Hannah Che

Hannah Che is an American plant-based/vegan writer, chef, and author, as well as a pianist. Her cookbook, The Vegan Chinese Kitchen, won the 2023 James Beard Foundation Award.

Early life and education
Che was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, to immigrant parents from China. When she was 9, her father's work took them to Shenzhen, China for three years before returning to the United States. She trained as a pianist at Shepherd School of Music, Rice University, receiving both a B.M. and M.M. She then studied vegetarian cooking at the Guangzhou Vegetarian Culinary School in China.

Career
Che states that after reading Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer, she "chose to shift to plant-based eating for health, environmental, and ethical reasons." She then began to study "other culinary traditions, like plant-based Thai and Mediterranean cuisine." She states that she learned that "plant-based eating is a long-standing tradition in Chinese cuisine." She started the blog, "The Plant-Based Wok," as a result of these changes.

Book
The New York Times and The Washington Post named her first cookbook, The Vegan Chinese Kitchen (2022), one of the Best Cookbooks of 2022, and the Food Network listed it as one of the “10 Best New Vegan Cookbooks” for 2023. VegNews listed it as one of the "Top 100 Vegan Cookbooks of All Time" in 2024.

It won the 2023 James Beard Foundation Award and 2023 International Association of Culinary Professionals Julia Child First Book Award.

Cookbook

 * The Vegan Chinese Kitchen. Clarkson Potter, 2022. ISBN 978-0593139707.