Dina Yuen, a Chinese-Russian businesswoman and chef, wrote the cookbook with the aim of having it accessible to everyone interested in using its recipes.

[2] Yuen began working on The Shanghai Legacy, a historical fiction novel that explores her Chinese and Russian roots.

[a] It offers suggestions for how to prepare food such as how to properly fry noodles and rice, a suitable way to stockpile herbs so they can be used much later, and why a mortar and pestle are good tools to use.

[11] The book's focus is home cooking, so its recipes minimise the number of ingredients needed and avoid complexity.

Yuen offers easy-to-follow recipes to introduce each of these dishes that celebrate the use of organic products, fresh herbs and spices.