1970s ​
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In the early 70s, Hom describes Chinese food as being mediocre in the West. However, as Hom said, as China opened up, "the quality of Chinese cooking improved immensely" (Hom, pg. x). The massive improvement in the quality of Chinese food is not a coincidence. Two large immigration waves occurred during the mid-1800s and the late 1970s. The mid-1800s immigrants were not that successful in the sense that they were rejected and persecuted by the West, specifically the United States. However, the late 1970s immigrants were more accepted by the West and they introduced a "sense of authentic Chinese cuisine"(Hom, pg. x) to the West.
Weirdly enough, not only did the West experience an explosion in Chinese food, mainland China, itself, also experience change in its food culture. As Ken Hom described, he was disappointed by Chinese food in China. They were "cooked without passion, care, or love, and served with surly service on top" (Hom, pg. x). Fortunately, during the economic reforms of the late 1970s, China started to open up to the world, which brought in foreigners and wealth to the country. On top of the economic boom, farmers were also allowed to grow what they desired. Together, the economic boom and agriculture freedom played a large role in bringing chefs back from Hong Kong, Taiwan, etc., to reinvent and improve food culture in China.
The author, Phillips, further backs up some of Hom's claim by explaining her own experience in China. One of the most memorial quotes from the book is when Phillips said, "nothing I ate was anything like the so-called Chinese food I had eaten in the States" (Phillips, pg. xi). Her statement further proves how underlooked Chinese food was in the 1960s and 1970s. Most of the Chinese food being served in the United States were mostly Americanized Chinese food because they were deemed acceptable. Another statement that Phillips made was how the street of Taipei was filled with mainlanders who were serving delicacies from places such as Shandong, Guangdong, Shanghai, and Western China. Her experience further supports Hom's claim about how many mainlander chefs were leaving China to go to places such as Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore.