Let’s not forget my personal culinary hero, Caterina de Medici, who contributed immensely to French cuisine from her Italian roots. She brought béchamel, crepes, duck à l’orange, and so much more to France from her Tuscan kingdom (French and Italians still argue over who created these classics, but it was her doing along with the Italian chefs she brought to France). She’s even responsible for the use of the fork when dining! That’s like inventing the wheel in the history of food : ).
Oh, how interesting. Wish I had time to read her biography in 2025. Thanks for the inspiration. I always enjoy Medici stories bc I'm an art lover. Definitely will dive in someday.
Prego! Another interesting historical food figure is Pellegrino Artusi, who wrote the Italian cookbook bible in 1891 that is still revered today, ‘La scienza in cucina e l'arte di mangiar bene’ (Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well). Food is art!
I would add the Norwegians and Leif Erickson and the Chinese. The Norwegians are thought to have traveled to the New World where they fished without limit--and kept it a secret as to where they found all this fish), mastered the art of preserving cod which was plentiful in the North seas, and the Chinese are credited with the methods for extracting salt from the earth... I would say that without salt, food would neither have been preserved for long travel across the seas or for ever tasting as good!
An interesting question! I wouldn’t disagree with any of the people you’ve listed Ruth, and yet, the more I travel the more I realize how my answer to this question is so shaped by being an American and having a Eurocentric worldview; I struggle to name anyone from Latin America, Asia, or Africa, not because there have not been major food contributions from any of those places, but because much of the food world centers the stories of certain places but not others.
In 2024 I read Adam Gopnik's book, "The Table Comes First" which does tend to answer who Gopnik would include on (and exclude from) his top ten list. If I don't go any further back in history than my parents generation, I would definitely include Julia Child and Alice Waters. For me personally, Frances Moore Lappe. Are we talking only chefs? or also the scientists like Pasteur who taught the world how to not die from the food we consume? What about those who taught us how to present food in artful ways? What about food writers who make or break food businesses around the world? What about the corporations whose disgusting efficiencies really do feed the world? But Child really did translate french cooking for American housewives. Still it took Martha Stewart to make even Child's recipes seem doable. And Ina Garten has added more butter and carb and made Stewart's recipes feel more cosy and comfortable. Waters cooked fresh produce from her garden. I think she moved away from the space age TV dinner and back to the victory garden. And somewhere in the background or clinging onto the fringe, Lappe was whispering about erosion, about water supplies, about feeding all the world's hungry (as if we all sat down at the same table every night.) One day perhaps Greta Thunberg will be among the most important voices about food. Food is inextricably linked to climate and environment. If you haven't yet read Gopnik's book, do. I'm reasonably sure you'll find it amusing. It's a slog at first but like Gopnik himself, it loosens up quickly.
Not weighing in on the cerebral quiz. It's Gourmet 1977 menu that brings back flashes of forgotten flavor memories and the novelty of the Cuisinart. Yup, I made several of these recipes multiple times. Just rereading them now exhausts me. I cannot imagine today's visual cooks ever, ever wading through these narrative formats, linking together sub-recipe components, formulating shopping list(s) and then producing quenelles, can you?
I made quenelles once in my Cuisinart! I had one of the original, made in France, machines sold in the US. It lasted a good 35 years and I only got rid of it when we moved. It's interesting to see how recipe formats have changed over the decades. I wonder when listing the ingredients at the top became the norm. My copy of Joy of Cooking from the seventies lists them within the body of the recipe, but in bold, so you can easily see them. In a certain sense, recipes today are more verbose because they use less terminology and instead explain the technique.
I would go back to Lyon just for quenelles. Speaking of, surely Bocuse is on that list somewhere (at least the chef one) but if I could turn France into a person, they might rank fairly high. I would have a dinner party with India, Japan, China, Greece, Spain, Italy - the list goes on. Perhaps I should return to Venice for the ribs.
I could not narrow the list to 10. There are so many, from Point in France to Alice Waters, Jeremiah Tower, MFK Fisher, etc, etc. It is a shame that so many are not aware of these innovators. Keep reminding us.
I am not so familiar with American food writers yet in Germany I would say Lea Linster, who is also a chef, and Bert Gamerschlag of the STERN Magazine. I also do like Michael Ruhlman. For Italian Kitchen I like the stories of Marcella Hazan.
