Barbara Tropp, 53; Celebrated Chinese Cuisine With Book, Cafe

Barbara Tropp, a petite fireball in the Bay Area restaurant world, died Friday in San Francisco of ovarian cancer, a disease she had battled for more than eight years. She was 53.

Tropp, who joked that she was 5 feet tall “on a good day,” founded a successful restaurant, China Moon Cafe, and wrote one of the first serious books on Chinese cuisine by a Westerner, “The Modern Art of Chinese Cooking.”

She was also active in many Bay Area organizations and was a co-founder of Women Chefs and Restaurateurs, which has more than 2,000 members. She was honored with its President’s Award last weekend in Santa Monica at its annual convention.

Tropp, the daughter of two podiatrists, was raised in Springfield, N.J., and fell in love with China early on. After earning her bachelor’s degree from Barnard College and a master’s in Chinese literature and art from Princeton University, she went to live in Taiwan.

It was there that she became absorbed in the cuisines of China, which became the focus of her life’s work. On her return to the United States, she published “Modern Art,” which was immediately hailed as one of the best books of its time on Asian cooking.

She opened China Moon Cafe in 1986, and her fresh, innovative approach to Chinese cooking fit right in with the culinary sensibility championed by her friend Alice Waters. The restaurant was a success, until health problems forced her to close it in 1996.

In an e-mail to friends, Tropp’s husband, Bart Rhoades, said she had asked that a memorial fund be established to help young female cooks travel to China to explore the cuisine and culture firsthand. For more information, contact the Women Chefs and Restaurateurs at 304 W. Liberty St., No. 201, Louisville, KY 40202.