[Photo provided to China Daily]

"Cooking was my only consolation. I used to cook at home and invite friends over to eat and chat."

Chuang then decided to move to Massachusetts, to be with her husband who was at Harvard University then, and finish her thesis there.

One day, she passed by the Cambridge School of Culinary Arts, and saw students busy cooking.

"That was when I became aware that there is such a thing as a culinary school," says Chuang.

She then applied to join the school.

"I thought that I would try it (cooking) for a year. And if it didn't work out I would go back to finish my doctoral studies," says Chuang. "But after two weeks, I decided I would not go back."

"At a party at Harvard, when I told people I am a chef, they were like 'that's amazing!'" she says. "People can see your passion when doing the thing you love and they feel happy for you."

As an anthropologist-turned-chef, Chuang wrote about her experiences online, and then published two books: Anthropologist in the Kitchen (2009) and Everybody Wants to Cook (2012).

Hong Kong writer Leung Man-tao in a recommendation for her first book, says: "Chuang is not a betrayer of anthropology. She is a gourmet who finally finds the kitchen, the place where she belongs."