Grace Zia Chu

{{Infobox person

| name = Grace Zia Chu

| image = GraceZia1924.png

| alt = A yearbook photograph of a young Chinese woman

| caption = Grace Zia, from the 1924 Wellesley College yearbook

| birth_date = August 23, 1899

| birth_place = Shanghai, China

| death_date = April 15, 1999 (aged 99)

| death_place = Columbus, Ohio, US

| occupation = Cookbook author, cooking teacher

}}

Grace Zia Chu (August 23, 1899 – April 15, 1999) was an author of Chinese cookbooks and a major figure in American Chinese culinary world. Chu introduced generations of Americans to Chinese cooking.{{Cite web |url=http://oasis.lib.harvard.edu/oasis/deliver/~sch01293 |title=Harvard University Library:Chu, Grace Zia, papers of Grace Zia Chu |access-date=2011-12-04 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120515214546/http://oasis.lib.harvard.edu/oasis/deliver/~sch01293 |archive-date=2012-05-15 |url-status=dead }}{{Cite web |url=http://www.flavorandfortune.com/dataaccess/article.php?ID=189 |title=Grace Chu: An Editor's Tribute |access-date=2011-12-04 |archive-date=2011-11-13 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111113224321/http://www.flavorandfortune.com/dataaccess/article.php?ID=189 |url-status=dead }}[https://www.nytimes.com/2000/01/02/magazine/food-the-lives-they-lived-grace-zia-chu-b-1900-west-meets-east.html?scp=2&sq=Grace%20Zia%20Chu&st=cse New York Times:FOOD: The Lives They Lived: Grace Zia Chu, b. 1900; West Meets East]

Personal life

Grace Zia Chu was born in Shanghai on 23 August 1899. Her parents were Zia Hong-lai and Sochen Sze. Grace Anna Zia{{Cite web | url=http://www.anb.org/view/10.1093/anb/9780198606697.001.0001/anb-9780198606697-e-2001915 |title = Chu, Grace Zia (1899-1999), cooking authority and writer | American National Biography|year = 2009|doi = 10.1093/anb/9780198606697.article.2001915|last1 = Keene|first1 = Ann T.|isbn = 978-0-19-860669-7}} attended the McTyeire School and later Wellesley College in the United States. Upon graduation in 1924,Wellesley College, [https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/217002884.pdf Legenda] (1924 yearbook): 121. Zia returned to teach physical education in China at McTyeire and Ginling College.

In 1928, Zia married Chu Shih-ming, who was appointed military attache to the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C. in 1941, representing the Nationalist government. She returned to China after World War II, only to resettle in the United States by 1950. Five years later, Zia naturalized as an American citizen, and moved to New York City, where she taught cooking at her home, the China Institute, and the Mandarin House restaurant. Zia moved to Columbus, Ohio in the mid 1980s. Zia died at the age of 99 in Columbus on April 15, 1999.{{cite news|title=Grace Zia Chu, 99, Guide to Chinese Cooking|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1999/04/19/nyregion/grace-zia-chu-99-guide-to-chinese-cooking.html|accessdate=September 23, 2017|work=New York Times|date=April 19, 1999}}

Notable works

The New York Times called her 1962 cookbook The Pleasures of Chinese Cooking. Chu authored Madame Chu's Chinese Cooking School in 1975, a detailed cookbook for the beginner to advanced cook.

Awards and honours

Grace Zia Chu was named Grande Dame of Les Dames d'Escoffier, New York Chapter in 1984.

References

External links

[http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:RAD.SCHL:sch01293 Papers of Grace Zia Chu, 1941-1986.] [http://radcliffe.harvard.edu/schlesinger-library Schlesinger Library], Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University.

Category:1899 births

Category:1999 deaths

Category:American food writers

Category:American cookbook writers

Category:Wellesley College alumni

Category:Chinese emigrants to the United States

Category:Chinese women food writers

Category:Chinese cookbook writers

Category:Writers from Shanghai

Category:Writers from New York City

Category:Writers from Columbus, Ohio

Category:Academic staff of Nanjing Normal University