Grace Young (author) facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Grace Young
Grace Young at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History in 2022
Awards	Julia Child Award, James Beard Foundation Award

Grace Young is a famous American cookbook author, activist, and food historian. She is an expert in Chinese cuisine and cooking with a wok. In 2022, she won two big awards: the Julia Child Award and the James Beard Humanitarian of the Year award. These awards recognized her amazing work in cooking and helping others.

Grace Young has written several popular cookbooks about American Chinese cuisine. Her books, The Wisdom of the Chinese Kitchen and The Breath of a Wok, have taught many people how to use a Chinese wok. Both of these books won the Best International Cookbook Award from the International Association of Culinary Professionals.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Grace Young became an activist. She worked hard to support New York City's Chinatown businesses. In 2020, she made a video series called Coronavirus: Chinatown Stories. In 2021, she started the Grace Young Support Chinatown Fund, which raised $40,000 to help four Chinatown businesses.

Grace Young's Early Life and Career

Grace Young grew up in San Francisco, California. Her family was "traditional Cantonese", meaning they ate only Cantonese food. When she was young, Grace loved watching Julia Child's cooking show, The French Chef. She would even try to make the recipes herself! Grace says Julia Child inspired her. She wanted to do for Chinese cooking what Julia Child did for French cooking.

In high school, Grace worked in a cooking school kitchen. She also interned at a Dole Pineapple test kitchen in San Francisco. During college, she spent three years working at the General Foods test kitchen.

After college, Grace worked for Time Life Books for about 15 to 20 years. She was the director of their test kitchen and oversaw food photography for over 40 cookbooks. In her 30s, she learned traditional Cantonese recipes from her parents. She put these recipes into her first cookbook, The Wisdom of the Chinese Kitchen, published in 1999. This book won an award and was a finalist for another.

In 2004, Grace published her second cookbook, The Breath of a Wok. It had 125 wok recipes and won several awards. Later, she wrote Stir-Frying to the Sky’s Edge, which came out in 2010. This book explained the benefits and history of stir-frying. It won the 2011 James Beard Foundation Award for International Cooking.

Grace Young's Culinary Videos

Grace Young is also known for her cooking videos. In 2016, she released "Chinese Trinidadian Chicken with Mango Chutney". This video won an award in 2017. Also in 2017, she made "The Breath of Wok Video", which showed how woks are built and used. This video was a finalist for an award in 2019.

In 2019, she posted "Wok Therapist". This funny video was about the cooking advice she gives to others. It won a James Beard Digital Award in 2020.

Other Career Highlights

Besides writing cookbooks and making videos, Grace Young has done many other things. She served on the James Beard Foundation’s Book Awards Committee for six years. She was also a contributing editor for Saveur magazine for nine years. Grace also worked as the Test Kitchen Director for the U.C. Berkeley Wellness Cooking School. She even has an online cooking course that over 12,000 students have taken!

Grace Young's Activism

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Grace Young became a strong voice for historic Chinatowns across the United States. She also helped raise awareness about violence against Asian Americans. In 2020, she worked with filmmaker Dan Ahn. They documented how the pandemic affected Chinatown in New York City. This project was called "Coronavirus: Chinatown Stories". The video series was nominated for an award and shown at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.

Grace Young also worked with the James Beard Foundation. She joined their #savechineserestaurants Instagram campaign in 2020. Later, she partnered with the Poster House museum for the #LoveAAPI campaign. This campaign aimed to fight anti-Asian feelings.

In 2021, she started the Grace Young Support Chinatown Fund with a non-profit group called Welcome to Chinatown. They raised $40,000. These funds helped old Chinatown restaurants like Hop Lee, Hop Kee, Wo Hop Upstairs, and Wo Hop Downstairs. The restaurants used the money to provide meals for people who didn't have enough food. Grace also said she would donate the $50,000 prize from her Julia Child Award to groups that help Chinatowns across the U.S.

In April 2021, she worked with Asian Americans For Equality (AAFE). They raised $25,000 to buy 7,000 personal security alarms for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.

Museum Contributions

Grace Young has helped preserve Chinese-American food history. She donated her family's Canton Rose porcelain dinnerware (from around 1939) and their wok (from around 1949) to the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. She also gave the Smithsonian a copy of The French Chef Cookbook signed by Julia Child. She also donated her own book, The Wisdom of the Chinese Kitchen, and some Julia Child items.

Grace Young has also given talks and programs at many museums. These include the Smithsonian Museum, the American Museum of Natural History, and the Poster House museum. In 2004, she was a curator for "The Breath of a Wok" exhibition at New York University’s Asian Pacific American Gallery. She is currently on the Smithsonian National Museum of American History’s Kitchen Cabinet, which is the museum's food advisory board.

Awards and Recognition

Grace Young has received many awards for her work:

• Forbes 50 Over 50 (2023)
• USA Today Women of the Year (2023)
• James Beard Foundation's Humanitarian of the Year (2022)
• Eating Well's American Food Hero (2022)