HESSER, Amanda (Lea) 1971-

PERSONAL:

Born September 8, 1971, in Doylestown, PA; daughter of Thomas Dean (owner of an automobile dealership) and Judith Ann Hesser; married Tad Friend (a staff writer for the New Yorker), September, 2002. Education: Bentley College, B.S., 1993; École de Cuisine LaVarenna, Villecien, France, grand diploma, 1995; studied at the London School of Economics, Radcliffe College, and École de Cuisine La Burgundy and Chateau du Fey, France.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Brooklyn, NY. Office—c/o The New York Times, 229 West Forty-third St., New York, NY 10036. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Freelance writer, 1996-97; New York Times, staff writer, 1997—.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Literary Food Writing Award, IACP/Gourmet Magazine, 2000, for The Cook and the Gardener; completed a cook's tour of Europe on a scholarship from Les Dames d' Escoffier.

WRITINGS:

The Cook and the Gardener: A Year of Recipes and Writings from the French Countryside, illustrated by Kate Gridley, W.W. Norton (New York, NY), 1999.

Cooking for Mr. Latte: A Food Lover's Courtship, with Recipes, illustrated by Izak, W.W. Norton (New York, NY), 2003.

Contributor of articles to periodicals, including the Washington Post, Scranton Times, Seventeen, and Country Home. Contributor to New York Times "Dining In/Dining Out" section. Wrote "Food Diary" column in the New York Times Magazine, 2001-02. Coauthor of weekly wine column, "Pairings," for New York Times "Food" section.

SIDELIGHTS:

Amanda Hesser has been dubbed by Vogue food writer and author Jeffrey Steingarten as "one of the best—if not the best—young food writers." According to Nina Willdorf in a Boston Phoenix article, Hesser had an unlikely beginning as an economics graduate. A rural Pennsylvania native, Hesser is one of New York City's most popular experts on haute cuisine. Willdorf commented, "Hesser has added a new voice to today's food world—a voice filled with palatable wonder, youthful marvel, and a Midwestern-like authenticity in what can often be a snarky field."

Hesser is best known for her food-trends reporting in the New York Times "Dining In/Dining Out" section and for the year-long "Food Diary" column she wrote for the New York Times Magazine. Hesser's "Food Diary" column chronicled her romance with writer Tad Friend, whom she married in 2002. Hesser brought these columns together, adding new material and recipes, to create her second book, Cooking for Mr. Latte: A Food Lover's Courtship, with Recipes. Hesser had nicknamed Friend "Mr. Latte" after he committed the faux pas of ordering the milky coffee—rather than the more appropriate espresso—after dinner.

Hesser told Willdorf that much of her interest in cooking sprang from observing her mother, "a very good practical cook" who made her own breads, cookies, and jams. Hesser's stay in London, where she studied at the School of Economics, further stirred her culinary interests. Dining elsewhere in Europe, Hesser discovered a passion that would take her far from a practical career in finance. Back in the United States, she began to explore American cuisine and made dining out the high point of her social life.

Hesser was so interested that she wrote to prominent chefs and bakers, volunteering to work for them simply to learn the business. She was accepted for a class in French culinary history at Radcliffe College, where she became friends with top food writers and developed a budding interest in their craft. Hesser was also awarded a scholarship for a cook's tour of Europe. In Rome, acclaimed food writer Nancy Harmon Jenkins told Willdorf that she was impressed by the way "this little bit of an American smack[ed] huge sacks of flour around." Hesser continued her education in European cuisine by studying in Burgundy, France, where she worked for culinary historian Anne Willan and met gardener Monsieur Milbert, who influenced her to later write her award-winning book The Cook and the Gardener: A Year of Recipes and Writings from the French Countryside.

As she was leaving France, Hesser received a message from a New York Times editor who was interested in hiring her as a food writer based on a recommendation by Jenkins. A few months later, at age twenty-five, she began her career with the newspaper. "Hesser's authentic modesty, Old World grace, and earnest enthusiasm allow her to speak about food in a compelling, inclusive way," observed Willdorf.

In The Cook and the Gardener: A Year of Recipes and Writings from the French Countryside, Hesser's friendship with Willan's elderly kitchen gardener, M. Milbert, grows as Hesser gently persuades him to teach her the art of harvesting, storing, and preparing seasonal vegetables and fruits. Hesser told Jennifer Wolcott of the Christian Science Monitor, "It took nearly a year to gain Monsieur Milbert's trust. It also took tremendous patience and many loaves of bread before I convinced this old man to allow anyone, much less a young woman, into his world."

