The Fiery Heart of Chinese Cooking

The western area of China is known as the ‘land of plenty’: its agricultural fecundity is a result of the warm climate and abundant rain and river water. The great reputation of western Chinese regional cooking stems back 2,200 years, but became known to the outside world only in the second half of the 20th century. Now, Sichuan cuisine is renowned all over the globe for its depth of flavour, which centres around eye-wateringly spicy chillies, as well as piquant aromatics, sour pickles and perfectly cooked meat.