15 Women Who Changed The American Food Industry For The Better

Long before they were given the credit they deserved, women have been driving education and change with many substantial contributions to food, nutrition, agriculture, and food science. Whether it has been pioneering a career in science and women's education like Ellen Swallows Richards, standing proudly in their authenticity of character and ethnicity like Edna Lewis and Madhur Jaffrey, or changing the lexicon, misperceptions, shortfalls, and habits around food, women have always played a key role in creating access to education, health, and joy.

The opportunities women and girls have access to today can be attributed to an army of brave, stubborn, intelligent women before them who refused to accept the status quo. The strength of their conviction is just as important as what came out of their kitchens. Here are just 15 women — among many others — who have influenced the American food industry for the better, inspiring a new generation of leaders, advocates, writers, cooks, and scientists in their wake.

Alice Waters, proprietor of the famous Chez Panisse, is known for introducing the U.S. to the idea of farm-to-table long before its popularity. Waters began her foray into cooking habits that encouraged biodiversity and prioritized local and sustainable food sources with her groundbreaking California-based restaurant in 1971, now over 50 years ago. Her work has continually pushed against the fast-food culture that prevails in much of the U.S. food industry and schools to the detriment of the public's health. The definition of "California Cuisine," with ideas that point towards fresh foods, was first shaped by the actions of Waters. 

Waters' intentions are not just cast on the present but, more importantly, for future generations. An advocate for the slow food movement and food education within the classroom, in 1995, Waters started her organization, the Edible School Yard Project, which holistically brings ideas of education, community, nutrition, food, science, and health into the classroom through land-based projects. 

Waters is known for inspiring a generation of food innovators, writers, and educators, including Samin Nosrat, who in her own right has carried the work of Waters into her career.

While the current perception of "home economics" points to old-fashioned feminine stereotypes, that was not the case when the subject was first introduced into the classroom. Founded by Ellen Swallow Richards, the first woman to be accepted into the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology at a time when over half of girls were not enrolled in education, home economics was designed to bring girls into the classroom and provide job-related training for their futures. She is also known for her significant contributions which led to safe food labeling. 

After graduating with a bachelor's in chemistry from Vassar and attending the male-only MIT, Richards was interested in public health and women's education. She understood that there weren't many paid opportunities for women in the sciences. By devising a structure that focused on women and "home science," Richards, along with others like Margaret Murray, hoped to be able to help translate knowledge into the current offerings and applicable opportunities, even if only to give women the opportunity to spend less time on chores and more time pursuing their interests outside the home. These home economic classes and programs later became the backbone for the nation's much-needed subsidized school lunch programs, helping to support children from a variety of economic backgrounds to have access to education. 

Thanks to the work of Bewei Yang Chao (or Chao Yang Bewei, using the Chinese structure of family name first) and other seminal influences, Americans now benefit from our access to various Chinese dishes, cooking, and eating practices enjoyed regularly. If you've ever turned to the quick fix of a homemade stir-fry on a busy weeknight, you have Chao to thank.

Chao first used the term stir-fry in her book "How to Cook and Eat in Chinese," published in 1945. Chao, a doctor who had immigrated to the U.S., first to Massachusetts and then to Berkeley from Nanjing, China, helped redefine Chinese home cooking in the U.S. despite her public-facing profile fading a few years after her cookbook publication. 

In her book, Chao broke down quintessential Chinese wok cooking techniques. Her term "stir-fry" replaced the Mandarin word ch'ao, which referred to the high heat and continual circulation of ingredients. Chao used the term "stir-fry," as the literal translation was impossible. Initially used only as a verb, "stir-fry" has also come to be defined as a noun, referring to a dish made quickly through ch'ao. Not only did Chao bring these Chinese cooking techniques into the U.S. vocabulary, but she did so in a way that reflected her upbringing and culture, rather than assimilating her cooking style to slip into mainstream American culture without a splash. 

