2007 book 76

Nicole Mones' The Last Chinese Chef
Mones, a food writer for Gourmet, writes a novel about a 40 year old widowed food writer who receives the disturbing news that her late husband may have fathered a child in China. She heads to Beijing to investigate the claim, and while she's there, works on an article about a half-Chinese, half-Jewish chef who's opening a restaurant, and to whom she is drawn. The story got a bit sentimental at times for my taste, and there was a little too much about Chinese culinary history for my taste (unsurprising, considering Mones' food writing), but it was still a sold effort. B+.