Laura Shapiro – författare

‘If you find the subject of food to be both vexing and transfixing, you’ll love What She Ate’ Elle Dorothy Wordsworth believed that feeding her poet brother, William, gooseberry tarts was her part to play in a literary movement.Cockney chef Rosa Lewis became a favourite of King Edward VII, who loved her signature dish of whole truffles boiled in Champagne.Eleanor Roosevelt dished up Eggs Mexican – a concoction of rice, fried eggs, and bananas – in the White House.Eva Braun treated herself to Champagne and cake in the bunker before killing herself, alongside Adolf Hitler.Barbara Pym's novels overflow with enjoyment of everyday meals – of frozen fish fingers and Chablis – in midcentury England.Cosmopolitan editor Helen Gurley Brown's idea of “having it all” meant having almost nothing on the plate except a supersized portion of diet gelatin.In the irresistible What She Ate, Laura Shapiro examines the plates, recipe books and shopping trolleys of these six extraordinary women, casting a new light on each of their lives – revealing love and rage, desire and denial, need and pleasure.

‘If you find the subject of food to be both vexing and transfixing, you’ll love What She Ate’ ElleDorothy Wordsworth believed that feeding her poet brother, William, gooseberry tarts was her part to play in a literary movement.Cockney chef Rosa Lewis became a favourite of King Edward VII, who loved her signature dish of whole truffles boiled in Champagne.Eleanor Roosevelt dished up Eggs Mexican – a concoction of rice, fried eggs, and bananas – in the White House.Eva Braun treated herself to Champagne and cake in the bunker before killing herself, alongside Adolf Hitler.Barbara Pym''s novels overflow with enjoyment of everyday meals – of frozen fish fingers and Chablis – in midcentury England.Cosmopolitan editor Helen Gurley Brown''s idea of “having it all” meant having almost nothing on the plate except a supersized portion of diet gelatin.In the irresistible What She Ate, Laura Shapiro examines the plates, recipe books and shopping trolleys of these six extraordinary women, casting a new light on each of their lives – revealing love and rage, desire and denial, need and pleasure.

Toasted marshmallows stuffed with raisins? Green-and-white luncheons? Chemistry in the kitchen? This entertaining and erudite social history now in its fourth paperback edition tells the remarkable story of America's transformation from a nation of honest appetites into an obedient market for instant mashed potatoes. In "Perfection Salad", Laura Shapiro investigates a band of passionate but ladylike reformers at the turn of the twentieth century - including Fannie Farmer of the Boston Cooking School - who were determined to modernize the American diet through a 'scientific' approach to cooking. Shapiro's fascinating tale shows why we think the way we do about food today.

A Washington Post Notable Nonfiction Book of 2017One of NPR Fresh Air''s "Books to Close Out a Chaotic 2017"NPR''s Book Concierge Guide To 2017’s Great Reads“How lucky for us readers that Shapiro has been listening so perceptively for decades to the language of food.” —Maureen Corrigan, NPR Fresh AirSix  “mouthwatering” (Eater.com) short takes on six famous women through the lens of food and cooking, probing how their attitudes toward food can offer surprising new insights into their lives, and our own.Everyone eats, and food touches on every aspect of our lives—social and cultural, personal and political. Yet most biographers pay little attention to people’s attitudes toward food, as if the great and notable never bothered to think about what was on the plate in front of them. Once we ask how somebody relates to food, we find a whole world of different and provocative ways to understand her. Food stories can be as intimate and revealing as stories of love, work, or coming-of-age. Each of the six women in this entertaining group portrait was famous in her time, and most are still famous in ours; but until now, nobody has told their lives from the point of view of the kitchen and the table.  What She Ate is a lively and unpredictable array of women; what they have in common with one another (and us) is a powerful relationship with food. They include Dorothy Wordsworth, whose food story transforms our picture of the life she shared with her famous poet brother; Rosa Lewis, the Edwardian-era Cockney caterer who cooked her way up the social ladder; Eleanor Roosevelt,  First Lady and rigorous protector of the worst cook in White House history; Eva Braun, Hitler’s mistress, who challenges our warm associations of food, family, and table; Barbara Pym, whose witty books upend a host of stereotypes about postwar British cuisine; and Helen Gurley Brown, the editor of Cosmopolitan, whose commitment to “having it all” meant having almost nothing on the plate except a supersized portion of diet gelatin.