'''Amanda Hesser''' is a food writer, editor and cookbook author. She is currently the food editor of ''[[The New York Times Magazine]]'', and the editor of ''[[T Living]]'', a quarterly publication of ''[[The New York Times]]''. She is best known for the ''Food Diary'' columns she wrote from 2000-2002 in the ''The New York Times Magazine'', which were collected in her second book, ''Cooking for Mr. Latte: A Food Lover's Courtship, with Recipes''

Both that and her first book, ''The Cook and the Gardener'' (1999), won the [[International Association for Culinary Professionals]]' Literary Food Writing Award. She is now working on a ''New York Times'' cookbook, collecting 400 of the most noteworthy recipes published in the paper since 1853. It will be published by [[W.W. Norton & Company]] in 2008.

Hesser was born in [[Doylestown, Pennsylvania|Doylestown]], [[Pennsylvania]]. After graduating with a degree in economics and finance from [[Bentley College]] in 1993, she studied cooking in Europe. With a grant from [[Les Dames d’Escoffier]], she worked in bakeries and restaurants in [[Germany]], [[Switzerland]], [[Italy]] and [[France]].

She spent two years in [[France]], where she worked for Anne Willan, the founder of [[Ecole de Cuisine La Varenne]]. It was during this time that Hesser's writings started appearing in newspapers and magazines, including ''[[The Washington Post]]''.

After finishing her first book, in 1997, Hesser was hired as a food reporter for ''[[The New York Times]]''. Hesser has since written about the influence of [[Costco]] on the wine industry. She has uncovered the politics behind the New York City Greenmarket. And she was the first reporter at a major publication to write about [[Ferran Adria]] of [[El Bulli]] in [[Spain]].

Early in her career at the paper, she wrote a controversial story in which she examined the failings of the popular chef [[Emeril Lagasse]].

Her work has appeared in numerous collections, including ''Women Who Eat'' (2003); ''Best Food Writing'' (2002, 2004); ''Alone in the Kitchen with an Eggplant'' (2007); and the Fiftieth Anniversary Edition of [[M.F.K. Fisher]]'s ''The Art of Eating'' (2004). There is a chapter about her in Julie Powell’s book ''Julie & Julia''.

==Personal==
Hesser lives in [[Brooklyn Heights]] with her husband, [[Tad Friend]], a staff writer for ''[[The New Yorker]]'', and their two children.

==Controversy==
While filling in as the lead restaurant reviewer for the ''Times'', she gave three stars to Spice Market, but failed to note that the chef of the restaurant, [[Jean-Georges Vongerichten]], had written a back-cover blurb for one of her books. (Hesser’s publisher, [[W.W. Norton & Company]], requested the blurb; she did not.)

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[[Category:American journalists]]
[[Category:New York Times people]]
[[Category:Year of birth missing (living people)]]
[[Category:Living people]]