Cookbooks: 1970s to the Present: Regional Pride

Meanwhile, a growing pride in America’s food heritage captured the imagination of several writers. Foremost among them was James Beard, the New York City author and cooking teacher, who often was called the father of American cooking. Beard had written cookbooks in the 1950s and 1960s, but his most impressive work, James Beard’s American Cookery, came in 1972. Part history lesson, part cookbook, it brought his fresh down-to-earth approach to regional and national foods such as potpies, cheeseburgers, and potatoes O’Brien. The popular author continued a run of best sellers with Beard on Bread (1973) and, in collaboration with José Wilson, James Beard’s Theory and Practice of Good Cooking (1977).