The woman who opened the famed San Francisco restaurant The Mandarin has come out with a new book, “The Seventh Daughter” — a combination memoir, cookbook and Chinese history lesson.

How did your childhood influence your culinary tastes? I was born in Shanghai and I was brought up educated in Beijing. We lived in a very big house with seven buildings — a whole block.

How did this very privileged life change during the Japanese occupation? They took our property and ransacked our home. My sister and I walked 1,000 miles across the country and went through a lot of hardness. We got robbed by Japanese soldiers and were almost killed.

You call yourself an “accidental restaurateur.” Why is that? When I was visiting my sister in San Francisco, two ladies I knew were trying to open a restaurant, but needed me to deal with the landlord because I spoke English. I didn’t know anything and when he asked for a deposit, I handed him $10,000. Later my lady friends backed out. I didn’t want to lose my money, so I opened my restaurant.

How was the Mandarin different than other restaurants of the time? I went to Chinatown and tasted all the food. It tasted pretty bad, but all the restaurants were full of people. I don’t think Americans knew good Chinese food. I decided, “No chop suey, no egg foo yong, no sweet and sour pork.”