Black Sesame Kitchen is a Chinese cooking school set in a hutong. What inspired you to start the school? After going through cooking school and interning in restaurants, I started giving cooking lessons to friends. After a year, I decided to find my own space and bring in some of my past teachers as well.

Your recent book Serve the People is a memoir of you training to become a chef. How did you get into food writing? When I first came to China in 2000, I wanted to be a hard-hitting, investigative reporter. Food was the last thing on my mind. I only started thinking about it my third year in China, when I realized just how important food is here. Food is everywhere, food is talked about constantly. China is a nation obsessed with food.

Your memoir is also a portrayal of modern Chinese society. Why use food as a frame of reference? I wanted to write about the China we see today in a way that wasn’t cliché. I chose food as a lens to explore China through. What I like about the book is that readers don’t necessarily have to love Chinese food to enjoy it, because the book is about much more.

What are your favorite Beijing restaurants? For dumplings, Xian’r Lao Man near Andingmen. I also love Made in China and Duck de Chine for Peking Duck. Two of my favorite foreign restaurants are Luce and Caribou.

McAllister Jimbo