Ohio food editors
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Food Studies Presentation: Ohio Food Editor History
I was happy to get an acceptance for presentation about Ohio food editors for the 2020 Food Studies Conference. The Golden Era of Newspaper Food Journalism Questions about cooking? Lost a cherished recipe? Planning a holiday menu? For decades, it was the newspaper food editor who answered these questions from readers. The newspaper food editors were important to their communities as they wrote about food trends, popular recipes, and local restaurants. The readers responded with calls and letters to the food section. Prior to the early 1970, these popular editors were almost always female and typically had a background in journalism and home economics. Food sections began in the women’s…
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Akron Beacon Journal Food Editor Polly Paffilas’ Recipes
I am working on a new project about Ohio food editors from the 1950s and 1960s. One of my favorites is Polly Paffilas. Paffilas retired in 1987 after 45 years as a reporter, food writer, women’s pages editor and About Town columnist for the Akron Beacon Journal. She donated eighteen boxes of recipes on cards, arranged by ingredient or recipe type to the Akron Library. Includes approximately 5,000 recipes that appeared in the Beacon from 1959 until 1980. All recipes have been indexed and may be searched by name, ingredient and keywords. Although David Kamp referred to the food editors as “Jell-O abusing,” there was only recipe using Jell-O in…
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Food Studies Presentation: Ohio Food Editor History
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Image of Columbus Dispatch Food Editor Betty Montrei Ramsey
I am in the middle of writing an article about Ohio food editors, especially those who are included in the 1952 cookbook, Coast to Coast Cookery. One of those women was Betty Montrei and I just found this image of her in the newspaper’s test kitchen. This is the photo caption: “This 1950 photo shows an early incarnation of the Dispatch test kitchen, where Dispatch Magazine Food Editor Betty Montei Ramsey is preparing a dish. Don’t be fooled by the scene outside the “window,” though — the test kitchen always has been in the Dispatch basement.”
