website www.verakoo.com

COMMENT: Emily Wu, Author

Easy n' Healthy Cooking has great recipes that suit my busy lifestyle. I can make dinner in just 30 minutes and enjoy fresh cooked shrimp or steamed fish filet by following simple directions. There are so many delicious dishes that I can make for my family or easy entertaining. The beautiful photos are helpful in giving me ideas about how the food should look and entice me to want to try new recipes.

I highly recommend this cookbook to anyone who like Chinese and Fusion cooking.

Emily Wu

Author, Feather in the Storm, A Childhood Lost in Chaos

Winner, Best Book of the Year Award 2007, CALA

COMMENT: Hillary Spindler, Reader

".....I tried two recipes, the banana bread and then the heavenly fruit torte. I brought the fruit torte to a Memorial Day weekend BBQ and it was a *SMASH* hit. People were raving about it and I was so proud because it looked beautiful. I just couldn't believe that I had made it and not purchased it at a fancy bakery! It's a tribute to your instructions because they were easy to follow and everything came out wonderfully..... "

Hilary Spindler
June, 2007

READING: Main Street Cafe and Books, May 10, 2007

Thurs., May 10, 10-11:30am: book signing at Main Street Cafe and Books (134 Main Street, Los Altos, CA - Map/Directions)

REVIEW: Gentry Magazine, "The Epicurean"

Gentry Magazine, May, 2007, p. 150

REVIEW: World Journal (requires Chinese characters)

World Journal, April 30, 2007


陳方令儀 出英文食譜
圖文並茂 要教華裔第二代輕鬆煮出媽媽的味道

【本報記者黃美惠洛斯阿圖山麓市報導】陳方 令儀（Di-ana Fong Chan）生於上海，在香港和巴西長大，之後來美念書、生活。她還記得小時家裡移民巴西時帶著中國廚子，「那時以為巴西什麼中國食材都沒有，爸媽還把大廚 師先送去學會釀醬油、製豆腐才讓他跟著我們移民。」 陳方令儀原本是個遠庖廚的大小姐，但人生就這麼奇妙，她不必做菜卻自小喜歡看家裡的廚師揮動兩把菜刀剁肉切菜，「包出我今生吃過最好吃的生煎 包，」她又觀察到自家母親對健康飲食的講究。那麼多年以前，母親已知道要吃瘦肉、新鮮菜蔬（色澤越鮮艷越好，也是母親教的），炒菜少用油。

陳方令儀最近出版生平第一本食譜了，是圖文並茂的英文食譜「輕鬆煮，健康吃」（暫譯：Easy'n Healthy Cook-ing），她談到自己做菜的淵緣，不曾拜過師，「但從小打下堅實的基礎」。

「Easy'n Healthy Cooking」副標題是「Chinese,Fusion, and Western」，150道菜譜裡有中菜、西菜和中西混合菜式。中菜部分都附中文菜名，細分為：冷熱開胃菜、海鮮、牛肉豬肉、雞鴨、素菜、湯、米麵及點 心。西菜和中西混合菜式則分：冷熱開胃菜、主菜、麵包與湯類、沙拉素菜與飲品，以及甜品。

陳方令儀愛好藝術，音樂方面足以教琴、藝術方面，她和夫婿共同報名舊金山亞洲藝術博物館的講解員訓練，即將結訓。這本食譜，攝影她自己 來，繪圖也是她。在編輯和平面設計方面，她找到專業幫忙，聯繫印刷廠時，更得到博物館講解員訓練時結識的人介紹，找到Overseas Printing Corporation，書在中國印製，陳方令儀形容：「有博物館的水準。」出版後，舊金山亞洲藝術博物館圖書部也陳售，銷售甚佳。

坊間食譜已經不少，陳方令儀這本新加入市場的書卻有它的特色。至少在自己孩子身上，她實驗到，自己的食譜可以讓華裔第二代很輕易學到「如何煮出媽媽的味道來」，而這正是她出版食譜的緣起。

大約三年前，住紐約的兒子和媳婦向她討教，說工作太忙，希望媽媽傳授幾道易學易燒的菜。她選了炒牛肉、清炒蝦仁、香蕉蛋糕等五道菜的作法和 訣竅傳過去。沒多久，兒子媳婦說：「學會了，閉上眼睛吃，好像就是媽媽燒的哦！」於是再傳15道菜過去，日積月累，她居然發展出能出一本食譜的一百多道菜 了。

陳方令儀又有舉一反三的本事，讓菜色更符健康原則。像是西菜裡著名的「威靈頓牛排」（Beef Wellington）傳統作法是以牛里肌薄片包裹洋蔥、蘑菇、鵝肝醬等，外頭再包酥皮（frozen puff pastry）去烤，吃時切片，是隆重討好的名菜。

