This book is a series of excerpts and recipes by women chefs and cooks, as well as some abstracts and supporting information. I particularly liked the chapter on Edna Lewis, since writing about POC is so rare in 'main stream' books. Its worth the book just for her biscuit recipe but it would be interesting to have cooks and chefs who were not as famous in the book. That said, its an interesting grouping of women who have been successful in the field of cooking and writing (Julia Child, Alice Waters).

Women in the Kitchen focuses on a niche topic - 12 female cookbook authors who shaped the landscape of food and recipes during their lifetime and beyond. After a basic biographical sketch is given, recipes from the original cookbook are printed with an updated version. I have a natural proclivity for food writing in its many forms, but felt like Willan's story-telling was rather dry and uninteresting. While definitely well researched, none of the women came to life. Since I enjoy food history, I found some of the facts and recipes interesting, but overall the narrative wasn't compelling.

An outstanding book looking at 12 female cookbook authors from the 17th century to today. Each chapter covers the cookbook author, her life, and the writing of her cookbook(s). This is followed by a selection of her recipes, first as written, but then updated by the author.

Survey of 350 Years of Cookbooks Written By Women

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.

Women in the Kitchen
by Anne Willan

A fascinating look at the history of cookbooks .Beginning with the first published cookbook in 1661, up to current day.

This book is a combination history book and memoir. There was so much interesting history in this book. I learned so much from this book and I was entertained a lot while learning!

This is an interesting historical look back at cookbooks from the mid-1600s on to present day and the influential women who wrote them. I found the history more fascinating than the recipes - I did appreciate the conversion of historic recipes into modern ones though I didn't feel that the more current recipes like those from Alice Waters really needed to be reinterpreted. Hannah Glasse's Chocolate Pudidng with Rosemary recipe did inspire my husband and I to steep rosemary into our hot chocolate with great results.

This book is more than a cookbook, it's history. It talks about the millions of women that have cooked in their kitchen but just a few have written down what they learned. Besides all the stories there are the recipes with all the techniques they used in the past and now. I received a free digital copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review

*This book was received as an Advanced Reader's Copy from NetGalley.

I love food history, and I've been reading a lot about cookbook authors lately (shout out to The Jemima Code and several others). So I was eager to get started on this book that followed twelve cookbook authors and even included some recipes.

Half memoir, half history book, Women in the Kitchen chronicles the contributions of twelve different women. From Hannah Woolley to Alice Waters, there are several centuries contained in this book. I will say it was light on diversity, Edna Lewis is in there, but so is Sarah Rutledge, who yes made a cookbook, but was also a slaveowner and probably didn't feature all original works by Rutledge herself (although plagiarism seems to be a common thing for the earlier cookbooks). That being said, hearkening back to those other books I've ready lately, I would guess a lot of these were not her recipes. A quote from the book on Rutledge states"All these contributions would undoubtedly have relied on her family and friends' slave labor", but I'm not really sure if this is referring to actual slaves or this is a poor choice of phrase for friend's help (I don't normally quote ARCs but this stood out). She does somewhat allude to this time period and culture of the woman writing the cookbook not actually being the cook herself, but I personally think it's far too gentle. There is a section later on, at the end of the chapter on Edna Lewis, about diversity and women cookbook authors.

But I'll hop off my soapbox and continue on. I did find the small insights into the different authors lives interesting. And it appears that Willan herself knew/knows several of them and it ended up being a slight memoir because of it. Not expected, but not unwelcome either, and while it jarred me a bit to have personal interludes here and there, it didn't completely take away from the book. I think thee best part of this book is the authors' recreations of some of the recipes. While some where written in a way you could follow (Julia Child and some of the later cooks), some of the earlier ones had no measurements, etc. and would have been complicated to recreate. Not saying I'll still make some of the earlier recipes with this translation (because some of them are just not to my taste), but it will make it easier should someone like to try.

Overall, I found the book interesting, but thought it could have done a much firmer job on describing the plagiarism issues these authors had, diversity, and other aspects of the cooking.

Review by M. Reynard 2020

I have always been fascinated with the history of cooking, so once I saw this book offered on netgalley, I knew I wanted to read it. Although a bit dry at times, I loved reading about the history behind famous women in cookbook history, and the ability to cook the same recipes is so fun. This book would be wonderful to use to research different time periods in cookbook history and host dinner parties with the same recipes! For history buffs, feminists, and cookbook collectors, this is definitely an interesting read.

I received this book from netgalley and the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

Like most people I have a lot of cookbooks. I love reading them and collecting them. This cookbook is AMAZING!! The author Anne Willan, gives you great back story on some of these historic recipes. She also helps you understand them by explaining the ingredientes which were used during the time the recipes were written. This is one I will be adding to my collection for sure! Grab your own copy and you will not be disappointed.

A fascinating look at women cookbook authors and their recipes. Such a fun read! And a great gift book too.

Many thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for my ARC. All opinions are my own.

“People who love to eat are always the best people."~ Julia Child
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Women in the Kitchen by Anne Willan is a history book and a cookbook. Each chapter relays the story of a woman who changed the world of cooking with their cookbooks, and then contains a series of their recipes and their modern equivalents. This book was well researched and very easy to read.

