ICE Event Review: Soul of a Banquet
On April 6, the Department of Diversity Initiatives held an Inter-Curricular Enrichment “ICE” Event “Soul of a Banquet: The Matriarch of Chinese Cooking” in celebration of Asian Pacific Islander Desi American “APIDA” heritage month.
While APIDA heritage month is in May, the Department of Diversity initiatives is kickstarting the celebration since the end of the spring semester at USC Aiken is approaching. They showed the documentary Soul Of A Banquet which was released in October 2014 by Director Wayne Wang. The documentary follows Cecilia Chiang, a Chinese-American chef, who introduced authentic Chinese food to the United States and founded the Mandarin restaurant in San Francisco, California.
Chiang opened Mandarin in 1961. She made a deal with friends to loan them $10,000 to secure the lease to open a restaurant, but they backed out so Chiang decided to open a restaurant. Her goal was to introduce people to authentic Chinese food and educate them. Chiang grew up in a time when there were great houses with classically trained chefs. The Cultural Revolution in China was a political movement by Communist leader Mao Zedong, which took place from 1966 to 1976, and they wanted to remove traditional elements of Chinese culture. This time period saw many chefs leaving China or being reeducated.
In the documentary, Chiang is preparing a banquet for the 40th anniversary of the Chez Panisse café owned by her friend Alice Waters. They discussed what goes into preparing the food for the banquet. There is a lot of precision and cutting that goes into it as well as considering the texture of the food, the colors and the time of year. A few of the dishes Chiang prepared for the banquet are:
Abalone sautéed with String Beans
Pork Kidney with green onion popcorn
Red braised pork
Pork belly with black sesame
Beggar’s Chicken
After the showing, the host asked the audience questions about the information they learned from the documentary such as asking what year Chiang returned to China to visit her family. Overall, the ICE event was interactive and educational. It provided students with the opportunity to learn more about Chinese cuisine.
Students who missed the opportunity to watch the documentary Soul Of A Banquet can stream it on Pluto TV, YouTube and other platforms.
