Q&A with Wayne Wang, Cecilia Chiang, and Ruth Reichl

Wayne Wang (The Joy Luck Club) surprises audiences again with his twentieth feature and first documentary, about San Francisco restaurateur and chef Cecilia Chiang. Merely intending to capture footage of the then-92-year-old Chiang preparing a banquet in her apartment, Wang became so enraptured with his subject (who founded SF’s legendary restaurant The Mandarin in 1961) that he opted to expand his project to a feature-length account of Chiang’s extraordinary life, an oral history of Chinese food in America, and the mouth-watering spectacle of Chiang concocting her cuisine. Chef Alice Waters and food writer Ruth Reichl provide context for this nourishing multi-course feast.