Happy Birthday to Irma Rombauer
The National Women’s History Museum included this post on its Facebook wall today:
“Happy Birthday Irma Rombauer! She first published the “Joy of Cooking” in 1931; she changed the face of American cookbooks by including an ingredient list, detailed step-by-step directions, and personal anecdotes. The “Joy of Cooking” is one of the most-published cookbooks in the country–today, it has sold more than 18 million copies.”
A.P. food editor Cecily Brownstone became a good friend of St. Louis, Missouri resident Irma Rombauer. Their friendship pre-dated Brownstone’s wire service career. Cecily was a food editor at Parents Magazine when the cookbook first came out. She traveled to St. Louis to meet Rombauer. As they sat on a bench at the St. Louis Zoo, Brownstone asked the cookbook author: “Did you vote for Roosevelt?” The answer was “yes” and the two fans of the New Deal became friends for life.
The cookbook was first introduced in 1931 and revised several times in the next few decades. The New York Times described the cookbook as “the most fabled of all American cookbooks, although not always the most fashionable.” It was written in a conversational tone with a mix of recipes from simple dishes and complex cuisine. Later New York Times food writer Marian Burros said that she developed her sense of recipe writing from the Joy of Cooking. This is an example of that style, from the introduction in 1953 edition: “Your first efforts at cooking may result in confusion, but soon you will acquire a skilled routine that will give you confidence and pleasure.” It was Brownstone who introduced Rombauer to the “foodie community in New York. She later wrote the forward for the 50th anniversary edition of the Joy of Cooking cookbook. Brownstone described Rombauer as a “great and good friend.”
Brownstone hosted a party in her home for the 1951 edition of the cookbook. A photo from the event, found in her papers at the Fales Library, shows well dressed women gathered on a garden balcony. It was Brownstone’s New York City Brownstone home that became a central meeting place for the culinary writing establishment, according to Kamp. He noted the gatherings of magazine and newspaper writers in the 1950s – all women other than James Beard. Noted writer David Kamp: “Though Beard still did not reach as many readers as newspaper columnists like Brownstone, (Clementine) Paddleford and (Jane) Nickerson, he eclipsed them in fame through force of personality.”