If you've ever made the gloriously simple-yet-flavorful tomato sauce that requires just three ingredients — tomatoes, butter, and onion — you have the late Marcella Hazan to thank for your dinner. Hazan left her well-seasoned mark on many home cooks across the U.S. and U.K. and helped improve the perception of Italian home cooking.

Thanks to the discerning eyes of Judith Jones, Marcella released her first of many cookbooks, including "The Classic Italian Cook Book" and "The Second Classic Italian Cookbook" in the early 1970s, which were eventually combined into one Italian cooking bible. Hazan's cooking subscribed to a style often referenced within Italian cuisine: simplicity reigns supreme.

Hazan relocated to the U.S. from her home in Italy in 1955 alongside her American-born food writer husband. Initially trained as a biologist, her move highlighted the necessity of adapting American ingredients to suit her Italian upbringing and cooking style, which often relied on fresh ingredients with simple but thoughtful preparations. As she began this investigation, serendipity had her teaching a small group of women how to make ingredient-led Italian home cooking, bucking the prepackaged and convenience food trends of the era. From there, her journey into cooking and teaching took root, changing how many think about Italian cuisine for the better. 

Editors can play a massive role in shaping the culture of food. We only need to turn to Judith Jones' work to see this statement's validity. As an editor for Knopf, Jones first published the work of Julia Child, Marcella Hazan, Claudia Roden, Madher Jaffrey, Edna Lewis, and so many others. She was known for her distinctive interest in women, often from marginalized backgrounds or with niche subject areas of interest, who were frequently gate-kept out of the publishing world. Jones helped pave the way for the future of food culture in America by creating access both for writers and for cooks, focusing specifically on regional cooking. We have her to thank for setting the standard of variety now found in the American publishing industry. (We also have her to thank for "The Diary of Anne Frank," which Jones rescued from the reject pile.)

Not just an editor, Jones also wrote cookbooks herself, beginning with her first co-authored book, "The L.L. Bean Game and Fish Cookbook," published in 1983. Other authored books included "The Pleasures of Cooking for One," a personal exercise in creating joy following the death of her husband. Though Jones passed away in 2017 at the age of 93 years old, her work has changed the face of the cookbook world for the better. 

Long before "meatless Mondays" or "plant-based eating" became recognizable phrases among the American public, author and cook Mollie Kaizen introduced the American people to vegetable-based recipes and dishes. Her groundbreaking bestseller "Moosewood Cookbook" was first self-published in the early 1970s, before being later picked up by publishers. The book worked to bring the idea of meat-free and vegetable-forward cooking into the spotlight. As her work has developed, Katzen has also reminded the public that the descriptor "vegetarian" more often focuses on the person consuming the food rather than the food itself. She wants it to refer to what is on the plate, which should be inviting to all kinds of eaters. 

Katzen's first book helped to bridge the divide at the time between healthy eating and pleasurable eating. At the time, most plant-forward efforts fell under the term "hippie food," the often raw, under-seasoned, or bland macrobiotic eating of the 1960s that came with health benefits but at the perceived cost of pleasure. Katzen's approach worked to defy this binary, using spices and dairy to improve flavor without meat. This thinking challenged the norm then and helped pave the way for other plant-forward cooks and writers.

It's safe to say no matter which side of the political aisle you choose to sit on, we can acknowledge the positive changes from the former first lady and self-appointed "mom-in-chief" across many aspects of institutionalized food. Her focus while first lady was mainly on the next generation of leaders, inspired by her daughters.

From symbolic and more public-facing changes like planting the White House's first kitchen garden and her Let's Move campaign, the Obamas were also doing less public-facing work, which led to significant policy changes. In 2010, the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act helped to reform school lunches, adding vegetable and fruit options and reducing the amount of sodium as standard. Subsequently, restrictions on appropriate options stocked in school vending machines were scrutinized. Some schools were able to extend their free or subsidized meal offerings to include breakfast and lunch. And who can forget the food-focused television show "Waffles and Mochi" produced by the Obamas that featured prominent chefs and food educators from around the globe? For that and so much more, we can say, "Thanks, Obama."