What I remember about Michael Ruhlman was the time the late Anthony Bourdain visited him in his home in Cincinnati, and they met at Skyline Chili. Bourdain happily tucked into a Four-Way (Skyline's version of "Cincinnati Chili" with spaghetti, onions, and shredded cheddar cheese on top) while Ruhlman looked down at his dish like Bourdain had put a rat on it! 😂
For the record, I LOVE Skyline Chili, or indeed any form on Cincinnati Chili, and make my own Four-Ways at home as comfort food in the winter. This despite never having gone to Cincinnati, and only driven though a few times while I was married and my wife and I were going on a business trip.
That sounds like a memorable moment between Bourdain and Ruhlman! I can totally see how Cincinnati Chili might be an acquired taste—definitely an interesting mix of flavors with that combination of spaghetti, chili, and cheese. I love how you’ve turned it into a comfort food for winter, even without the Cincinnati connection. I’ll have to give it a try when I can! Thanks for sharing this fun insight.
Ruth, if we’re being honest, you clearly are on the list of most influential and important figures in American gastronomy. I put Judith Jones, and Alice Waters on that list as well.
Important does not necessarily imply good or best, so with that caveat in mind I would put forth Ray Kroc and Percy Spencer the engineer for Raytheon who stumbled on the heating capabilities of cavity magnetron's while working on radar...I think that both gentlemen certainly changed and influenced the ways of food in today's world. Also a little known story is of the role of Dr. Kathleen Mary Drew-Baker, a scientist at the University of Manchester, in saving the nori industry: https://ocean.si.edu/ocean-life/plants-algae/saving-nori which of course is now ubiquitous.
As to the usual suspects that would take much more time in establishing qualifying metrics that would go beyond the boundaries of personal taste, but still nonetheless make for the stuff of great discussions. Here's a few off the top of my head: Diana Kennedy, Rich Melman, Danny Meyer, Irma Rombauer and Alice Waters. and the Chili Queen of San Antonio back in the late 19th Century. And last any list of food writers without Calvin Trillin would be missing out on the gustatory joy of eating. One last book that stretches out to the dim past of western foodways and the pleasures of the Symposium, is James Davidson's "Courtesans & Fishcakes
I'm afraid my list would be very VERY déclassé—not because I want to be perverse, but it strikes me that for Americans at least, it's the democratization of "furriner" food that's so significant. My list would probably consist of Chef Ettore Boiardi ("Chef Boy-Ar-Dee") for making Italian food like spaghetti and ravioli accessible to non-Italians; Jeno Paulucci for popularizing both Chinese food through his Chun King line of canned dishes (which I personally hate, but recognize its historical importance!), and Italian-food-on-the-go with his Jeno's Pizza Rolls (which he created as a way to keep his eggroll wrapping machines busy!); and Glen Bell, who founded Taco Bell as a way to compete with the explosion of hamburger chains in the wake of McDonald's franchising everything in sight.
I remember when I was growing up how exotic Mexican food was to most Americans who didn't live in the Southwest, so when the U.S. Army took my family to Germany and Mom kept getting CARE packages from Grandma consisting of corn tortillas, canned refried beans, canned green chilis, and avocados, it was a *revelation* to the most of the people at our base chapel! Mom would make tacos (fried hard-shell corn tortillas, shredded iceberg lettuce, shredded American cheese, and "taco meat" which was scrambled hamburger with a homemade tomato, green pepper and onion salsa cooked through it) or enchiladas (scrambled hamburger again, mixed with Campbell's Cream of Mushroom soup, green chilis, shredded cheese, chopped onion, sour cream, and "enchilada sauce" that was either pre-canned or made with tomato sauce, chilis, and more Cream of Mushroom soup!) for pot luck, and people went NUTS for it because it was so unlike anything they'd eaten in the Midwest, South or Northeast.
I was an adult before I discovered there was more to Chinese food than canned Chop Suey, Chow Mein, Eggroll, and Sweet&Sour Everything over Instant Rice. I *hated*, and still hate, that kind of "American Chinese food", but have come to love the huge range of flavors and cooking methods of the varying kinds of Chinese food that are now available to us.
I grabbed The Last Chinese Chef off the library shelf at the last minute and lugged the hardback with me to Beijing and Mongolia in 2018. What a find! Such sustenance throughout a challenging trip. The book stays with me as much oras the physical journey. Beautiful, a good story and I learned a lot. Perfect.
I should have asked you if you wanted my 500+ cooking magazines going back to 1968. After carting them around for forty years I finally whittled it down to about 125 and donated the rest to the local recycling center (that has it' own book/magazine section). I love looking at those old menus.
