Serious Eats

'The First Celebrity Cooks,' Marianne Manners and Prudence Penny

Posted by Carey Jones, April 22, 2009

Photo from the Los Angeles Times

In a nostalgic look at the kitchen gurus of yesteryear, today’s Los Angeles Times profiles two newspaper personalities, “Marianne Manners” and “Prudence Penny,” whose columns and radio shows dispatched culinary advice to generations of home cooks throughout the twentieth century.

In an era before Ramsay and Colicchio, these two were the celeb-chefs of their day. Different authors assumed each pen name: Originally a cooking teacher named Ethel Vance Morse, “Marianne Manners” was later taken over by Los Angeles Times editors; “Prudence Penny” started out as an umbrella name for Hearst authors across the country. Despite this lack of continuity, however, both served as trusted kitchen authorities for decades. “These ladies had it all," the LA Times writes—"the approachability of Ina Garten, the family-friendly cooking style of Paula Deen and practical entertaining advice even Martha Stewart would surely approve of.”

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