Women in the Kitchen: Twelve Essential Cookbook Writers Who Defined the Way We Eat, from 1661 to Today

Love that this book explores early cookbooks and the authors. Gives examples of typical recipes and ingredients of the time periods, and shows how the same recipes are be repeated in a modern kitchen. Very pleased to add this treasure to my collection!

This is a cook book everyone needs. It is now the centerpiece in my kitchen library. Learn about the important women of culinary history from the earliest recorded time to the present, all in beautifully written, clear prose. Then make the featured recipes, all exceptional choises. Case in point: Julia Child's phenomenal method for Ratatouille, a choice I would have made myself from her 500+ page book. And Edna Lewis' Crispy Biscuits. What could be better than learning how to make biscuits from a truly great Southern cook? Then go out and buy a cook book from each of these wonderful authors. You won't be disappointed!

I gave this book as a gift to a person who likes the art of cooking. It was a big hit. I personally liked the historical tidbits on each chef.

Not a bad book at all. I found it mildly interesting. I read only the bios of the women I was not familiar with and skimmed the others. The old recipes were intriguing, and the updates fine. Will probably not look at it again.

She talked about how the women in the book did things and made history. Then she gave some of their recipes.

Interesting book and recipes.

I love to read cookbooks and to read about cookbooks, but I was ready to throw this book against a wall.It is deplorable that she does not reference Toni Tipton-Martin's 2015 "The Jemima Code: Two Centuries of African American Cookbooks."She updates all the recipes that she copies from the books she discusses, but the updates in the last half of the book have no significant changes. They are a waste of print space.Her biographies of the last 5 writers add nothing to the literature, since there are full biographies available.Do not buy this book. Buy Tipton-Martin's books or buy Leslie Geddes-Brown's "A Book for Cooks: 101 Classic Cookbooks."

I have been reading cookbooks like novels since I was a teenager; my mother started me on the practice! This book looks at the cookbook contributions of female writers from the 17th century to the modern day. The female cooks of history may not be well known to you, but you will probably recognize the others featured recipe writers and cookbook authors, like Julia Child, Irma Rombauer (Joy of Cooking fame), and Alice Waters. The book has a fascinating introductory section, where Mrs. Willan talks about these authors and their books collectively, how the books came about, and a little of the cultural milieu—including the fact that women’s cookery books tend to be more simple and home based than men’s. The rest of the book looks at each cookbook author in chronological order. Each chapter gives more detail about the woman and her cookbook(s), and Mrs. Willan has not only included recipes from the original texts, but she has also created modern updates of them. Some older “receipts” were written with no measurements at all. I appreciated the author's modern spin on these older recipes. I found it fascinating that quite often the women wrote these books because they needed money, not unlike motivations today. One actually wrote the book to instruct her staff and shared it with friends so they could give it to their servants. Given the ease of ebook publishing these days, I found the little bits of information about how these women published their books interesting as well; it was certainly a different world. If you love cookbooks as I do, if you have an interest in English and American culinary history, or if you are a fan of any of the ladies featured in the book, you may very well enjoy this book as much as I did.I received a free copy of this book, but that did not affect my review.

It could have been a wonderful light read had the Author not insisted into ascribing a c0mmunist pedigree whenever she could. Also pointless reiterations regarding today's non-issues. Perhaps next time just stick to cooking? My opinion.