(December 1852 - September 1933)Previous AuthorNext Author
Bibliography Biography Sources
Bibliography of Items in the Feeding America Collection
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Chocolate
and Cocoa Recipes by Miss Parloa and Home Made Candy Recipes by Mrs.
Janet McKenzie Hill. (1909)
Biography
Janet McKenzie Hill was born in Westfield, Massachusetts in 1852, the daughter
of Alexander McKenzie and Nancy (Lewis) McKenzie. She graduated from Massachusetts
State Normal School in 1871, and became an assistant teacher at Stockbridge
High School. In 1873 she married Benjamin M. Hill. Years later, she went
back to school to study cookery, and in 1892 graduated from the Boston Cooking
School, where Fannie Farmer was assistant principal. Four years later, in
June 1896, Hill founded the Boston Cooking School Magazine - the official
journal of the Boston Cooking School. (In 1914 its name changed to American
Cookery, and remained so until 1946.) In addition to being the long-time
editor of the magazine, Hill was known as a food writer, demonstrator of
cookery, and lecturer on domestic science. Making her home in Needham, Massachusetts,
she authored or co-authored many books and numerous pamphlets on preparing
food. Her cookbooks, which went through many editions, included Salads, Sandwiches
and Chafing Dish Dainties (1899); Practical Cooking and Serving (1902); The
Up-to-Date Waitress (1906); Cooking for Two (1909); The Book of Entrees (1911);
American Cook Book (1914); Canning, Preserving and Jelly Making (1915); Whys
of Cooking (1916).
Hill was one who led the way in the evolving relationship between food companies and trained domestic scientists, where companies paid well-trained cooking specialists to concoct recipes using their products, and in return the (female) specialists were given professional recognition for themselves and their new field of domestic science. Hill authored many advertising "ephemera" published by food companies. Chocolate and Cocoa Recipes by Miss Parloa and Home Made Candy Recipes by Mrs. Janet McKenzie Hill (1909), included in this collection, was a particularly high-quality example of a promotional recipe book, in which Hill's recipes for luscious chocolate candies using Baker's Brand Chocolate, were brought to life by unusually detailed, idealized illustrations of the confections. Some of her other promotional publications included A Short History of the Banana and a Few Recipes for Its Use (1904), published by the United Fruit Company; Dainty Desserts for Dainty People: Salads, Savories, and Dainty Dishes Made with Knox Gelatine (1909), published by Charles B. Knox Co.; Cooking and Serving in Guernsey Earthenware: and Things We Relish (1909), published by the Guernsey Earthenware Company; and Recipes for the Use of Milk (1906), published by the long-time Massachusetts dairy company, H.P. Hood.
- Hill, Janet McKenzie, Chocolate and Cocoa Recipes by Miss Parloa and
Home Made Candy Recipes by Mrs. Janet McKenzie Hill. Compliments of Walter
Baker & Co., Ltd. Dorchester, MA: Walter Baker & Co., Ltd., 1909.
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Shapiro, Laura, Perfection Salad, Women and Cooking at the Turn of the Century. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1986.
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Who Was Who in America. Vol. 1. 1897 - 1942. Chicago, IL: Marquis Co., 1943.