Barbara Kafka

Barbara Kafka (1933–2018) graduated from Radcliffe College with a BA in English Literature. During her long and distinguished career as a food writer, she lived in New York and Vermont. After starting out as an assistant to James Beard, she went on to write many award-winning cookbooks including Roasting: A Simple Art, Party Food, Soup: A Way of Life, and The New York Times bestseller Microwave Gourmet. The Intolerant Gourmet, "a cookbook about pleasure, not compromises, for those with these common food intolerances", was nominated for a James Beard Award in 2012. Vegetable Love was the winner of the 2006 IACP award for Best Single Subject Cookbook. Barbara was an eight-time James Beard Award winner and was inducted into the foundation's Hall of Fame in 2015. She was a regular contributor to The New York Times, writing a column on Microwave Cooking in the 1980s and 90s. She also wrote extensively for food magazines such as Gourmet, Family Circle and Vogue in the United States, Great Britain, and Australia. As a food consultant, Barbara helped conceive menus for Windows on the World (at the World Trade Center), the Four Seasons, Gotham Bar and Grill and other restaurants in New York and elsewhere.