“Danny Kaye Exhibits Chinese Cooking Skills”
The Milwaukee Journal – Oct. 27, 1966
NEW YORK, N.Y. – UPI – Comedian Danny Kaye doesn’t clown around with cooking. The laugh lines came from the guests, not the famous entertainer, when he worked as head chef for a Chinese banquet here.
Said Mrs. Earl Wilson, as she faced up to shrimp, split and stuffed to resemble four inch long pink fish with green peas for eyes:
“What a job for (the television show) What’s My Line—‘What do you do?’ ‘I put the eyes on ming har.’”
She was referring to Macao stuffed ming har, which made up the second of seven entrees at a meal that lasted more than four hours. It also included seven appetizers, soup, a noodle dessert, fortune cookies and tea. The party saluted Kaye’s 100th program in his CBS television series.
Worked in Kitchen
Johnny Kan, a San Francisco restaurateur, vouched for Kaye’s skill at one of the world’s most complex cuisines and his dedication to cooking as a hobby.
“Danny studied cooking in our kitchen for two years,” said Kan. “He started to get very serious about it five or six years ago, and anybody who spends $1,000 buying a Chinese range isn’t playing around.”
Kan added that the special range is needed because the wok, traditional utensil for many Chinese dishes, slides around on a conventional stove.
Emerging about 9:40 p.m. from the kitchen at Bill Chan’s New Gold Coin, Kaye said his interest in Chinese food began 33 years ago when he was appearing in a big musical revue in China. His banquet cooking here was shown to diners on closed circuit television.
Makes Own Noodles
“I’m a cookbook reader and I cook almost anything—Italian, Chinese, barbecuing,” said Kaye. “I even make my own noodles. I cook when I come home—to relax, if I’ve had a bad day.”
Kaye added that his interest extends not just to Cantonese cuisine, which is best known in the western world, but also to other schools of Chinese cookery, including Szechuan, Fukien and Shantung.
His special recipe for Szechuan chicken was the only non-
“All Szechuan cooking makes Mexican cooking taste like malted milk,” said Kaye.