Amelia Award Recipient: 2004

Karen Hess

Karen Hess was the widely-acknowledged grande dame of American culinary history, introducing rigor to the study of food and cuisine that was previously unknown. Her many works include annotated editions of the Martha Washington Cookery Booke, The Virginia Housewife, and The Carolina Rice Kitchen, in which she established a methodology for studying food through history and linguistical analysis that is still used today.