The Royal Chef Runs My Kitchen

Chen Shouyi ran the imperial kitchens under the Qing. During a famine year he went up the mountain looking for anything edible, lost his footing on the slope, and opened his eyes in the modern world with his clothes in rags. Clara, who owns a small restaurant that is close to going under, takes him in, feeds him, houses him, gives him pocket money and puts him to work washing up. He cannot get the gas ring lit at first. Then a wok handle is in his hand and the training comes straight back. He also finds he can carry things the other way, back to his own century, where his family is starving and modern supplies are a fortune. His sweet and sour fish and his slow-cooked pork bring a queue out onto the road and Clara stops worrying about rent. One customer who says he reviews restaurants for a living finishes his plate, changes colour and picks up the phone to call the police, because the knife work in that dish belongs to a court technique that has not been performed in two hundred years.