Cecily Brownstone (18 April 1909 – 30 August 2005), was a

food writer Food writing is a genre of writing that focuses on food and includes works by food critics, food journalists, chefs and food historians. Definition Food writers regard food as a substance and a cultural phenomenon. John T. Edge, an American food ...

, who wrote several cookbooks and articles about food over a period of 39 years. Canadian-born, Brownstone was the

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. ne ...

Food Editor from 1947 to 1986—for thirty-nine years. During that time she was the most widely published of syndicated food writers. The five recipe columns and two food features she wrote for the

each week appeared in papers all over the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

, in addition to a number of other countries. Brownstone's personal papers and cookbook collection is the unique expression of her personal interest in and encyclopedic knowledge of American culinary history and cookbooks, and her career in the food field.

Background

She was born in

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, in 1909, growing up in

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749, ...

, the fourth of five sisters. She attended the

University of Manitoba The University of Manitoba (U of M, UManitoba, or UM) is a Canadian public research university in the province of Manitoba.New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

to pursue her studies and to work. She lived in

Greenwich Village Greenwich Village ( , , ) is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street to the north, Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. Greenwich Village ...

, appropriately enough in a brownstone house, in a duplex apartment that included a spectacular

test kitchen A test kitchen is a kitchen used for the process of developing new kinds of food. On the largest scale, they are run by the research and development departments of large companies in the food industry. Other test kitchens are owned by individuals ...

, and that housed her large cookbook collection. Early in her career as a journalist, Brownstone was the Food Editor of ''

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'' magazine and the Child Care Editor of ''

Family Circle ''Family Circle'' was an American magazine that covered such topics as homemaking, recipes, and health. It was published from 1932 until the end of 2019. Originally distributed at supermarkets, it was one of the " Seven Sisters," a group of sev ...

'' magazine.

Other work

Brownstone was also a consultant to

Carl Sontheimer Carl G. Sontheimer (1914 – 23 March 1998) was an American inventor and engineer best known for creating the original Cuisinart food processor. Sontheimer was born in New York City but raised in France. He returned to the U.S. to attend the Massa ...

, president of

Cuisinart Cuisinart ( ) is an American home appliance brand owned by Conair Corporation. The company was started in 1971 by Carl Sontheimer to bring an electric food processor to the U.S. market. The "Food Processor" was the first model, introduced at a ...

, a physicist, entrepreneur, and founder of the

food processor A food processor is a kitchen appliance used to facilitate repetitive tasks in the preparation of food. Today, the term almost always refers to an electric-motor-driven appliance, although there are some manual devices also referred to as "food ...

industry in America. With Sontheimer, Brownstone edited the highly regarded magazine, ''Pleasures of Cooking'', and wrote ''Classic Cakes and Other Great Cuisinart Desserts'' in 1994. She also wrote a book for children, ''All Kinds of Mothers,'' illustrated by her niece, the artist Miriam Brofsky Kley. In 1972 she came out with ''Cecily Brownstone's Associated Press Cookbook.''

Food writers as friends

Cecily Brownstone was a close friend and confidant of

James Beard James Andrews Beard (May 5, 1903 – January 23, 1985) was an American chef, cookbook author, teacher and television personality. He pioneered television cooking shows, taught at The James Beard Cooking School in New York City and Seaside, ...

and ''

Joy of Cooking ''Joy of Cooking'', often known as "''The Joy of Cooking''", is one of the United States' most-published cookbooks. It has been in print continuously since 1936 and has sold more than 20 million copies. It was published privately during 1931 by ...

'' authors,

Irma S. Rombauer Irma S. Rombauer (October 30, 1877 – October 14, 1962) was an American cookbook author, best known for ''The Joy of Cooking'' (1931), one of the world's most widely read cookbooks. Following Irma Rombauer's death, periodic revisions of the book ...

and Marion Rombauer Becker, and other noted cookbook and food writers. She and Beard phoned each other almost daily, at 8 a.m., and their friendship is mentioned in two recent biographies of Beard. Brownstone's collection includes 93 letters and postcards from Irma Rombauer and about 45 of Marion Becker's letters. During the last five years of Becker's life she phoned Brownstone for an hour every weekend; they were close friends, and Brownstone is mentioned often in Anne Mendelson's recent biography of Irma Rombauer and her daughter. Brownstone's collection includes signed, inscribed copies of almost every edition of ''Joy of Cooking'', sent to her first by Irma Rombauer, and later by Marion Becker. ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' food columnist Molly O'Neil called Brownstone one of the "cornerstones of authentic cooking in New York." In 1954, Brownstone had the opportunity to travel to

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at the invitation of the Danish government. On this tour, Brownstone was invited to tour palaces, dairies, fish canneries, ham factories, and other food plants. Among the other eleven food authors who were invited was

Toronto Star The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and pa ...

's Margaret Carr. Upon Brownstone's retirement, former ''New York Times'' Food Editor Jane Nickerson wrote: "Of syndicated food writers, she's been the most widely read." Nickerson added: Brownstone's recipes were always "unusual, appetizing, and accurate down to the last one-eighth of a teaspoon of salt." Brownstone's "success derived, in my view, from her sensitivity to readers' tastes and her insistence that recipes give high, appealing results." Brownstone died in 2005 in New York City.

Bibliography

*''Cecily Brownstone's Associated Press Cookbook'' (A.P., 1972) *''Classic Cakes and Other Great Cuisinart Desserts'' (Hearst Books, 1994), with

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brownstone, Cecily 1909 births 2005 deaths American food writers American women journalists Canadian emigrants to the United States Canadian women journalists Canadian women non-fiction writers Journalists from Manitoba Journalists from New York (state) Women food writers Women cookbook writers Writers from Manitoba 20th-century American journalists 20th-century American women 21st-century American women