Debating David Kamp’s Version of Food History

As I re-read David Kamp’s book, The United States of Arugula, I am again surprised by The lack if women’s roles, outside of a handful of names. Like other food historians, he minimizes the role of NY Times food editor Jane Nickerson. He writes of the food editor who followed Nickerson, “Claiborne treated food as a journalistic beat, a daily responsibility to sniff out what was going on in America’s more creative kitchens.” (p. 70)

I have many examples that Nickerson was already doing that prior to Claiborne. After all, her column was called, “News of Food.”