Let’s not forget my personal culinary hero, Caterina de Medici, who contributed immensely to French cuisine from her Italian roots. She brought béchamel, crepes, duck à l’orange, and so much more to France from her Tuscan kingdom (French and Italians still argue over who created these classics, but it was her doing along with the Italian chefs she brought to France). She’s even responsible for the use of the fork when dining! That’s like inventing the wheel in the history of food : ).
Oh, how interesting. Wish I had time to read her biography in 2025. Thanks for the inspiration. I always enjoy Medici stories bc I'm an art lover. Definitely will dive in someday.
Prego! Another interesting historical food figure is Pellegrino Artusi, who wrote the Italian cookbook bible in 1891 that is still revered today, ‘La scienza in cucina e l'arte di mangiar bene’ (Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well). Food is art!
I would add the Norwegians and Leif Erickson and the Chinese. The Norwegians are thought to have traveled to the New World where they fished without limit--and kept it a secret as to where they found all this fish), mastered the art of preserving cod which was plentiful in the North seas, and the Chinese are credited with the methods for extracting salt from the earth... I would say that without salt, food would neither have been preserved for long travel across the seas or for ever tasting as good!
An interesting question! I wouldn’t disagree with any of the people you’ve listed Ruth, and yet, the more I travel the more I realize how my answer to this question is so shaped by being an American and having a Eurocentric worldview; I struggle to name anyone from Latin America, Asia, or Africa, not because there have not been major food contributions from any of those places, but because much of the food world centers the stories of certain places but not others.
In 2024 I read Adam Gopnik's book, "The Table Comes First" which does tend to answer who Gopnik would include on (and exclude from) his top ten list. If I don't go any further back in history than my parents generation, I would definitely include Julia Child and Alice Waters. For me personally, Frances Moore Lappe. Are we talking only chefs? or also the scientists like Pasteur who taught the world how to not die from the food we consume? What about those who taught us how to present food in artful ways? What about food writers who make or break food businesses around the world? What about the corporations whose disgusting efficiencies really do feed the world? But Child really did translate french cooking for American housewives. Still it took Martha Stewart to make even Child's recipes seem doable. And Ina Garten has added more butter and carb and made Stewart's recipes feel more cosy and comfortable. Waters cooked fresh produce from her garden. I think she moved away from the space age TV dinner and back to the victory garden. And somewhere in the background or clinging onto the fringe, Lappe was whispering about erosion, about water supplies, about feeding all the world's hungry (as if we all sat down at the same table every night.) One day perhaps Greta Thunberg will be among the most important voices about food. Food is inextricably linked to climate and environment. If you haven't yet read Gopnik's book, do. I'm reasonably sure you'll find it amusing. It's a slog at first but like Gopnik himself, it loosens up quickly.
Jesus was a miracle worker with bread and fish (the original home economist) and a pioneer in (super) natural wine making.
Not weighing in on the cerebral quiz. It's Gourmet 1977 menu that brings back flashes of forgotten flavor memories and the novelty of the Cuisinart. Yup, I made several of these recipes multiple times. Just rereading them now exhausts me. I cannot imagine today's visual cooks ever, ever wading through these narrative formats, linking together sub-recipe components, formulating shopping list(s) and then producing quenelles, can you?
I made quenelles once in my Cuisinart! I had one of the original, made in France, machines sold in the US. It lasted a good 35 years and I only got rid of it when we moved. It's interesting to see how recipe formats have changed over the decades. I wonder when listing the ingredients at the top became the norm. My copy of Joy of Cooking from the seventies lists them within the body of the recipe, but in bold, so you can easily see them. In a certain sense, recipes today are more verbose because they use less terminology and instead explain the technique.
I would go back to Lyon just for quenelles. Speaking of, surely Bocuse is on that list somewhere (at least the chef one) but if I could turn France into a person, they might rank fairly high. I would have a dinner party with India, Japan, China, Greece, Spain, Italy - the list goes on. Perhaps I should return to Venice for the ribs.
I could not narrow the list to 10. There are so many, from Point in France to Alice Waters, Jeremiah Tower, MFK Fisher, etc, etc. It is a shame that so many are not aware of these innovators. Keep reminding us.
I am not so familiar with American food writers yet in Germany I would say Lea Linster, who is also a chef, and Bert Gamerschlag of the STERN Magazine. I also do like Michael Ruhlman. For Italian Kitchen I like the stories of Marcella Hazan.
