Thomas David DuBois Professor of History at Beijing Normal University and Culinary Author. An avid food historian, who has explored culinary traditions in both China and abroad, leading to his new book, China in Seven Banquets: A Flavorful History. Thomas’s work includes over 50 peer-reviewed articles and four books, covering everything from dairy and beef industries to fast food and brand nostalgia. His passion for cuisine has taken him from village kitchens to cooking school in Sichuan.
Trained as a historian, I’ve built a career around writing about Chinese cuisine. Long before food became my primary focus, it was a constant in my life here in China. Starting with my first experience as an English teacher in Shandong in the early 1990s, most of my friendships eventually revolved around cooking and eating. At one point, I decided to walk into a restaurant kitchen in Jinan and offered to work for free in exchange for learning to cook—which they accepted. This led to an appearance on local TV as a “Western chef,” though in reality, my skills barely extended beyond washing vegetables. My fieldwork in northern villages further deepened my appreciation of the connection between what people grow and what they eat.
A visit to Hulunbuir in Inner Mongolia in 2017 marked a turning point toward writing about food professionally. While I was already familiar with rural life, the grasslands introduced me to a new economy based on herding and a diet filled with beef and lamb. I spent a month exploring, talking to locals, and learning about the beef and dairy industries there. My inquiries ranged from understanding debt structures to why one area was known for beef while the neighboring region was known for lamb. This experience inspired me to start writing histories of food production across China, from dairy enterprises in Yunnan to brand nostalgia in Shanghai. In China, intriguing stories often come to you once you’re immersed in the culture.
As a professional historian, I write for academic journals, but my interest in food extends far beyond academia. I also consult—both paid and unpaid—for importers, brands, and NGOs. On the ground here in China, I help companies look past the spreadsheets and numbers, urging them to understand the deeper layers of food culture. To fully appreciate food here, I’ve learned to experience it in every context, from luxurious seafood banquets to humble noodle stands in rural bus stations.
Experience provides insight, even when there’s no immediate payoff. In 2020, I paused my new job in Beijing to attend cooking school in Chengdu. This personal dream turned out to be professionally enriching as well. Working in high-end restaurant kitchens showed me aspects of the industry I’d never seen as a diner, including the structure of a well-run kitchen and the unique challenges that the rise of delivery services presents.
During the Covid lockdown, I began what I thought would be a short article on China’s food history. That article grew into a book, published in 2024. For the book, I researched two thousand years of food literature, including cookbooks, medical texts, essays, and even poetry. This research has given me a fresh perspective—not only on China’s culinary history but also on food’s role in my own life. Moving beyond flavor alone, I now see how each dish is tied to history, seasonality, and even Chinese medicine’s principles of yin and yang. Observing how modern dining trends, from communal canteens to delivery services, have reshaped the social experience of food has enriched my life tremendously. All these insights will inform my next book, but for now, I’m content with savoring each meal’s depth, one bite at a time.
