Top Food Editors: Day One & Ruth Ellen Church

For the next 30 days, I will be blogging about a different newspaper food editor. Day one features Ruth Ellen Church, the longtime food editor at the Chicago Tribune.

These food editors tested recipes, reviewed restaurants and explained new products. They wrote about rations, consumer news and nutrition research. As technology changed how food was prepared, the food editors evaluated the ease and quality for her readers. This is how Church described her job in a 1955 survey as she supervised a staff of five home economics, a secretary and a kitchen assistant:

“We do most of our own food photographs, conduct a daily $5 favorite recipe competition, maintain a mail and telephone service to homemakers, scout for what’s new in the kitchen, test recipes and such. In addition, I write a daily and Sunday column, and supervise the publication of a number of supplements each year, notably the Thanksgiving and Christmas special sections.”

Church (who often used the byline Mary Meade) was the food editor from 1936 to 1974. She graduated from Iowa State University in 1933 with a degree in food and nutrition journalism. She guided the development of The Tribune’s test kitchen, one of the first at a newspaper, and in 1962 became the first American writing a regular wine column.

She won six Vesta Awards – the top recognition for food sections.

In 1948, Church introduced the recipe feature “Cake of the Week.” Church was quoted: “My staff and I have known for a long time that women love cakes, but we were somewhat surprised at the popularity of this weekly cake presentation.”

As proof, Church noted that 200 women called the newspaper on the day that the recipe for Orange Lemon Sunshine Cake appeared too blurry to read.

Church wrote numerous cookbooks during her 38 years at the newspaper. They reflect changes in gender roles, technology and trends in food. These were the ones that the New York Times mentioned in her obituary: “The Indispensable Guide for the Modern Cook” (1955), “The Burger Cookbook” (1967), “Entertaining With Wine” (1970) and “Mary Meade’s Sausage Cookbook” (1967).

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