"Hesser's recipes are as delightful and practical as her courtship of the sly peasant gardener with his gray eyes, silvery hair and angled beret," wrote Yolanda Wright in a review of the book for the Syracuse, New York, Post-Standard. Mark Knoblauch, writing for Booklist, praised the book as one that "provides gardening lore and advice that will enthrall the city dweller." A Publishers Weekly contributor was pleased that Hesser "seamlessly" includes cooking basics such as making dough, stocks, and mayonnaises, thereby providing "a solid grounding for beginning cooks … whose interest is in preparing food with fresh ingredients." Wolcott concluded that the book, "with its sweeping literary prose and compelling story," might be treasured as much for its literary value as for its recipes.

Cooking for Mr. Latte contains some two dozen of Hesser's "Food Diary" columns. In addition, there are a dozen unpublished columns that follow her relationship with Friend from their first date through the wedding reception. The book includes more than one hundred recipes. From dinner parties to intimate at-home meals, Hesser writes about her budding romance in the context of the culinary arts. Hesser told M. Kane of the Toronto Star that she wrote the column and book "to explore the relationships people have with food and each other."

Cecily Ross of the Toronto Globe & Mail called the book "a funny, touching and mouth-watering story." Jessica Kerwin, in Women's Wear Daily, praised the book for containing both high and low cuisine, including Hesser's grandmother's recipe for macaroni and cheese. "In the tradition of M. F. K. Fisher," Kerwin wrote, "Hesser mingles the nostalgic sweep of a gourmet's life with the practical stuff of cooking." On the other hand, a Publishers Weekly contributor commented, "The spirit of gentle appreciation that gave Hesser's first book such charm is missing.…The text here comes across as shallow and lacking in wisdom." Julie James, writing in Library Journal, thought "serious foodies" might enjoy the book but that "readers outside the Manhattan restaurant scene will find the namedropping tedious." In the New York Times Book Review, Rand Richards Cooper called Hesser and Friend "the Hepburn and Grant of kitchen comedy."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Book, May-June, 2003, Elizabeth Haas, review of Cooking for Mr. Latte: A Food Lover's Courtship, with Recipes, p. 82.

Booklist, March 15, 1999, Mark Knoblauch, review of The Cook and the Gardener: A Year of Recipes and Writings from the French Countryside, p. 1270.

Boston Phoenix, March 21-28, 2002, Nina Willdorf, "Food Chain."

Christian Science Monitor, May 19, 1999, Jennifer Wolcott, "A Cookbook for Your Bedside Table."

Globe & Mail (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), June 28, 2003, Cecily Ross, review of Cooking for Mr. Latte, section L, p. 9.

Kirkus Reviews, February 15, 2003, review of Cooking for Mr. Latte, p. 285.

Library Journal, February 15, 1999, Judith C. Sutton, review of The Cook and the Gardener, p. 177; December, 2001, Sue O'Brien, review of The Cook and the Gardener, p. 84; March 15, 2003, Julie James, review of Cooking for Mr. Latte, p. 108.

Maclean's, August 11, 2003, "Love in the Big Apple—Caramelized."

Magill Book Reviews, 1999, Edna B. Quinn, review of The Cook and the Gardener.

New York Times Book Review, May 4, 2003, Rand Richards Cooper, "Bites of Passage," section 7, p. 12.

Post-Standard (Syracuse, NY), December 11, 1999, Yolanda Wright, "Cook Cultivates Friendship, Garden Insight," section E, p. 1.

Publishers Weekly, February 1, 1999, review of The Cook and the Gardener, p. 80; March 24, 2003, review of Cooking for Mr. Latte, p. 67.

Toronto Star (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), June 21, 2003, M. Kane, "N.Y. Food Writer Finds It's Never Too Latte," section L, p. 4.

Women's Wear Daily, April 17, 2003, Jessica Kerwin, "Reality Bites," p. 6.

ONLINE

Identity Theory,http://www.identitytheory.com/ (May 14, 2003), Robert Birnbaum, "Interview with Amanda Hesser."

OTHER

National Public Radio, All Things Considered, June 5, 2003, hosted by Melissa Block, "Interview: Amanda Hesser Gives Mother's Recipe for Chocolate Dump-It Cake."*