By Rachel Kovaciny
Have you ever eaten food so good, it inspired you to start a whole new organization? Or name a mountain after the person who cooked it?
I wouldn’t say that chef Tie Sing’s cooking was solely responsible for the formation of the National Park Service in 1916… but his skill at producing delicious food in the wilderness is one of the deciding factors that helped get the organization started. A mountain in Yosemite National Park is named Sing Peak in his honor.
Tie Sing was one of tens of thousands of Chinese immigrants who crossed the Pacific Ocean in the second half of the 1800s, beginning with the California Gold Rush of 1849. California experienced such a surge of immigration that, in 1850, the newly minted state passed the Foreign Miners’ Tax Act. While not aimed solely at Chinese immigrants, this tax primarily affected the Chinese mining community because they were the largest immigrant population in the California gold fields. The tax made gold mining less profitable.
Many Chinese Americans turned to other ways of making a living. Cooking and doing laundry were two of their most popular options, as opening a restaurant or laundry did not require special training or a lot of money. Others found jobs building railroads. Some found work in Yosemite Valley, which became a tourist destination in the 1850s. Chinese laborers helped build the roads, trails, and buildings in what would eventually be Yosemite National Park. They also worked there as cooks, guides, and hotel staff.
Much of Tie Sing’s early life history has been lost, so we don’t know when he moved to America, except it was before the Chinese Exclusion Act passed in 1882. That law caused many Chinese Americans to cut or at least downplay their ties to China so they could remain in the United States. The original wave of immigrants from China did not want to remain in America, but to make as much money as they could and return home. But later immigrants came here because they wanted to build a new home and become American citizens. Tie Sing seems to have been one of that group. He began cooking for the U.S. Geological Survey in 1887 and became its head chef.
Tie Sing was not simply skilled at cooking tasty food. He was renowned for preparing surprisingly fine dining experiences in the wilderness. Part of that was because he was inventive about food preparation while traveling through rough country. There are stories about him using the body heat of mules to help his biscuits rise properly, for instance. And he had great people skills, always knowing how to make members of an expedition feel at ease. In 1899, park officials named Sing Peak in gratitude for his service to the U.S. Geological Survey members.
By 1915, Tie Sing’s backwoods culinary prowess was legendary in Yosemite Valley, and his renown stretched across the entire continent. That year, conservationist Stephen Mather put together a two-week outdoor excursion for prominent gentlemen from across the nation. He wanted the experience to convince these important men that America’s National Parks should be supervised by one national organization. Mather knew one man could help his expedition be a success: Tie Sing.
Mather believed the businessmen, politicians, and newspapermen on his two-week tour would fully appreciate the beauties of nature in the Yosemite area only if they were eating satisfying meals three times a day. If their stomachs and taste buds had no complaints, they would be more likely to find his organizational ideas agreeable. So, he hired Tie Sing to feed the men.
Tie Sing lived up to his status as a legendary chef on that trip. He and his assistant provided white tablecloths, real napkins, and fine silver and china for the meals. He laid out spreads that included multiple courses. Soups, salads, pie, tea, coffee, fresh fruit and vegetables, and fresh bread all made appearances. First-hand accounts of the trip included gourmet dishes alongside outdoorsy staples such as fresh fish and venison, all prepared expertly.
Stephen Mather’s plan worked. The men he brought on the excursion feasted heartily on Tie Sing’s food, and their feasting made them agreeable, even jovial. They thoroughly enjoyed their outdoor adventures, confident each day that the meals they would eat at Tie Sing’s table in the middle of the wilderness would be as good as or better than those eaten back home in the cities. A year later, Mather’s proposal went into effect, and the National Park Service was born.
Tie Sing continued cooking to great acclaim until his accidental death in 1918. Today, people make an annual trip to Sing Peak to honor him and the other Chinese Americans who helped explore and settle the West. ♦
