Authors > Irma S. Rombauer

Irma S. Rombauer
Photograph © Rombauer Estate

Irma S. Rombauer

Irma Rombauer self-published the first Joy of Cooking in 1931 with the small insurance payout she received after her husband committed suicide during the Great Depression. Suddenly, society wives who used to enjoy a kitchen staff no longer had the money to employ them and began cooking for themselves. The instruction "stand facing the stove" was a bit more pragmatic than we realize. In 1936, the first commercial edition was published by Bobbs-Merrill. Marion Rombauer Becker, Irma's daughter, joined the Joy dynasty and revised and updated each subsequent edition until 1975. That edition was the first after Irma's death and was completely Marion's. Her son, Ethan... Read full bio

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    1. Joy of Cooking: Quiz
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    1. Ethan Becker: The Joy of Cooking
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Brightcove:
Joy of Cooking: Quiz
Dec 30, 2009
Jun 27, 2009
Excerpt:
Text Excerpt 1 from JOC - 1975
Mar 09, 2009
Excerpt:
Text Excerpt 3 from Joy of Cooking: All About Soups and Stews
Mar 09, 2009
Excerpt:
Table of Contents from Joy of Cooking: All About Breakfast and Brunch
Mar 09, 2009
Excerpt:
Text Excerpt 1 from Joy of Cooking: All About Pasta & Noodles
Mar 09, 2009
Excerpt:
Text Excerpt 2 from Joy of Cooking: All About Vegetarian
Mar 09, 2009
Excerpt:
Table of Contents from Joy of Cooking: All About Cookies
Mar 09, 2009
Excerpt:
Chapter 1 from Joy of Cooking 1931 Facsimile Edition
Mar 09, 2009
Excerpt:
Text Excerpt 1 from JOC All New Rev. - 1997
Mar 09, 2009
Excerpt:
Text Excerpt 1 from Joy of Cooking: All About Chicken
Mar 09, 2009
Brightcove:
Joy of Cooking: Pie
Jan 07, 2009
Jan 07, 2009
Jan 07, 2009
Brightcove:
Joy of Cooking: Eggs
Jan 07, 2009
Jan 07, 2009
Joy of Cooking will be released on October 31, 2006 in
Oct 31, 2006
Joy of Cooking is now available in
Oct 31, 2006
Joy of Cooking: All About Cookies will be released on August 27, 2002 in
Aug 27, 2002
Joy of Cooking: All About Cookies is now available in
Aug 27, 2002
Joy of Cooking: All About Breakfast and Brunch will be released on June 12, 2001 in
Jun 12, 2001
Jun 12, 2001
Joy of Cooking: All About Pasta & Noodles will be released on October 25, 2000 in
Oct 25, 2000
Oct 25, 2000
Joy of Cooking: All About Soups and Stews will be released on October 25, 2000 in
Oct 25, 2000
Oct 25, 2000
Joy of Cooking: All About Chicken will be released on October 25, 2000 in
Oct 25, 2000
Joy of Cooking: All About Chicken is now available in
Oct 25, 2000
Joy of Cooking: All About Vegetarian will be released on October 25, 2000 in
Oct 25, 2000
Oct 25, 2000
Joy of Cooking 1931 Facsimile Edition will be released on April 29, 1998 in
Apr 29, 1998
Apr 29, 1998
JOC All New Rev. - 1997 will be released on November 05, 1997 in
Nov 05, 1997
JOC All New Rev. - 1997 is now available in
Nov 05, 1997
JOC - 1975 will be released on May 01, 1985 in
May 01, 1985
JOC - 1975 is now available in
May 01, 1985

