Chinese was the first truly global cuisine. When the first Chinese labourers began to sojourn and settle abroad, restaurants appeared in their wake. Yet Chinese food has the curious distinction of being both one of the world’s best-loved culinary traditions and one of the least understood. For more than a century, the overwhelming dominance of a simplified form of Cantonese cooking has ensured that few foreigners have experienced anything of its richness and sophistication – but today that is beginning to change. In ‘Invitation to a Banquet’, the James Beard Award-winning cook and writer Fuchsia Dunlop explores the culture, history and philosophy informing real Chinese cookery.