More About Jane Nickerson & Journalism History

The creation of the 1950s New York food community likely began with Jane Nickerson at the New York Times. She was the first food editor at the newspaper, beginning in 1942. Over the years, she introduced James Beard to the A.P.’s Cecily Brownstone. Those two were often dinner companions along with Nickerson and her husband. It was Brownstone who introduced the New York food community to Irma S. Rombauer, author of the popular cookbook Joy of Cooking.

Later, it was Beard who introduced Julia Child to the food community. Yet, in another example of marginalization, Nickerson rarely get the credit in historical culinary stories. Instead, she has been overshadowed by the scholarship about Craig Claiborne, who followed her as food editor. In fact, she is often described as “retiring” from the New York newspaper. Instead, she took a few years off to raise her children and then returned to being a newspaper food editor in Florida.

Craig Claiborne certainly had a significant impact on food journalism, especially in the area of restaurant reviewing. While he has been lauded as the “Inventor of Food Journalism,” I would respectfully add that Nickerson had certainly laid the foundation at the New York Times during her 1942 to 1957 tenure. In 2003, former New York Times food journalist Molly O’Neill noted that Jane Nickerson was one of the first food journalists who applied ethics to her craft. O’Neill noted that there was news in a vast majority of the coverage of food. According to the New York Times index, of the 675 stories about food, 646 had a news hook. The percentage remained the same throughout the 1950s.

According to the Evan Jones’ book about James Beard, Epicurean Delight, Nickerson regularly went to dinner with her future husband, Alex Steinberg, Brownstone and Beard. Jones wrote: “They probed New York’s ethnic neighborhoods, titillating their palates and venting their curiosities about origins of recipes.” In a letter, Beard wrote to food writer Helen Evans Brown about Nickerson:

“Going to four parties for Jane this week. She leaves next week for Florida, and how we hate to see her go. She has done more for dignified food coverage than anyone. Everyone will miss her keenly, and I more than most, for she was a good friend and a most amusing person always.”

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