This year, cookbook author Grace Young is the recipient of the annual Julia Child Award, presented by the Julia Child Foundation for Gastronomy and the Culinary Arts to those who have impacted the way America cooks, eats and drinks. Her background and expertise are Cantonese and Chinese home cooking and wok traditions, and in the past two years, with the rise of anti-Asian incidents, Ms. Young has become an activist. She supports Chinatowns across the country, especially New York’s Chinatown in Manhattan. She also donated some of her family’s rare china from Shanghai and an heirloom wok to the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, which houses a replica of Julia Child’s kitchen. She will receive a $50,000 grant from the foundation at a ceremony in Washington on Oct. 13, saying she plans to use it to support Chinatowns and their traditional restaurants.
