Molly Baz (née Lundquist-Baz; born 1987 or 1988) is an American cook, recipe developer, and food writer. She was a senior food editor at ''

Bon Appétit ''Bon Appétit'' is a monthly American food and entertaining magazine, that typically contains recipes, entertaining ideas, restaurant recommendations, and wine reviews. Owned by Condé Nast, it is headquartered at the One World Trade Center i ...

'' magazine and appeared frequently in videos for the magazine's YouTube channel before leaving in 2020. Baz has published two cookbooks, ''Cook This Book'' (2021) and ''More Is More'' (2023), both of which are ''New York Times'' Best Sellers.

Early life and education

Baz was born in 1987 or 1988. She is from

Rhinebeck, New York Rhinebeck is a village (New York), village in the Rhinebeck (town), New York, town of Rhinebeck in Dutchess County, New York, United States. The population was 2,657 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Poughkeepsie, New York, Poughkeepsie– ...

. She was educated at

Poughkeepsie Day School Poughkeepsie Day School is an independent, progressive, coeducational school in the mid-Hudson Valley serving students from a broad region of New York and Connecticut from pre-kindergarten through 12th grade. History Founded in 1934, it was origi ...

where she graduated in 2006. She then studied art history at

Skidmore College Skidmore College is a private liberal arts college in Saratoga Springs, New York. Approximately 2,650 students are enrolled at Skidmore pursuing a Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Science degree in one of more than 60 areas of study. History Sk ...

Saratoga Springs Saratoga Springs is a city in Saratoga County, New York, United States. The population was 28,491 at the 2020 census. The name reflects the presence of mineral springs in the area, which has made Saratoga a popular resort destination for over 2 ...

, graduating in 2010. She discovered her love of cooking while studying abroad in

Florence, Italy Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...

. In her

senior Senior (shortened as Sr.) means "the elder" in Latin and is often used as a suffix for the elder of two or more people in the same family with the same given name, usually a parent or grandparent. It may also refer to: * Senior (name), a surname ...

year at Skidmore, she and her classmate hosted biweekly dinners that were prepared with local ingredients and open to the local Saratoga Springs community.

Career

Early career (2008–2014)

Wanting to work as a chef without attending culinary school, Baz worked as a

line cook A chef de partie, station chef, or line cook is a chef in charge of a particular area of production in a restaurant. In large kitchens, each chef de partie might have several cooks or assistants. In most kitchens, however, the chef de partie is ...

in restaurants in Boston and New York City from 2008 to 2014, including at the now-closed Picholine in Lincoln Square. She took a break between jobs in 2011 to go on a road trip in the southern United States with her father, who is a photographer, and visit

barbecue Barbecue or barbeque (informally BBQ in the UK, US, and Canada, barbie in Australia and braai in South Africa) is a term used with significant regional and national variations to describe various cooking methods that use live fire and smoke t ...

establishments and learn from barbecue pitmasters. While in New York, in 2013, she co-founded a catering company named Rustic Supper.

Time at ''Bon Appétit'' (2015–2020)

Baz worked as a recipe tester for

Condé Nast Condé Nast () is a global mass media company founded in 1909 by Condé Montrose Nast, and owned by Advance Publications. Its headquarters are located at One World Trade Center in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan. The company's media ...

's ''

Epicurious ''Epicurious'' is an American digital brand that focuses on food and cooking-related topics. Created by Condé Nast in 1995, it is headquartered at the One World Trade Center in Manhattan, New York City, where it is part of the publisher's Foo ...

'' starting in 2015 before moving to ''

'', where in 2018 she was Senior Associate Food Editor. After ''Bon Appétit'' increased its focus on video content in 2016, Baz also presented on the magazine's YouTube channel with

Andy Baraghani Andisheh "Andy" Baraghani (born 1989 or 1990) is an American chef and food writer. Baraghani's first job as a teenager was at the restaurant Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California. He moved across the United States to study at New York University a ...

