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Anne Mendelson left her studies of the medieval world for the world of food, beginning her culinary career as a cook book reviewer for Bon Appétit. She later became a staff editor at Cuisine, and from there began freelancing, specializing in culinary writing. She has participated in translating cookbooks from German to English, served as an editorial consultant for cookbook authors, and became deeply involved in the field of culinary history. Her expertise was called upon in 2004, when she was asked to contribute to the Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America.

Now regarded as one of the country’s most knowledgeable food historians, Ms. Mendelson helped to found the Culinary Historians of New York. In 2007, she was awarded the highly esteemed Sophie Coe Prize in Food History at the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery. Her essay was published in Gastropolis, a collection of New York food-related essays, published by Columbia University Press in fall 2008.

In addition to this essay, Ms. Mendelson has also written a number of cookbooks. Together with Zerela Martinez, chef and restaurateur, she has collaborated three such books: Food From My Heart (Macmillan 1992), The Food and Life of Oaxaca (Macmillan 1997), and Zarela’s Veracruz (Houghton Mifflin, 2001). Stand Facing the Stove, of which she is the sole author, was first published in 1997 by Henry Holt and told the story of Irma Rombauer and Marion Rombauer Becker, the women who responsible for writing The Joy of Cooking. The book was well-received, heralded as “probably the most important book on American food published this year” by Russ Parsons of the Los Angeles Times. Her newest work, Milk: The Surprising Story of Milk Through the Ages is due out in from Knopf in fall 2008. When she’s not writing books, Ms. Mendelson can be found as at Gourmet, serving as a contributing editor, and is often called upon as a cookbook reviewer for the New York Times Dining section.

Anne Mendelson lives in Hudson County, New Jersey with her cat, and believes that the medley of ethnic cooking in her neighborhood, combined with memories from her childhood in rural Pennsylvania, provided the inspiration for her latest book.

This author page uses material from the Wikipedia article "Anne Mendelson", which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0