陳方令儀覺得鵝肝醬太濃膩，改以栗子替代，好吃又健康。她說，健康易做是最重要，做順手了，就可以自己加入變化，一道菜變出很多道菜來。這創新的巧意，受到替她寫序的「喜福居」東主，名廚朱鎮中（Lawrance Chu) 的稱許。

如果是素食或者特別健康考量的菜，她就在菜名前加上一顆紅心。一看，一百五十多道菜，倒是紅心記號居多！

5月10日的上午10時起，洛斯阿圖Main Street Cafe and Books請她為食譜新書發表。陳方令儀的精印食譜訂價19.95元，大家都說太便宜，她出書不為賺錢，只為分享，又怕洋人連上菜場選購都有困難，從認材料就教起，主要的中國食材也中英對照。

她的網站www.easyand healthycooking.com，食譜在中文書店如世界文化廣場、漢牛等也將陸續上架。



2007-04-30

REVIEW: Los Altos Town Crier

Home cooking all around the globe

By Eliza Ridgeway,
Town Crier Staff Writer
February 2, 2007

photos by Joe Hu/Town Crier

Diana Chan's "Easy 'n Healthy Cooking" offers illustrated, step-by-step instructions for Asian fusion dishes such as a light, fruit-filled crab salad, above.

When Los Altos Hills resident Diana Chan's son and daughter-in-law asked her for a handful of "starter" recipes a few years ago, she compiled recipes for five dishes with beginners in mind. What began as a modest family venture has spun into a grand endeavor as Chan puts the finishing touches on a cookbook containing 150 family favorites. The recipes are selected to please both the novice and the expert Chinese chef in search of gourmet options.

Acting as writer, photographer and publicist, Chan received a crash course in taking a book from idea to finished product as she developed "Easy 'n Healthy Cooking" (Easy 'n Healthy Cooking Publishers, 2007).

As a child growing up in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Brazil, Chan was often left with a governess when her parents traveled abroad. One of her favorite pastimes was observing the family's chef.

"(The governess) didn't mind that we went to watch (the chef)," Chan said. "He was really something - very, very talented. Here was a guy who was totally illiterate but had hundreds of recipes in his head. You learned a lot just by watching."

After she came to the United States, Chan worked as a vocational counselor and a social worker in Boston and Menlo Park, then as a homemaker, before she began the cookbook project.
Once she started, Chan found herself analyzing food, studying how to reproduce effects she liked and adding innovations of her own. Tasting stuffed prawns at a Mexican restaurant, for instance, inspired her to create a crab-stuffed prawn appetizer with a yam base.

"Now when I go out, I'm more critical, … trying to zero in on dishes I really enjoy," Chan said. "In the process of trying to reproduce ideas, you come across great innovations."

Chan enjoys telling the stories behind some of the dishes and their names, which are informed with a background in art and cultural history. A docent-in-training at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, Chan fleshes out the cultural origins behind dishes like "Buddha Jumps the Wall" and "Buddha Vegetarian Delight."

"Some people just read cookbooks," Chan said. "The notes on where recipes came from and when they are usually served brings in the cultural aspect that appeals to certain readers."
Illustrations of special ingredients introduce newcomers to the cuisine through some of the basic staples, such as dried mushrooms and sauces they will want to acquire for the recipes. The recipes themselves come with step-by-step pictures showing, for instance, how to assemble medallion chicken, an elaborate fusion dish that puts a Chinese spin on the classic Boeuf en Croûte. Chan stuffs chicken with a dim sum-type filling, then bakes it encased in pastry. She adds shiitake mushrooms and chestnuts to Beef Wellington and offers variants on a classic rum cake among the desserts.

Chan uses olive oil in many of her dishes. She embraced Cantonese-style cooking - known for its light, healthful flavorings - after being introduced to it by her husband. Chan grew up cooking Shanghainese, which included frying a lot of fish and braising it in a rich brown sauce.
The Cantonese style uses lighter seasoning, she said, such as a little rice wine, scallions and vinegar for the fish. Using chicken broth and mushroom seasoning to add flavor without fat, Chan describes her style as a new genre of Chinese cooking.

Chan plans to hold a book-signing in March at Main Street Cafe & Books in Los Altos. Lee Kum Kee, a maker of soy sauces from Hong Kong, has donated sauces for attendees to sample and win in a drawing.

Chan plans to stock "Easy 'n Healthy Cooking" at Main Street Cafe & Books, Borders, Kepler's, Books Inc. and the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco. The cookbook will be available in March.
For more information, visit www.easyandhealthycooking.com.