I'm enjoying reading this book about cookbook authors and recipes, as far back as the 1600s. Like many, I've not really given much thought to the history of these useful books so it's interesting to learn how they came about. I was surprised at the amount of plagiarism involved in early works nor the level of greediness of some early "authors" - one would expect rosy cheeked society ladies but apparently this belief is incorrect! The recipes were interesting to read but mostly nothing I'd ever attempt to make or eat (very heavy on meat, eggs and butter). Still, it was a nice diversion at the end of a day and a good book to read before bed. As written, I'd look for this at the library instead of buying. Hopefully, the published version will be illustrated and much better edited. Quite a number of chapters had recipes duplicated but not exactly the same.

One big suggestion for the editor: Include a chapter early in the book about the author! Who is she, what is her background and experience? We don't learn anything about her until the very last chapter; is she a student writing a book based on research, is she a home cook or what?

I have collected cookbooks for almost 50 years. Ever since I was a young inexperienced wife of an active duty airman. So many life lessons are learned by reading the words of experience that women...and some men...pass onto the next generation through shared recipes and meals. This cookbook could easily qualify to be called a history book as we read the stories of how so many generations learned cooking techniques from these experts. I really loved these examples from cooking's history and the recipes from each generation. Everyone who loves bringing their families together through food should read this book then share it with those they love.

An interesting collection of biographical information on famous female cooks; nice look behind the curtain so to speak; meet the people behind the recipes here.

I love Anne Willan's cookbooks and I love to read cookbooks in general so this was an amazing find on NetGalley! I really enjoyed reading about some of the key figures in cooking and their culinary contributions, as well as having paved the way for so many other women. The addition of the recipes just made this book that much better!

Although I am not a good cook I like cookbooks. Especially books like this one that not only has good recipes but a good story to tell also. This book has 12 short but interesting and to the point biographies on 12 different cookbook writers through 400 years with a small number of their recipes. How she chose these 12 I don't know but I had actually heard of 6 of them so I was pleased with myself.
Hannah Wooley (1622-1675) was the first English cookbook writer to be published. With no ingredients list and no real directions, only a professional cook could make sense of it but it was interesting. Amelia Simmons (no dates) was the first American cookbook author. Again, a book short on details but interesting life. Several more authors until we get to Fannie Farmer (1857-1915) cookbook author and also owned a cooking school. From Fannie Farmer on I actually own the cookbooks represented in this book. Irma Rombauer (1877-1962) Joy of Cooking, who doesn't own this? Julia Child (1912-2004) Mastering the Art of French Cooking. I wish I could just master cooking but I loved "Julie and Julia." Edna Lewis (1916-2006) The Taste of Country Cooking. The title alone brings back my grandmother's chicken and dumplings and my mother in law's fried chicken and how cake. Sigh..... Marcella Hazen (1924-2013) The Classic Italian Cookbook. She wasn't making any pizza chain pizza or spaghetti. Last but not least Alice Waters (1944-) who owns Chez Panisse in San Francisco and wrote Chez Panisse Menu Cookbook. Alice has trained many celebrity chefs in her restaurant including my favorite cookbook writer and blogger David Lebovitz. She has also tried to teach America organic, farm to table, and what a locavore is. The author of this book has been writing about cooking for over 50 years and wrote for Gourmet Magazine. She also has a cookbook collection of over 2000 volumes. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this book in exchange for a review.

Loved it! I thought the historical background was well researched and I particularly enjoyed reading about Hannah Woolley the first cookbook author, Fannie Farmer, Julia Child and Alice Waters. I appreciated the original photos and recipes from colonial times.. I thought the Author did an excellent job providing a brief biography and summarizing their contribution to the Cookbook world. I have never seen a book on this subject and it is certainly worth investigating. I hope the Author continues her quest and writes additional books on this subject matter!
Thank you NetGalley & Scribner for the opportunity to read and review this delightful book!

janne boswell
https://seniorbooklounge.blogspot.com/

Anne Willan has been a beloved cookbook author for decades; most serious cooks own her cookbooks, and most cooks have adapted some of her methods in their everyday cooking. Willan is also a food historian, and Women in the Kitchen: Twelve Essential Cookbook Writers Who Defined the Way We Eat, from 1661 to Today is her latest accomplishment. This book is fascinating, and will appeal to anyone who has an interest in food. The book covers twelve cookbook authors dating from 1661 to today, and includes recipes from each of their books.

Foodies who enjoy expanding their knowledge will definitely want to pick up this book. Cooks who love the history of food most likely already own the cookbooks written by the twelve early cookbook authors included in this book (I own books by 9 out of 12 authors and love the authors she chose to showcase), and the more you learn about these cooks throughout history, the more you want to know. Willan’s books are well-written, and this one is no exception. It is a great book to curl up in a corner and read. The biographies are succinct, and can be read quickly, and it’s fun to read about women in history who share the same interests as we do.

This is a great book for anyone who loves food, and loves learning about food. It should be on every bookshelf, and makes a nice coffee table book. Willan has outdone herself here, and while the book is interesting, the recipes included represent a good variety of dishes popular throughout history. Willan has updated the recipes for modern cooks, and that make it fun to cook out of this book, too. The one thing that is missing from this book is photographs of the recipes. There are photos/or illustrations of each of the twelve cooks, however, but it would have been nice to see some of the finished dishes.

Special thanks to NetGalley for supplying a review copy of this book.