Fuchsia Dunlop: Five Tastes, Chinese Cooking, Flavour and Balance

Fuchsia Dunlop returns to the podcast to discuss Five Tastes: The Magic of Flavour in the Chinese Kitchen.

We explore how Chinese cooking thinks about taste, balance and texture: from běnwèi, the essential flavour of an ingredient, and xiānwèi, umami, to qīngdàn, the light, understated dishes that balance a meal.

Fuchsia explains why Sichuan food is about far more than heat, how cooks correct unwanted flavours in meat and fish, why soups and plain dishes matter, and how texture can be as important as flavour.

We also talk about cooking by smell, sound and instinct, fermented tofu, wood ear mushrooms, jellyfish, menu planning, and why steaming is still underrated in the West.

Plus: hot pot, tasting menus, air fryers, and why Chinese cooking is much more accessible than many people think.

Transcript: www.thendobetter.com/arts/2026/9/4/fuchsia-dunlop-five-tastes-chinese-flavour-and-the-art-of-balance

Contents:

00:00 Welcome Fuchsia Dunlop
00:30 The Five Tastes and Chinese ideas of flavour
03:53 Balance and layered flavour
06:44 Correcting fishy and meaty flavours
11:34 Xiānwèi, umami and savoury depth
15:08 Guàiwèi: harmony in “strange flavour”
20:21 When to showcase or transform an ingredient
23:40 Qīngdàn: the importance of quiet food
30:15 Why texture matters in Chinese cooking
36:29 How to build a Chinese meal at home
41:37 Creating new recipes and fermented tofu
45:14 Thirty years of food, travel and field notes
49:55 Learning to cook by smell, sight and sound
53:16 Hot pot, steaming and tasting menus: overrated or underrated?
59:37 Chinese cooking needn’t be intimidating

Photo credit: (c) Kristin Perers