In the original dust jacket. Navy cloth binding with gilt title on the spine. Gilt chinese markings on the front board.

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For conditions, please view our photographs. A first edition book signed and sealed on the dust cover gathered into Jack’s library by the famous Cambridge Don, computer scientist, food and wine connoisseur, Jack Arnold LANG.

Jack founded the Michelin Guide ‘Midsummer House’- Cambridge’s paramount restaurant. This dining experience is hidden amongst the grassy pastures and grazing cattle of Midsummer Common and perched on the banks of the River Cam.

This signed First Edition book, written in the early 1950s by a former Chinese ambassador to London, is a cultured and entertaining view of the gastronomic side of Chinese life. F.T. Cheng sets out to show Westerners that there was a lot more to Chinese food culture than chop suey. It is a wonderful reminder of the richness and depth of Chinese culture from a man who also completely understood the West.

F.T. Cheng, the author of this book, was a member of the old Chinese elite. He was the Chinese ambassador to London and an intellectual who spoke English with the same old world charm as he no doubt did Chinese. He was also a gourmet, and in the early 1950s, he decided to write his “”musings”” on the theme of Chinese food and drink to educate Westerners about his homeland and its colorful cuisine. Musings of A Chinese Gourmet was first published in 1954.

Cheng Tien-hsi (10 July 1884 – 31 January 1970) was a Chinese author, jurist, and the last ambassador of the Republic of China to the United Kingdom. His courtesy name was “Futting” (茀定), so he was commonly known as F. T. Cheng.

Hardcover. Condition: Very good-. First Edition. 12mo, 155pp. Very good in the publisher’s blue cloth. Contents are clean. This copy is SIGNED by the author on the front free endpaper. Cheng, whose name is sometimes written as Cheng Tien-hsi, was a Chinese writer and jurist, who was also the last ambassador of the Republic of China to the United Kingdom. An attractive volume, scarce signed, which connects this Chinese writer to the Western influences in his country, with whom he maintained a lifelong connection (he died in London).