Mapo Tofu, a dish from Southwest China's Sichuan province, is very popular in Japan. Japanese who love the dish also know Chen Jianyi. The cook spent his life cooking and adapting(改良) this Chinese dish for Japanese. A Japanese artist even made a cartoon(卡通片)named Cooking Master Boy according to Chen's life experience(经历). So Chen Jianyi became a household name in Japan and almost everyone knew him. Sadly,on March 1lth,2023,Chen died.
His father Chen Jianmin was also a cook and was the "God of Sichuan dishes"in Japan. Chen Jianmin was born(岀生)into a farming family in 1919 in Sichuan. When he was 10, he began to learn how to cook from his grandfather at a restaurant.
In 1952, Chen Jianmin went to Japan. Six years later, He opened the first Sichuan restaurant in Tokyo because of his excellent cooking skills(技能). With the help of his wife, Chen Jianmin trained(培训)15,000 cooks and they worked together to spread(传播) Chinese food in Japan.
His son Chen Jianyi was born in 1956 and grew up with the kitchen as his playground. After he left the school, he became his father's helper to learn to cook Sichuan dishes. After his father died in 1990, Chen took over the Sichuan restaurant. In a cooking competition in 1993, he became the "First Cook of Chinese Food" in Japan. Since then, he has opened 16 Sichuan restaurants in Japan. He also wrote many books to help spread Chinese food culture(文化). Chen Jiantaro, Chei Jianyi's son, followed in his father's footsteps and became a cook, too.
①Opening the Sichuan restaurants
②Making movies about Chinese food culture
③Training cooks and working together with them
④Writing many books about cooking Chinese food
