Mollie Katzen (born October 13, 1950, in

Rochester, New York Rochester is a city in and the county seat, seat of government of Monroe County, New York, United States. It is the List of municipalities in New York, fourth-most populous city and 10th most-populated municipality in New York, with a populati ...

, U.S.) is an American

cookbook A cookbook or cookery book is a kitchen reference containing recipes. Cookbooks may be general, or may specialize in a particular cuisine or category of food. Recipes in cookbooks are organized in various ways: by course (food), course (appetize ...

author and artist. The author of twelve cookbooks (all of which she also illustrated), she is best known for the hand-lettered, illustrated ''

Moosewood Cookbook ''The Moosewood Cookbook'' (1977) is a vegetarian cookbook by Mollie Katzen that was published by Ten Speed Press. It is a revised version of a 1974 self-published cookbook by members of the Moosewood Restaurant in Ithaca, New York. Histor ...

'' (1977) and ''The Enchanted Broccoli Forest'' (1982). She has written and illustrated three children's cookbooks, ''Pretend Soup'' (1994) (dubbed ″the gold standard of children's cookbooks″ by the ''New York Times''), ''Honest Pretzels'' (1999), and ''Salad People'' (2005). In 2007 the ''Moosewood Cookbook'' was inducted into the ''James Beard'' Cookbook Hall of Fame. In 2017, her papers were collected by the

National Museum of American History The National Museum of American History: Kenneth E. Behring Center is a historical museum in Washington, D.C. It collects, preserves, and displays the heritage of the United States in the areas of social, political, cultural, scientific, and m ...

at the Smithsonian Institution. This includes all the hand-lettered originals, plus illustrations, from the ''Moosewood Cookbook'' and ''The Enchanted Broccoli Forest'', and is now part of their permanent collection.

Early life

Katzen was raised in Rochester, New York in a Jewish family. She has attributed her interest in vegetarian cuisine to her

kashrut (also or , ) is a set of Food and drink prohibitions, dietary laws dealing with the foods that Jewish people are permitted to eat and how those foods must be prepared according to halakha, Jewish law. Food that may be consumed is deemed ko ...

-observant upbringing. Throughout grade school and high school, she attended the

Eastman School of Music The Eastman School of Music is the music school of the University of Rochester, a private research university in Rochester, New York, United States. Established in 1921 by celebrated industrialist and philanthropist George Eastman, it was the ...

, where she studied oboe and piano, resulting in an Eastman Preparatory School Diploma. In 1968, Katzen entered

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

and later received her

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six years ...

in fine arts from the

San Francisco Art Institute San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI) was a Private college, private art school, college of contemporary art in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1871, SFAI was one of the oldest art schools in the United States and the oldest west of the Mis ...

. She is the sister of

Daniel Katzen Daniel Katzen is a French horn teacher and player, and, since September 2008, has been the Associate Professor of Horn at the University of Arizona's Fred Fox School of Music in Tucson. Prior to that, he was Second Horn in the Boston Symphony Orch ...

, former

Boston Symphony Orchestra The Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) is an American orchestra based in Boston. It is the second-oldest of the five major American symphony orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five (orchestras), Big Five". Founded by Henry Lee Higginson in ...

horn player.

Cooking

In 1969, while at Cornell University, Katzen cooked at the ''Ithaca Seed Company'', a

macrobiotic A macrobiotic diet (or macrobiotics) is an unconventional restrictive diet based on ideas about types of food drawn from Zen Buddhism. The diet tries to balance the supposed yin and yang elements of food and cookware. Major principles of macrobio ...

café. Katzen studied fine art at Cornell University and the San Francisco Art Institute, where she received a Bachelor of Fine Arts with Honors in Painting. One day, on her way to school, she heard a radio ad for rock-lawyer Rubin Glickman's Shandygaff restaurant Katzen took a bus from the art studio and asked to be hired. She ended up cooking and developing recipes at this cutting-edge restaurant for two years, greatly influenced by the developing farm-to-table ethos of the new California cuisine. Katzen returned to Ithaca in 1972 to help her brother Josh and friends build their new restaurant, which they named

Moosewood Restaurant Moosewood Restaurant (January 3, 1973–present) is an American natural foods restaurant in Ithaca, New York. In 1978, the original founders (Therese Tischler, Judy Barringer, Chris Miller, Patrick McGuire and three others) sold the restauran ...

, after a local striped maple tree. Katzen became one of the founders of the restaurant in 1973 and remained there until 1978.

Cookbooks

"Mollie Katzen's Cooking Show" ran on PBS from 1995 to 2000. Katzen has over 6 million books in print. ''Health Magazine'' named her as one of five "Women Who Changed the Way We Eat." Katzen served as a consultant to Harvard University Dining Services, helping design the Food Literacy Initiative, from 2003 through 2011. She has collaborated on many projects with

Walter Willett Walter C. Willett (born June 20, 1945) is an American physician and nutrition researcher. He is the Fredrick John Stare Professor of Epidemiology and Nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health and was the chair of its department of nutrit ...

, of the Harvard School of Public Health. In 2013, Katzen published her last cookbook, ''The Heart of the Plate,'' which she considers her best work.

Personal life

Katzen has two children. Her son, Sam Black, was a longtime dancer with the Mark Morris Dance Group, and is now the director of the company. From 1983 to 2022, Katzen lived in

Kensington, CA Kensington is an unincorporated community and census designated place located in the Berkeley Hills, in the East Bay, part of the San Francisco Bay Area, in Contra Costa County, California. In the 20th century it was considered part of Berkele ...

. She has since returned to the East Coast. Katzen spends her time studying piano and creating art. She continues writing and is working on a memoir.

Works

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References

External links

Official site

@molliekatzenartstudio
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instagram Instagram is an American photo sharing, photo and Short-form content, short-form video sharing social networking service owned by Meta Platforms. It allows users to upload media that can be edited with Social media camera filter, filters, be ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Katzen, Mollie Jewish American non-fiction writers Jewish women writers American women chefs American women non-fiction writers American cookbook writers 1950 births Living people Diet food advocates Eastman School of Music alumni Cornell University alumni Harvard University staff Writers from Rochester, New York San Francisco Art Institute alumni American women food writers James Beard Foundation Award winners 21st-century American Jews 21st-century American women Vegetarian cookbook writers Chefs from Berkeley, California Chefs from New York (state) 20th-century American Jews