Amanda Hesser

Coming Up

Food journalism was the first long-form discipline Amanda Hesser trained for, after Bentley College. At The New York Times (1997–2008), where she worked as food reporter, she spent more than a decade inside the paper’s food coverage, learning how to translate the city’s restaurant and cooking conversation for readers. That work continued at The New York Times Magazine, where she served as food editor and kept shaping how recipes, restaurants, and home cooking were presented to a broad audience. Editorial range also shows up in the other titles attached to her byline. At T Living, Amanda Hesser worked as editor, and at The New York Times Magazine she wrote the “Recipe Redux” feature (2008–2011), a column that let her revisit familiar dishes with a tighter, more exacting read. Taken together, those roles show a writer thinking not just about food coverage, but about the structures that give food meaning in print and in daily use. Since 2008, Amanda Hesser has been co-founder and CEO of Food52, the role that now defines her work. The shift from newsroom to company-building marks a change in scale: from editing the food conversation to building a business around it.

Where They Are Now

Food52 is the center of Amanda Hesser’s current work, and she keeps its tone grounded rather than inflated. Her own line — “That I’m an introverted homebody — and that both Merrill and I are expert toast burners.” — gives a plainspoken view of the person behind the company, with humor used as a tool for scale, not self-mythology. She is also finishing the first Food52 cookbook with her co-founder for the project, Merrill Stubbs. It will be out in June 2011. A cookbook asks for a different kind of editorial labor than a daily newsroom: selection, sequencing, and the slower work of building a book that records a point of view. At this stage, the main task is still business-building, with Food52 taking shape as a company rather than just a publishing idea.

Signature

Amanda’s signature dishes include The Essential New York Times Cookbook and Cooking for Mr. Latte. One is anchored in the archive and authority of The New York Times; the other carries a more personal register, tied to domestic life and the everyday use of recipes.

In Their Words “Finishing up the first Food52 cookbook with my co-founder for the project, Merrill Stubbs. It will be out in June 2011. The main thing I’m working on really is building Food52 into a business.” “That I’m an introverted homebody — and that both Merrill and I are expert toast burners.”