Seasoned: Women Culinary Pioneers - Cecilia Chiang

In San Francisco, an immigrant restaurateur brings authentic Chinese cuisine to the U.S. via The Mandarin. It's a love letter to her childhood in China, pre-Communist Revolution.

On any given night in 1960s San Francisco, you could walk into the upscale dining room of the Mandarin restaurant, and hear the sizzle of pan-fried pot stickers, and smell signature dishes like beggar's chicken or peppery Sichuan eggplant, all of which most Americans hadn't seen before. And in the center of it all, holding court – often amid celebrity guests –  would be the owner, Cecilia Chiang. "My grandmother was a quintessential front-of-house host," says Siena Chiang. "They called her Madam Chiang, and she reveled in having the perfect outfit and creating a warm environment and welcoming people of all stripes."

But behind the perfect hostess greeting, Madame Chiang had a backstory worthy of a Hollywood movie. Born to a wealthy family near Shanghai, she and her sister escaped the Japanese invasion on foot, eventually immigrating to the U.S. during the Communist Revolution. She opened the Mandarin, introducing diners to Chinese food beyond the stereotypical dishes of chop suey, egg foo young and chow mein.

The episode also features Paul Freedman, author of "Ten Restaurants That Changed America" – one of which was the Mandarin.

(Photo: Cecilia Chiang inside her award-winning Mandarin Restaurant. By Mike Roberts Color Reproductions, via National Museum of American History/The Smithsonian Institution.)