had a mother like Joyce Chen. Helen grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where her

mother prepared the authentic dishes of her native Shanghai and Beijing with the sort of

regularity the rest of us came to expect of macaroni and cheese or meatloaf.

"I remember when I was little, watching my mother prepare meals for family and

friends. I once wrote a list of my favorite Chinese dishes," Helen recalls, "I came up with

150 recipes. I do not have one or two favorites. All the dishes on the list are traditional

and all are ones that I learned from my mother. That is what I love most about Chinese

food: its variety. Taste, texture and color all come into play, as does personality and

culture. I think this is what cooking is all about." Soft spoken and intensely intelligent,

Helen Chen was born in Shanghai and moved to the U.S. with her family while still a baby.

Helen grew up, as she describes it, in a traditional Chinese-American household. "When I

was young I wanted to be totally American," she remembers. "It wasn't until I was in high

school that I realized how lucky I was to have two cultures."

Today, Helen Chen is a widely acknowledged expert in Chinese cooking. Besides

her role as an educator and cookbook author, she also is a corporate spokesperson and

business consultant to the house wares industry. In 2007 she created and developed a

for Harold Import Company in New Jersey.

Having been born in China and raised and educated in the United States, Helen

brings the best of both worlds to her approach to the art of Chinese cuisine. She

understands the needs of the American cook as only a native can, yet she is intimately

knowledgeable in the culinary practices and philosophy of China.

In her active role as a teacher and educator, Helen teaches Chinese cuisine at

Boston University; and, through the Anderson Foundation’s enrichment program ‘Cooking

Up Culture’ she teaches Boston area school children from grades 1-12 about Chinese

cuisine and culture. She also teaches Asian cuisine in numerous cooking schools across

the country.

Helen has lectured to various professional and culinary organizations such as the

International Association of Culinary Professionals, Boston University Seminars in the Arts

and Culinary Arts, Oldways Preservations and Exchange Trust, Small Business

Development Center, The Culinary Historians of Boston, Women Chefs and

Restaurateurs and the Culinary Guild of New England. In addition, she conducts culinary

tours of Boston’s Chinatown and is a frequent guest chef at cooking schools around the

U.S.

Helen is the author of Helen Chen’s Chinese Home Cooking (Hearst Books, 1994),

Peking Cuisine (Orion Books,1997) and Helen’s Asian Kitchen: Easy Chinese Stir-Fries

(John Wiley & Sons, 2009). A second book in the Helen’s Asian Kitchen series, Helen’s

Asian Kitchen: Easy Asian Noodles is scheduled for publication in January, 2010.