42 pages • 1 hour read
Measuring Up
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Chapters 9-13Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 9 Summary
During Round 2 of the competition, Miranda insists that they’re going to win, saying that hope isn’t enough. The key ingredient for this round is ground beef, and Miranda suggests making Bolognese sauce with bucatini. Cici cooks the noodles. They gather together other ingredients, like olive oil, parmesan, butter, tomato paste, and vegetables.
As they cook, Cici is impressed with how fast Miranda chops the vegetables. Meanwhile, she browns the meat and makes the pasta. She adds chicken liver to give it more flavor. However, Miranda then decides to start the pasta over since it isn’t al dente. Additionally, when they taste the sauce, Miranda is worried that they’ll lose when she learns that Cici added chicken liver.
However, the judge compliments the added chicken liver. The other dishes include tamale pie, meatloaf, meatballs, and chili. When they don’t get eliminated, Miranda and Cici cheer. Miranda suggests that they should hang out. She offers her own home but says that they could also hang out at Cici’s. However, Cici doesn’t think that anyone will understand her family, so she wants to go to Miranda’s.
Chapter 10 Summary
The next day, Cici asks her mom about going over to Miranda’s house. Her mom is hesitant and tells her to ask her father. Cici shows her father a test that she aced, and he gives her permission.
The next day, Miranda and her nanny Amy pick Cici up from school. Amy is English, and Cici learns that she also needs a green card.
When they arrive at Miranda’s, Cici is wowed by the size of Miranda’s house. In the kitchen, she finds a pantry full of spices, and Miranda has her taste test several of them without looking. The last one is a spice mix. Miranda calls Cici a “supertaster” since she is able to pick out individual flavors in a spice blend. Cici is thrilled at her new “superpower.”
Miranda feels self-conscious that she isn’t a supertaster and reveals that she doesn’t want to run her family’s restaurant when she gets older. Cici is confused, feeling like Miranda has everything. Instead, Miranda wants to be a comic book artist. Cici asks to see the comic book she’s working on, delighting her new friend. In her room, Miranda gives Cici a copy of American Born Chinese, and Cici corrects her again and tells her that she is Taiwanese. Miranda shows Cici her comic book, which Cici compliments.
Chapter 11 Summary
The next Saturday, the secret ingredient is zucchini, and Miranda suggests making chocolate chip cookies. Cici is unsure about how a vegetable can become a cookie, but Miranda asks her for her trust.
When they taste the batter, it’s missing something. Cici runs to the spice rack, grabbing smoked sea salt. Miranda approves, and while Cici knows that she shouldn’t rely on Miranda’s validation, but she likes the feeling of Miranda’s approbation.
The three other teams receive criticism from the judges, especially Mr. Bonze. Even when he tastes their cookie, Cici is unsure if he liked it. However, she and Miranda remain safe, celebrating that they’re a team.
The judges announce a surprise, making Cici nervous. They will no longer be working in teams. To help them prepare, the judges announce that the secret ingredient for the next week is potatoes, an item with which Cici is not familiar.
Chapter 12 Summary
The next day, Cici’s parents are both stressed about work. Despite Cici’s use of “study” and “research”—which are “magic word[s] around here” when it comes to her parents, neither can take her to the library (108). She decides to walk.
Cici asks for an American cookbook. When the librarian gives her a cookbook entitled The French Chef by Julia Child, she is confused. The librarian explains that Julia Child helped American housewives during the 1960s. Then, Cici asks for information about comics.
On her walk home, Cici stops at Tutta Italia, the restaurant Miranda’s family owns. She thinks about how her own family never eats out since they can cook. Miranda brings her into the kitchen and shows her how to make pasta.
Cici wishes she didn’t have to follow her family’s motto to go to college and get a good job and that she could take over Miranda’s family’s restaurant. When Miranda looks sad, Cici asks what’s happening. She learns that Amy, Miranda’s nanny, is going back to England to get married. Cici explains that she knows how she feels since she misses her A-má. They hug. Just as Cici is about to give Miranda the book about comics she got from the library, Miranda’s father comes in and accuses Cici of spying.
Miranda doesn’t say that Cici wasn’t spying, and Cici leaves, knowing that she’ll have to show them.
At home, Cici watches a DVD of Julia Child and quickly falls in love with watching her show. When Child fails to flip a potato pancake correctly on TV, she doesn’t seem to care, and Cici feels like Child is her “American A-má.”
Chapter 13 Summary
With five days until the fourth round of the competition, Cici feels like if she watches Julia Child over and over, she’ll be able to show that she doesn’t need Miranda’s help. She struggles to master the recipe for potato pancakes.
Her father comes in and asks what’s going on. Cici tells him everything. He tells her that it’s important that she study and that she can have a better life than he does. He doesn’t think the short moment of satisfaction from winning and celebrating would be worth risking her whole life. Cici feels unseen by her dad.
She still tries to practice. Her mom feels like she can’t help, so Cici shows her Julia Child’s cookbook. They make the potato pancakes together, and changing the type of pan, Cici succeeds in flipping it.
Chapters 9-13 Analysis
Miranda begins to trust Cici more in these chapters, such as when the judge compliments the chicken liver and when Cici listens as Miranda confides about her future goals. For Cici, their relationship illuminates that her peers are also trying to figure out their identities, even someone like Miranda, who seems confident and privileged.
This section explores the theme of Friendship and Teamwork Between People and Cultures. Cici discovers that Miranda’s relationship with Amy is similar to her own with A-má. She is surprised to find that her families are not “the only ones who need green cards. I learned something new” (86). Later, when Miranda says goodbye to Amy, it will echo back to her own goodbye with A-má.
Working with Miranda gives Cici a set of tools to succeed and makes her feel more confident in her cooking, especially when Miranda compliments her. When Cici has to compete on her own, she builds on her skills and confidence. The novel shows how a critical part of growing as a chef is accepting failure; the panel after Julia Child’s failure to flip a potato pancake illustrates Cici’s surprised face as she thinks: “She doesn’t care” (119). It does not matter to Child that “Everyone would see she’s not perfect” (119). Accepting failure had been foreign to Cici due to her parents’ and particularly her father’s pressure to excel in school. Parental pressure in fact skews both Miranda and Cici’s view of failure. However, Julia Child provides an alternative: “But the only way to learn how to flip things is to just flip them” (119).
Cici finds comfort in this in much the same way that she finds comfort in her grandmother after a difficult day or conversation in which she feels like no one understands her. Therefore, Julia Child becomes her “American A-má.” Child also represents Cici’s navigation of her life as an American in concert with her identity as Taiwanese.
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