Yan-Kit So Award for Food Writers on Asia
02 September 2021
The shortlist for this year’s award has been announced: Anna Ansari, Cara Bleiman, Noby Leong, Maria Garbutt-Lucero, Emma Diniz Ryan and Chau-Jean Lin. The winner will be announced at the end of September. The judges include Guild member Fuchsia Dunlop.
The award is inspired by the work of Yan-Kit So (1933-2001), arguably Britain’s leading authority on Chinese cuisine. A passionate promoter of Asian food, her first book The Classic Chinese Cookbook (1984) went on to win prestigious awards such as the André Simon Memorial Award and the Glenfiddich Food and Drink Award. Her seminal work Classical Food of China (1992) made a major contribution towards the understanding of Chinese regional food culture.
Hosted by Oxford Cultural Collective, the Award is given as a bursary, which is taken from funds raised by a group of volunteers in Yan-Kit’s memory.
The aim of the award is to enable an emerging writer to undertake a research trip to Asia, to support the production of an original piece of writing, intended for publication, which will enhance our understanding and appreciation of Asian food culture. This original work should be a cookbook or a substantial article for a magazine or journal, to be published in print or electronic form, in English.