Smithsonian Food History Weekend

October 13-14, 2022

Food History Weekend 2022 will honor the efforts of community advocates who are working to conserve, share, and celebrate their ancestral food traditions in various communities across the United States. 

The weekend will feature the annual Smithsonian Food History Gala on Thursday, October 13, during which culinary historian and cookbook author Grace Young will receive the 2022 Julia Child Award presented by The Julia Child Foundation for Gastronomy and the Culinary Arts. Young, the eighth recipient of the award, is a tireless advocate for the preservation of American Chinatowns and all their cultural, economic, and gastronomic riches. Read more about the 2022 Julia Child Award recipient, Grace Young, below.

On Friday, October 14, Grace Young will present a special daytime program at the museum, free and open to all. As part of the museum’s “Cooking Up History” series, Young will speak about and demonstrate her decades-long pursuit to preserve Chinese culinary traditions. Sharing the ancestral knowledge she documented for her cookbooks, The Wisdom of the Chinese Kitchen, The Breath of a Wok, and Stir-Frying to the Sky’s Edge, Young will prepare her father’s cashew chicken recipe during the hour-long, live cooking demonstration and conversation. Young will also speak about the integral role that Chinatowns played historically and today across the country and how they are endangered and in desperate need of support from the broader American population.  

The museum will also host an “Objects Out of Storage” event, inviting visitors to take a closer look at objects and documents donated recently by Young. Other objects from the museum’s collections that illuminate the rich and diverse cultures of Chinatowns and Chinese American communities across the United States will also be available.  

Last Call

Join us on Friday, October 14 for “Last Call: ¡Salud! to American Latinos in Beer.” Hosted by the American Brewing History Initiative in collaboration with the National Museum of the American Latino, this year’s event will explore the past, present, and future of American Latinos in the brewing industry, in celebration of the recently opened Molina Family Latino Gallery at the National Museum of American History. 

Latinos represent a diverse and vibrant thread among the nation’s brewers and beer lovers. Many of these brewers reach for a variety of ingredients with Latin roots—prickly pear, piloncillo sugar, tamarind, guava, and more—as they create new beer styles. Building taprooms and communities that look, sound, and taste innovative, inclusive, and delicious, they are writing the next chapter in American beer history. Join us as we raise a glass to say, ¡Salud!

Participating breweries: Mujeres Brew House (San Diego, CA); Casa Humilde Cerveceria (Chicago, IL); Dyckman Beer Co. (New York, NY); and DeadBeach Brewery (El Paso, TX). Liz Garibay, founder of the Chicago Brewseum, will moderate the conversation.

The event will include beer samples and small bites. You must be 21 or older to purchase tickets and attend this event. IDs will be checked upon entry at the museum.

Last Call and the American Brewing History Initiative is made possible through generous support from the Brewers Association, the not-for-profit trade association dedicated to small and independent American brewers.

Tickets are sold out for this event.
 

2022 Julia Child Award Recipient: Grace Young

The Julia Child Foundation for Gastronomy and the Culinary Arts has announced Grace Young, award-winning cookbook author, culinary historian, filmmaker and activist, as the recipient of the eighth annual Julia Child Award.  The Award is accompanied by a $50,000 grant from the Foundation to further Young’s advocacy for the value of Chinese-American culture and cuisine.

Young has devoted her career to preserving Chinese home cooking and wok traditions and sharing her knowledge with home cooks in the U.S. Throughout her career, Grace has received six IACP awards and two (soon to be three) James Beard Awards for her cookbooks, video projects, lifetime achievements and humanitarian efforts.

Growing up in California, Young’s love of cooking started at an early age when she would watch Julia Child on The French Chef and recreate her recipes for her family. It was Julia that inspired Young to pursue a career in food and explore her Chinese culinary heritage. Young devoted her career to creating accessible Chinese recipes for home cooks in the U.S., just as Julia did with French cuisine.

After years as the test kitchen director and director of food photography for Time Life Books, Young had a yearning to reconnect with the flavors of her childhood. She would spend the next few years traveling from New York to San Francisco to learn to cook her family’s traditional dishes. This cherished collection of recipes would become her first award-winning book, The Wisdom of the Chinese Kitchen: Classic Family Recipes for Celebration and Healing.

As her exploration of Chinese cooking continued, Young spent many years preserving the tradition of cooking with a carbon-steel wok and sharing its value and importance with American home cooks. Now dubbed the “Wok Therapist,” Young co-authored the book, The Breath of a Wok: Unlocking the Spirit of Wok Cooking Through Recipes and Lore; created her renowned videos Wok Therapist and The Breath of a Wok; and runs a popular Facebook group titled “Wok Wednesdays.”

In 2006, Young began working on Stir-Frying to the Sky’s Edge, a cookbook that empowers home cooks to stir-fry with confidence by illustrating the technique’s origins, uses and health benefits. Her work to preserve Chinese culinary traditions in America has been featured in numerous magazines, newspapers and television shows throughout her career.

As the pandemic unfolded,Young dedicated her time to preserving Chinatowns and AAPI mom and pop businesses across the country, reminding the public of how important Chinese and AAPI food is to the American culinary landscape. As a recipient of the 8th annual Julia Child Award, Grace will receive a $50,000 grant from the Foundation to be given to food-related non-profit organizations. Grace plans to use the grant to continue her support of Chinatown legacy restaurants and feed those in need within the community.

The Foundation established the Julia Child Award in 2015 to foster Julia’s legacy, while also honoring an individual (or team) who has made a profound and significant difference in the way America cooks, eats and drinks. To date, the Foundation has awarded more than $2.7 million to culinary-focused non-profit organizations across the country. Previous Award recipients include Toni Tipton-Martin, Danielle Nierenberg, José Andrés, Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger, Danny Meyer, Rick Bayless and Jacques Pépin.

What is the American Food History Project?

The American Food History Project at the National Museum of American History welcomes everyone to join in exploring history through the lens of food. The museum’s food history team conducts research, collects objects and documents, creates exhibitions, and develops dynamic public programs that illuminate the fundamental role of food in shaping many aspects of American history and cultural life.

Our food programs are based on the museum’s research and collecting initiatives and include online offerings as well as on-site programs and demonstrations. These events bring visitors together for relevant discussions that start with history and expand to the present and future of food in the United States. Special activities include free daytime programs, including live cooking demonstrations, and the annual Smithsonian Food History Weekend. The National Museum of American History is committed to examining the historical roots of contemporary issues concerning food and drink in the United States. To stay in the loop, sign up to receive updates from the food history team here.

The American Food History Project is made possible by Warren and Barbara Winiarski │Winiarski Family Foundation and supporters of the Winemakers’ Dinner and Smithsonian Food History Gala.