Hetty Lui McKinnon

Hetty Lui McKinnon is an Australian Chinese vegetarian/plant-based/vegan cookbook author, recipe developer, food writer, and James Beard Award finalist and winner. She has written six cookbooks with the fifth, Tenderheart: A Cookbook About Vegetables and Unbreakable Family Bonds winning the James Beard Award for Vegetable Focused Cooking in 2024.

Early life McKinnon was born in Sydney to Chinese immigrant parents from Guangdong, China. Her father immigrated in the late 50s and her mother arrived in the early 1960s. She has two siblings and is the youngest sibling.

McKinnon's father worked at the Flemington Markets as an importer and exporter of bananas. He brought fresh produce back for his family, which had a huge influence on McKinnon's later cooking.

McKinnon's Australian upbringing and cross-cultural experiences profoundly shaped her. She recalls feeling like a minority outside of her home while also growing up in a traditional Chinese household. McKinnon has stated that food was central to her family, calling it a "common language." McKinnon emailed out a weekly menu to subscribers that featured two salads a day, making deliveries on Thursday and Friday for up to forty people. She is also a regular contributor to New York Times Cooking, The Washington Post, Bon Appetit, and Epicurious.

Cookbooks After about a year, McKinnon decided to write a cookbook. McKinnon shot all the photos for this book. In interviews, McKinnon discussed how this cookbook was a way for her to reclaim her Chinese Australian heritage and celebrate Asian food culture.

Awards and honors + Year Awards and Honors Event 2024 James Beard Foundation Award James Beard Foundation Award: Vegetable Focused Cooking for Tenderheart: A Cookbook About Vegetables and Unbreakable Family Bonds. 2022 Finalist (nominated) James Beard Foundation Award: Vegetable Focused Cooking for To Asia, with Love: Everyday Asian Recipes and Stories from the Heart. 2019 Best Illustrated Book of the Year Australian Book Industry Awards for Family: New Vegetarian Comfort Foods to Nourish Every Day. 2015 Best Illustrated Book of the Year (Shortlisted) Australian Book Industry Awards for Community.

Published works Community (2013) ISBN 9781760786571 Neighborhood (2016) ISBN 9781743538982 Family: New Vegetarian Comfort Foods to Nourish Every Day (2019) ISBN 9781760554576 To Asia, with Love: Everyday Asian Recipes and Stories from the Heart (2020) ISBN 9781760787677 Tenderheart: A Book about Vegetables and Unbreakable Family Bonds (2022) ISBN 9780593534861 Linger (2025). ISBN 9780593804193

Personal life McKinnon has been vegetarian since she was 19 years old.