Stephen Chen (left), Joyce Chen (center) and Helen Chen appear in a family photo together in the 1970s. Provided to China Daily

Chinese food has been available in the United States since the mid-1800s, when the first Chinese came to the country as laborers. But authentic Chinese food did not start to prosper in America until the mid-20th century, and that was largely because of one woman: Joyce Chen.

Born in Beijing in 1917, Chen went to Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1949 at the end of the Chinese civil war. Since her youth, she had shown an interest in cooking. Her dishes were a hit among Chinese students at Harvard and MIT at a time when authentic Chinese cuisine was not easy to find.

"The first Chinese restaurants were not opened by professionally trained chefs, but by immigrants who were denied work elsewhere or simply wished to feed their own communities," according to the Asian Pacific American Center of the Smithsonian Institution website.

"Cooking was just a way to eat, and it was very hard to find certain ingredients," said Stephen Chen, Joyce Chen's second son. "Where would you get a bean sprout? When I was very young, the only place I could find bean sprouts was in a can in a supermarket. And as you can imagine, those were probably very horrendous."

After World War II, things began to change. The timing was right for Joyce Chen as well, as more Chinese immigrants after the war came from more diverse areas and were looking for food they were used to.

International shipping and aviation became more convenient after the World War II, which allowed Americans to travel more and experience authentic Chinese food, instead of the highly "Americanized" version.

"(Chinese restaurants) cooked dishes that might be pleasing to Americans," said Helen Chen, Stephen's older sister. "They used vegetables that we even don't use in China." Most Chinese restaurants also provided one menu for Chinese and another for Americans.

Fresher and better quality ingredients also became more available in the US and Joyce Chen began serving up authentic Chinese cuisine in the United States.

She opened her first Joyce Chen restaurant in Cambridge in 1958.

"When people came to [Chinese] restaurants, they just wanted chow mien and chop suey, because that's all they knew," said Helen.