Gourmet Live names the 50 Women Game-Changers

Looking for some Memorial Day BBQ conversation fodder with your foodie friends? This list of women that have changed the face of food will provide for lively discussion.

Thu, May 26 2011 at 1:46 PM

Related Topics:

Organic Cooking, Celebs, Technology

I’ve been enjoying snagging my husband’s iPad and reading Gourmet Live, the iPad app that brought the defunct Gourmet magazine back to life. A recent article on Gourmet Live counts down the top 50 women who have changed the face of food. It’s an interesting list.

It’s no surprise that Julia Child is at the top of the list. But as you go down, some of the women (and how high or low they are on the list) may surprise you. Take a look at the first five.

Julia Child: The great Julia needs no introduction. Especially not after the great Meryl played her in the movie.

Alice Waters:  The great Alice needs no introduction. OK, just this: Chez Panisse, farmers’ markets, locavore movement, Edible Schoolyard. As yet, they’ve only made documentary movies about her life.

Fannie Farmer: If it weren’t for her, we’d still be cooking with “handfuls” and “pinches.” Farmer’s 1896 Boston Cooking–School Cook Book introduced standardized measurements. She also explained the chemical stuff a century before Harold McGee.

Martha Stewart: Cooking as an ingredient of homemaking; homemaking as a craft; crafts as a competitive sport; the art of multimedia saturation — all this we blame on Martha.

M.F.K. Fisher: Mary Frances Kennedy Fisher invented food writing. All food bloggers would like to be her.

I can’t reprint any more of the list here or I’d risk plagiarizing, but you can read the entire list on Gourmet Live Blog. Or, if you have one, break out your iPad, take it with you to your Memorial Day BBQ, and debate the Gourmet Live list with your food-loving friends over craft beers and frozen drinks made with fresh, seasonal fruit.

I can imagine that the list will make for great conversation and debate between foodies or even just provide you with random pieces of knowledge that you can throw into non-foodie conversations on occasion.

“Hey, did you know that Judith Jones, Julia Child’s editor, was also responsible for saving ‘Anne Franke: The Diary of a Young Girl’ from the slush pile?”

I'm sure I'm not the only who likes knowing and sharing information like that.

The opinions expressed by MNN Bloggers and those providing comments are theirs alone, and do not reflect the opinions of MNN.com. While we have reviewed their content to make sure it complies with our Terms and Conditions, MNN is not responsible for the accuracy of any of their information.

Previous Post
5 summer reads for food lovers: 2011 list

Next Post
Video: How to grill vegetables