A Dream of Ancient Cuisine

National-level chef Li Xue was filming a show in a Michelin kitchen when an electrical accident caused her to transmigrate to Bianjing in the third year of Xining, during the Northern Song dynasty. From a modern top-tier kitchen to the streets of an ancient city, all she had left was an expensive chef’s knife and a lifetime of culinary skill. Faced with an unfamiliar era and rudimentary cooking conditions, this modern chef, accustomed to precision equipment and rare ingredients, had to swallow her pride and struggle to survive, starting by bartering wild fruit for meals.

Drawing on culinary ideas far ahead of their time, Li Xue opened a small eatery called Xuewei Zhai near Bianjing’s entertainment quarter. Her jade-green soup dumplings, made with spinach juice, dazzled the locals with their delicate skins and juicy filling. Her revamped braised pork, slow-cooked in a clay pot and enhanced with caramelized sugar, won over diners’ taste buds. She even came up with modern business ideas such as ordering cards and a membership program. These inventive dishes, combining the science of cooking with traditional techniques, quickly made the little Xuewei Zhai a hit throughout Bianjing, but also drew the envy and hostility of Juxian Tower, the city’s largest restaurant.