, Sohla El-Waylly,

Priya Krishna Priya Krishna is an Indian-American food journalist and YouTube personality. She is a food reporter for ''The New York Times'' and has previously contributed to ''The New Yorker, Eater,'' and ''TASTE'' (as a columnist)''.'' She is also the author ...

, Brad Leone, and

Claire Saffitz Claire Saffitz (born 1986) is an American food writer, chef, and YouTube personality. Until mid-2020, she was a contributing editor at ''Bon Appétit'' magazine and starred in several series on the ''Bon Appétit'' YouTube channel, including '' ...

. One video series, ''Making Perfect'', had Baz and other staff of the ''Bon Appétit''

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 ...

cook "perfect" versions of meals such as

pizza Pizza (, ) is a dish of Italian origin consisting of a usually round, flat base of leavened wheat-based dough topped with tomatoes, cheese, and often various other ingredients (such as various types of sausage, anchovies, mushrooms, onions ...

or a

Thanksgiving dinner The centerpiece of contemporary Thanksgiving in the United States and in Canada is Thanksgiving dinner (informally called turkey dinner), a large meal generally centered on a large roasted turkey. Thanksgiving could be considered the largest ...

. According to food website ''

Eater Eater may refer to: * Eater (band), an English punk rock group * "Eater" (''Fear Itself''), a 2008 episode of the NBC television horror anthology ''Fear Itself'' * ''Eater'' (novel), a 2000 science fiction novel by Gregory Benford * ''Eater'' (w ...

'', fans on YouTube praised Baz for her "casual relatability, her thoroughly explained recipes, and her attention to detail." With Andy Baraghani and musicians

Cupcakke Elizabeth Eden Harris (born May 31, 1997), known professionally as Cupcakke (often stylized as CupcakKe; pronounced ), is an American rapper from Chicago, Illinois. She is known for her hypersexualised, brazen, and often comical persona and mus ...

and

Ella Mai Ella Mai Howell (born 3 November 1994) is an English singer-songwriter. Her musical career began at London's British and Irish Modern Music Institute in 2014, during which time she auditioned as part of a trio on the 11th season of ''The X Fa ...

, Baz held cooking demonstrations at the

Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival The Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival is a music festival held annually in San Francisco, California, at Golden Gate Park. The festival is produced by Another Planet Entertainment, Superfly Presents, and Starr Hill Presents. It is the l ...

in San Francisco in 2019. In June 2020, ''Bon Appétit'' editor-in-chief

Adam Rapoport Adam Rapoport (born 1969) is an American former magazine editor. After serving as a Style Editor at ''GQ (magazine), GQ'', Rapoport was the editor-in-chief of ''Bon Appétit'' magazine from 2010 until his resignation in 2020. Early life and ed ...

resigned after a photo of him in

brownface Brownface is a social phenomenon in which a white or light-skinned person attempts to portray themselves as a "brown" person of color, but less overtly and with a lighter complexion than traditional blackface. This may include mimicry of Midd ...

garnered criticism. The resignation also came as employees, including assistant food editor Sohla El-Waylly, publicly accused the magazine and its parent company

of discriminating against employees of color. After El-Waylly,

, and Rick Martinez, all people of color, announced their departure from the magazine's video content in August, Baz wrote on

Instagram Instagram is a photo and video sharing social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. The app allows users to upload media that can be edited with filters and organized by hashtags and geographical tagging. Posts can ...

that she would no longer appear in videos for the magazine. She departed the publication in October.

After ''Bon Appétit'' (2020–present)

In November 2020, Baz started a food media subscription service on

Patreon Patreon (, ) is a membership platform that provides business tools for content creators to run a subscription service. It helps creators and artists earn a monthly income by providing rewards and perks to their subscribers. Patreon charges a co ...

named Recipe Club through which she offered weekly recipes and other content. According to ''

Business Insider ''Insider'', previously named ''Business Insider'' (''BI''), is an American financial and business news website founded in 2007. Since 2015, a majority stake in ''Business Insider''s parent company Insider Inc. has been owned by the German publ ...

