{lives remembered}


With the right elements, anything was possible Joan Shih Carducci


n 1933-2010 by becky krystal J


oan Shih Carducci put the ingredients of her life together with the confidence and precision that came from being a talented chemist and a cook. At 18, she traveled more than 7,000 miles to Kansas from Taiwan to study. At 26, she married the man she loved despite her parents’ disapproval. At 41, she started her own cooking school. And at 67, she published her own cookbook. ¶ Carducci never thought in terms of “I can do this” or “I can’t do that,” her daughter Elizabeth Carducci said. “She never had that in her head. … She always just doggedly pursued something.”


Carducci journeyed to Kansas to


attend Saint Mary College (now the University of Saint Mary) in the mid- 1950s. With chemistry and medical technology degrees in hand, she moved to Rochester, N.Y., where a hospital co- worker set her up on a blind date with Army veteran and Kodak employee Kenneth Carducci. The Rochester native quickly fell in


love with the vivacious beauty, and she with the romantic who would take her to picnics in his convertible. Perhaps even more significant was their shared passion for food — cooking, eating out, trying any dish. But Joan’s parents, still in Taiwan, where her father was a prominent and wealthy doctor, weren’t nearly as enthusiastic. “He was not Asian,” daughter Su-


zanne Carducci said. “He wasn’t a doctor.” That didn’t stop Joan, who married


Kenneth in Rochester, wearing the same wedding gown his sister had worn. Car- ducci’s parents cut ties with her. But, again, she wouldn’t let that be the final word: After she had children, she reached out once more, and they came around. When Carducci’s parents visited the


family of four, then living in Mary- land, her father brought a cherry tree seedling from Taiwan. The Carduccis planted the tree in front of their Silver Spring home, where it grew to serve as the backdrop for family photos and was named a Montgomery County Cham- pion Tree. The reconciliation also led the Car-


Joan Carducci at the Chinese Cookery in Rockville about 1978. 30 The WashingTon PosT Magazine | december 26, 2010


duccis to travel to Taiwan. During a long visit there, Carducci, who had grown up watching the best chef in town prepare Chinese New Year feasts for her family — all the while wishing she could cook and carve like him — studied at the Wei-Chuan Cooking School. Return- ing home with a certificate, she started teaching adult education courses for Montgomery County in 1973. In 1975, Carducci, who had put her


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100  |  Page 101  |  Page 102  |  Page 103  |  Page 104  |  Page 105  |  Page 106  |  Page 107  |  Page 108  |  Page 109  |  Page 110  |  Page 111  |  Page 112  |  Page 113  |  Page 114  |  Page 115  |  Page 116  |  Page 117  |  Page 118  |  Page 119  |  Page 120  |  Page 121  |  Page 122  |  Page 123  |  Page 124  |  Page 125  |  Page 126  |  Page 127  |  Page 128  |  Page 129  |  Page 130  |  Page 131  |  Page 132  |  Page 133  |  Page 134  |  Page 135  |  Page 136  |  Page 137  |  Page 138  |  Page 139  |  Page 140  |  Page 141  |  Page 142  |  Page 143  |  Page 144  |  Page 145  |  Page 146  |  Page 147  |  Page 148  |  Page 149  |  Page 150  |  Page 151  |  Page 152  |  Page 153  |  Page 154  |  Page 155  |  Page 156