Barbara Tropp

Tropp's book, The Modern Art of Chinese Cooking: Techniques & Recipes, was awarded the KitchenAid Cookbook Hall of Fame James Beard Award in 2004.

Barbara Tropp (1948-October 26, 2001) was an American orientalist, chef, restaurateur, and food writer. During her career, she operated China Moon restaurant in San Francisco and wrote cookbooks that popularized Chinese cuisine in America. China Moon's accompanying cookbook is credited with being one of the first fusion cuisine cookbooks. She was the 1989 recipient of the Who's Who of Food & Beverage in America James Beard Award. Tropp was called "the Julia Child of Chinese cooking."

In October 2001, she was awarded the Women Chefs and Restaurateurs' President's Award. Weeks later, on October 26, she died of ovarian cancer at her San Francisco apartment.

By 1999, Tropp continued chemotherapy for ovarian cancer. She returned to work, writing for Gourmet, teaching cooking classes, and hosting food tours in San Francisco. She, her husband and stepdaughter, split their time between San Francisco and their home in Napa Valley.

In 1994, Tropp's sister, Nhumey, called her to tell Tropp that their mother had died of ovarian cancer at the age of 48. Prior to this, they did not know what kind of cancer their mother had died from. Nhumey had researched medical records to find the cause of death. Due to concerns about ovarian cancer being passed down genetically, Nhumey had a oophorectomy and it was confirmed she had ovarian cancer. Tropp also had an oophorectomy and it was also confirmed she had ovarian cancer. Tropp had chemotherapy for one year coupled with Chinese medicinal and herbal treatments. In 1996, she sold China Moon due to her declining health. She also took time off from writing.

The China Moon Cookbook was published in 1992. The New York Times called it "one of the first books that successfully brought together Chinese and European-American mainstream cooking." The book was awarded an International Association of Culinary Professionals Cookbook Award. She co-founded the organization Women Chefs and Restaurateurs in 1993 with Joyce Goldstein and other women in the industry.

Upon moving to San Francisco, Tropp settled near Chinatown. Eventually, she was contracted by James Beard to write a cookbook: The Modern Art of Chinese Cooking: Techniques and Recipes in 1982. As a result of the book, she traveled nationally, teaching cooking classes. She worked in the kitchen at Greens, a San Francisco vegetarian restaurant. In 1983, she opened China Moon in a former diner in San Francisco. The Los Angeles Times described the food at China Moon as "authentic in taste but Californian in its spirit of artistic expression." That same year, Martha Stewart published her book Entertaining. The book featured a collection of Chinese recipes which were plagiarized from Tropp's book, The Modern Art of Chinese Cooking. Stewart agreed to give Tropp credit in future editions of the book. In 1989, she appeared on Great Chefs. She was also awarded the Who's Who of Food & Beverage in America James Beard Award.

Barbara Tropp was born in 1948 in Springfield, New Jersey. Both her parents were Jewish and podiatrists. She had one sibling, Nhumey. Tropp's family had little influence on her later culinary career. She described her mother's home cooking as "adequate". Her grandmother was German and cooked traditional German food. The majority of her exposure to Chinese food was the Friday night Chinese take out her family ate each week. Tropp described herself as an introvert growing up. She became interested in Chinese culture after studying it in a high school art class.