'', after one month of business, Recipe Club had gained "several thousand" subscribers. Baz chose a subscription business model for Recipe Club so she could keep developing recipes and prevent herself from "going dark" before publishing her cookbook in early 2021. Also in December, Baz and ''Bon Appétit'' colleague Carla Lalli Music began a

livestreamed Livestreaming is streaming media simultaneously recorded and broadcast in real-time over the internet. It is often referred to simply as streaming. Non-live media such as video-on-demand, vlogs, and YouTube videos are technically streamed, but no ...

video series on the

Instagram Live Instagram is a photo and video sharing social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. The app allows users to upload media that can be edited with filters and organized by hashtags and geographical tagging. Posts can be ...

platform, titled ''You Got Snack'd''. Baz published a cookbook, titled ''Cook This Book'', on April 20, 2021, through the

Clarkson Potter Clarkson Potter (September 19, 1880 – October 4, 1953) was an American golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, un ...

imprint. The book was critically and commercially successful, becoming a ''New York Times'' Best Seller. ''

Food52 Amanda Hesser (born 1971) is an American food writer, editor, cookbook author and entrepreneur. Most notably, she was the food editor of ''The New York Times Magazine'', the editor of '' T Living'', a quarterly publication of ''The New York Times'' ...

'' and ''

Taste of Home ''Taste of Home'' is an American media brand centered on food. It is an example of user-generated content in magazines, publishing recipes submitted by home cooks. ''Taste of Home'' is owned by Trusted Media Brands, which also owns ''Reader's Di ...

'' named the book as one of the best cookbooks of 2021. A review by ''

Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of B ...

'' described the book as "an exciting crash course in cooking fundamentals." Anne Valdespino of ''

The Mercury News ''The Mercury News'' (formerly ''San Jose Mercury News'', often locally known as ''The Merc'') is a morning daily newspaper published in San Jose, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is published by the Bay Area News Group, a subsidiar ...

'' wrote that is was appropriate that its title "smacks" of activist

Abbie Hoffman Abbot Howard "Abbie" Hoffman (November 30, 1936 – April 12, 1989) was an American political and social activist who co-founded the Youth International Party ("Yippies") and was a member of the Chicago Seven. He was also a leading proponen ...

's ''

Steal This Book ''Steal This Book'' is a book written by Abbie Hoffman. Written in 1970 and published in 1971, the book exemplified the counterculture of the sixties. The book sold more than a quarter of a million copies between April and November 1971. The numb ...

'' for being "downright rebellious" at times with its "unconventional format", "slangy lingo", and "well placed cuss words." In 2022, it was announced that Baz would appear as a guest judge on the

Discovery+ Discovery may refer to: * Discovery (observation), observing or finding something unknown * Discovery (fiction), a character's learning something unknown * Discovery (law), a process in courts of law relating to evidence Discovery, The Discover ...

streaming series '' The Julia Child Challenge'', created by the

Food Network Food Network is an American basic cable channel owned by Television Food Network, G.P., a joint venture and general partnership between Warner Bros. Discovery Networks (which holds a 69% ownership stake of the network) and Nexstar Media Group ...

. Baz published a second cookbook, ''More Is More'', with Clarkson Potter in October 2023.

Personal life

Baz lives with her husband Ben Willet in

East Los Angeles, California East Los Angeles ( es, Este de Los Ángeles), or East L.A., is an unincorporated area in Los Angeles County, California. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census it had a population of 118,786, a drop of 6.1% from 2010 United States Cen ...

, having moved there from New York City in 2020.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Baz, Molly Date of birth missing (living people) Year of birth missing (living people) 1980s births 21st-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American women writers Living people American chefs American cookbook writers American food writers American women chefs American women non-fiction writers Bon Appétit people Chefs from New York (state) Skidmore College alumni People from Rhinebeck, New York Women cookbook writers Writers from New York (state)