The last Chinese chef

"The Last Chinese Chef" was recommended to me by a friend who had traveled in China; I was not disappointed.

This novel by Nicole Mones tells the story of Maggie McElroy, a widowed American food writer who travels to Beijing with two goals. The first is to investigate a totally unexpected Chinese paternity claim against her late husband's estate. The second is to write a magazine story about an up and coming half American Chinese chef who is competing in a major culinary event.

What could have been melodramatic in lesser hands than Mones' shows how "food can heal the human heart", an assertion that Maggie at first rejects but comes to believe, as her grief lessens and her life evolves.