Authors on the Web

Rushville Republican, February 17, 2010
...wavy hair in place, the self assured Betty gave us a perfect dish every time. To the contrary, Irma Rombauer, author of "The Joy of Cooking" was a cute, petite little woman who openly acknowledged her culinary shortcomings. The public instantly fell in...
Chico News & Review, January 14, 2010
...kitchen shelf. Some have been revised over the years. The Joy of Cooking got bigger and better when Irma Rombauer’s son and grandson teamed up to revise it in 2006, and M.F.K. Fisher’s 1949 translation of the Physiology of Taste (originally published...
Owen Sound Sun Times, January 13, 2010
...days when people did most of their own cooking and baking. There's a heavily thumbed version of Irma Rombauer's compulsoryJoy of Cookingand several volumes by Mme. Jehanne Benoit. There have been times when I have thought that the vintage books may be as...
CNN, December 28, 2009
...staggering. More than 18 million copies have sold since the Great Depression -- when a Midwestern widow named Irma Rombauer published her recipes and anecdotes in the hope of lifting America's spirits. And while the lemonade concoctions and tuna...
Los Angeles Times, December 25, 2009
...untouched by the recipes in the women's magazines she read or even those in the copy of Irma Rombauer's "The Joy of Cooking" she kept in the cabinet over the refrigerator. She preferred a baked potato to Rice-A-Roni, anything simple to anything that...
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, December 10, 2009
...of the 1950 original that sells for $29.95. One of the influences on 'Picture' was another best-seller, Irma Rombauer's 'The Joy of Cooking,' published in 1936 by Bobbs-Merrill and co-authored after 1952 with her daughter Marian Rombauer Becker, who had...
PR Newswire, November 28, 2009
...gift for newlyweds of several generations -- the 'Joy of Cooking.' The volume was first self-published by author Irma Rombauer and became an institution. The first commercial version of the book appeared in 1936, and offered a revolutionary format, in...
San Francisco Chronicle, November 19, 2009
..."Top Chef" cookbook will outsell the noncelebrity tomes by four times, says LeBlond. It makes you wonder if Irma Rombauer's classic "Joy of Cooking" would be turned away today in favor of one of Sandra Lee's "Semi-Homemade" cookbooks. Not only do these...
Malaysian Insider, October 30, 2009
...as other children of my generation toyed with chemistry sets or electric trains,” he writes. “I remember reading Irma Rombauer when I was 10 or so with the same curiosity that I read Kipling and Jules Verne.” His deepest food memories attach to...
Bradenton Herald, October 5, 2009
...would pore over recipes while she played on the floor. The woman? Fenton believes it had to be Irma Rombauer, the author of 'The Joy of Cooking.' The timing is right. Fenton was a toddler at the time, so the gatherings likely took place in the late...
OReilly Network, September 7, 2009
...look up a recipe to make pancakes, and some refresher instructions on using the VLookup function in Excel. Irma Rombauer's 'The Joy of Cooking' made my pancake project painless and delicious. Office 2004 for Macintosh: The Missing Manual got my workbook...
Spectator Leader, August 21, 2009
...Beck (Linda Emond) and Louisette Bertholle (Helen Carey) invite her collaboration. They?re planning a French variant of Irma Rombauer?s ?The Joy of Cooking,? but for Americans. Oh joy, indeed. The rest is history, entertainingly served up via...
IBerkshires.com, August 13, 2009
...Beck (Linda Emond) and Louisette Bertholle (Helen Carey) invite her collaboration. They're planning a French variant of Irma Rombauer's 'The Joy of Cooking,' but for Americans. Oh joy, indeed. The rest is history, entertainingly served up via Streep's...
mental_floss Blog, January 2, 2010
...Cooking is staggering. More than 18 million copies have sold since the Great Depression—when a Midwestern widow named Irma Rombauer published her recipes and anecdotes in the hope of lifting America’s spirits. And while the lemonade concoctions and...
cream.fm, November 12, 2009
...refreshing that not everyone is 'normal' or wants to be. 5. The Good Ole Joy of Cooking by Irma Rombauer Come on! It's a classic. My ma used it! YOUR ma used it! If you can find an old edition, the wild game section is a hell of...
Serious Eats, September 21, 2009
...spine split and the pages became too grease-stained and sticky. I then graduated to a secondhand copy of Irma Rombauer's indispensable Joy of Cooking. Both of these books have lived with me in kitchens all over the country and seen me through hundreds,...