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

James Beard Award–winning author Willan (The Country Cooking of France) winnows centuries of women cookbook authors to an influential dozen whose biographies and recipes form the backbone of this smartly executed book. Drawing from her own 2,000-plus cookbook collection built up over decades of writing about food, Willan notes “most of the active, recipe books, the ones I take into the kitchen, are by women.” She begins with Hannah Woolley, who in 1670 published the first woman’s cookbook, handwritten in 1661, in English, and closes with Alice Waters, who opened her “little French restaurant” Chez Panisse three centuries later and in 1982 shared its lauded recipes in the first of several cookbooks. The other 10 women include the familiar (Fannie Farmer, Irma Rombauer) and the forgotten, among them Lydia Child (better known for the classic rhyme, “Over the river and through the wood”). Recipes vary from unexpected (a 17th-century version of almond milk) and rustic (“Indian Slapjack,” from 1796) to sophisticated (Julia Child’s coq au vin; Marcella Hazan’s polenta con la luganega). Both cooks and historians will eagerly tuck into this cleverly conceived, well-researched collection. (Aug.)