What I remember about Michael Ruhlman was the time the late Anthony Bourdain visited him in his home in Cincinnati, and they met at Skyline Chili. Bourdain happily tucked into a Four-Way (Skyline's version of "Cincinnati Chili" with spaghetti, onions, and shredded cheddar cheese on top) while Ruhlman looked down at his dish like Bourdain had put a rat on it! 😂
For the record, I LOVE Skyline Chili, or indeed any form on Cincinnati Chili, and make my own Four-Ways at home as comfort food in the winter. This despite never having gone to Cincinnati, and only driven though a few times while I was married and my wife and I were going on a business trip.
That sounds like a memorable moment between Bourdain and Ruhlman! I can totally see how Cincinnati Chili might be an acquired taste—definitely an interesting mix of flavors with that combination of spaghetti, chili, and cheese. I love how you’ve turned it into a comfort food for winter, even without the Cincinnati connection. I’ll have to give it a try when I can! Thanks for sharing this fun insight.
Ruth, if we’re being honest, you clearly are on the list of most influential and important figures in American gastronomy. I put Judith Jones, and Alice Waters on that list as well.
Important does not necessarily imply good or best, so with that caveat in mind I would put forth Ray Kroc and Percy Spencer the engineer for Raytheon who stumbled on the heating capabilities of cavity magnetron's while working on radar...I think that both gentlemen certainly changed and influenced the ways of food in today's world. Also a little known story is of the role of Dr. Kathleen Mary Drew-Baker, a scientist at the University of Manchester, in saving the nori industry: https://ocean.si.edu/ocean-life/plants-algae/saving-nori which of course is now ubiquitous.
As to the usual suspects that would take much more time in establishing qualifying metrics that would go beyond the boundaries of personal taste, but still nonetheless make for the stuff of great discussions. Here's a few off the top of my head: Diana Kennedy, Rich Melman, Danny Meyer, Irma Rombauer and Alice Waters. and the Chili Queen of San Antonio back in the late 19th Century. And last any list of food writers without Calvin Trillin would be missing out on the gustatory joy of eating. One last book that stretches out to the dim past of western foodways and the pleasures of the Symposium, is James Davidson's "Courtesans & Fishcakes
I'm afraid my list would be very VERY déclassé—not because I want to be perverse, but it strikes me that for Americans at least, it's the democratization of "furriner" food that's so significant. My list would probably consist of Chef Ettore Boiardi ("Chef Boy-Ar-Dee") for making Italian food like spaghetti and ravioli accessible to non-Italians; Jeno Paulucci for popularizing both Chinese food through his Chun King line of canned dishes (which I personally hate, but recognize its historical importance!), and Italian-food-on-the-go with his Jeno's Pizza Rolls (which he created as a way to keep his eggroll wrapping machines busy!); and Glen Bell, who founded Taco Bell as a way to compete with the explosion of hamburger chains in the wake of McDonald's franchising everything in sight.
I remember when I was growing up how exotic Mexican food was to most Americans who didn't live in the Southwest, so when the U.S. Army took my family to Germany and Mom kept getting CARE packages from Grandma consisting of corn tortillas, canned refried beans, canned green chilis, and avocados, it was a *revelation* to the most of the people at our base chapel! Mom would make tacos (fried hard-shell corn tortillas, shredded iceberg lettuce, shredded American cheese, and "taco meat" which was scrambled hamburger with a homemade tomato, green pepper and onion salsa cooked through it) or enchiladas (scrambled hamburger again, mixed with Campbell's Cream of Mushroom soup, green chilis, shredded cheese, chopped onion, sour cream, and "enchilada sauce" that was either pre-canned or made with tomato sauce, chilis, and more Cream of Mushroom soup!) for pot luck, and people went NUTS for it because it was so unlike anything they'd eaten in the Midwest, South or Northeast.
I was an adult before I discovered there was more to Chinese food than canned Chop Suey, Chow Mein, Eggroll, and Sweet&Sour Everything over Instant Rice. I *hated*, and still hate, that kind of "American Chinese food", but have come to love the huge range of flavors and cooking methods of the varying kinds of Chinese food that are now available to us.
I grabbed The Last Chinese Chef off the library shelf at the last minute and lugged the hardback with me to Beijing and Mongolia in 2018. What a find! Such sustenance throughout a challenging trip. The book stays with me as much oras the physical journey. Beautiful, a good story and I learned a lot. Perfect.
I should have asked you if you wanted my 500+ cooking magazines going back to 1968. After carting them around for forty years I finally whittled it down to about 125 and donated the rest to the local recycling center (that has it' own book/magazine section). I love looking at those old menus.
What a great article! I love the new year's eve menu. The picture of the baked Alaska looks divine!
Do you realize that all the cross fertilization of food that Columbus wrought would be outlawed today by regulators citing invasive species dangers.