Laurie Colwin

Laurie Colwin in her own kitchen. Darleen Rubin / 1978 / Alamy.

Laurie Colwin (1944 – 1992) was an American food and fiction writer.

Her cookbooks have been described as “memoirs with recipes”. ^[1]Specter, Emma. How Laurie Colwin’s Food Writing Turned Me Into a Happy, Confident(-ish) Cook. New York, NY: Vogue Magazine. 12 October 2021. Accessed January 2022 at https://www.vogue.com/article/laurie-colwin-more-home-cooking-ode

The Laurie Colwin “cult”

Though Colwin wrote only two cookbooks, compared to eight works of fiction, it is increasingly her cookbooks that she is remembered for as they continue to acquire a growing, dedicated following:

“In the years since her death, at the age of 48, her following has only grown, and her highly personal food writing, collected in the books “Home Cooking” and “More Home Cooking,” has attracted a new, cultishly devoted generation of readers.” ^[2]Gordinier, Jeff. Laurie Colwin: A Confidante in the Kitchen. New York, NY: New York Times. 2 April 2014. Section D, P. 1.

By 2001, one of her former editors was already saying that her writings had become “cultish”:

“It is difficult to write about Laurie’s [work] without preaching either to the converted or to the clueless. Nine people out of ten have never heard of her, or at least read her; the other one becomes ecstatic, even incoherent, at the mention of her name. “She is definitely cultish,” says Rick Kot, [one of her editors].” ^[3]Quindlen, Anna. With Passion and Affect. New York, NY: Gourmet Magazine. August 2021.

Those who have read her cookbooks seem to become very devoted to her:

“To be binary about it, there are two kinds of readers in the world. The first—in answer to the question, “Have you ever read Laurie Colwin?”—say, “No.” The other kind ignite like a gas jet and sigh, “Ohhhhh. Laurie Colwin.” ^[4]Corrigan, Maureen. Laurie Colwin: The Smile and the Blade. New York, NY: The Wall Street Journal. 18 June 2021. Accessed January 2022 at https://www.wsj.com/articles/laurie-colwin-the-smile-and-the-blade-11624026195

Early years

Laurie was born in Manhattan on 14 June 1944. Her parents were Peter Barnett Colwin and Estelle Colwin Snellenberg (née Woolfson).

She wrote her first book at the age of 7 on cardboard from the packaging from her father’s shirts. She called it “The Red-Headed Woman.” ^[5]Caba, Susan. Laurie Colwin, 46; writer whose subjects were ‘nervous people’. Philadelphia, PA: The Philadelphia Enquirer. Monday, 26 October 1992. Page B4, col. 1

At various times, she lived on Long Island, in Chicago and in Philadelphia, but she returned to Manhattan to live in the Chelsea area.

She had studied at Bard College (Annandale-on-Hudson, New York) and at Columbia University, New York, though she did not finish degrees at either.  ^[6]Laurie E. Colwin, 48, a Novelist And Short Story Writer, Is Dead. New York, NY: The New York Times. 26 October 1992. Section D, Page 10. ^[7]Syme, Rachel. Season to Taste: Laurie Colwin’s Recipe for Being Yourself in the Kitchen. New York, NY: The New Yorker. 11 / 18 October 2021. Accessed January 2022 at https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/10/18/laurie-colwins-recipe-for-being-yourself-in-the-kitchen

Her first short story was published in the New Yorker magazine in 1969 when she was only 24 years old. ^[8]Syme, Rachel. Season to Taste: Laurie Colwin’s Recipe for Being Yourself in the Kitchen. New York, NY: The New Yorker. 11 / 18 October 2021. Accessed January 2022 at https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/10/18/laurie-colwins-recipe-for-being-yourself-in-the-kitchen In her fiction, she dwelt on character development.

In 1983, at the age of 39, she married Juris Jurjevics (1943 – 2018); the couple lived in an apartment on West 20th Street and would have one child, RF. Colwin made her own baby food. ^[9]Corrigan, Maureen. Decades Later, Laurie Colwin’s Books ‘Will Not Let You Down’. National Public Radio. 24 November 2014. Accessed January 2022 at https://www.npr.org/2014/11/24/365227833/decades-later-laurie-colwins-books-will-not-let-you-down They had a cat named Chloe. ^[10]”We visited Colwin in the Chesea apartment she shares with her publisher-husband, their daughter Rosa, and Chloe the cat.” — Sax, Irene. A successful novelist has confected a tasty book of essays. New York, NY: Newsday. Wednesday, 7 September 1988. Food section, p. 3.

Laurie had worked as an editor for various publishers including Putnam, Pantheon, Viking Press and E. P. Dutton. Among the writers she worked with was the poet Isaac Bashevis Singer:

“When she wrote a fan letter to Isaac Bashevis Singer, he asked to meet her, fed her coffee and blintzes, then offered her a job checking the translations of his stories.” ^[11]Sax, Irene. A successful novelist has confected a tasty book of essays. Hempstead, New Jersey: Newsday. Wednesday, 7 September 1988. Food section, p. 3.

In 1987, she won a Gugenheim fellowship for fiction. ^[12]Accessed January 2022 at https://www.gf.org/fellows/all-fellows/laurie-colwin/

Colwin as a food writer

Colwin’s fiction was full of descriptions of food and eating. But her career turned to food writing almost by happenstance, when she was approached in the mid-1980s to see if she was interested in writing about food for Gourmet magazine. Apparently the request to write for Gourmet came via famed food editor Judith Jones:

“Someone asked Judith Jones, who edits all the food books at Knopf, if I was interested in writing about food, and my editor conveyed it to me. First I said no, but then I thought about it and decided I wanted to write about fried chicken…” ^[13]Simonds, Nina. She’s a real morale-booster. Boston, Massachusetts: The Boston Globe. Wednesday, 2 November 1988. Pp. 37, 42.

After Colwin got started exploring her thoughts about food in writing, she found it easy:

“She found that she had something to say on topics as diverse as Feeding the Fussy (‘I will never eat fish eyeballs and I do not want to taste anything commonly kept as a house pet, but otherwise I am a cinch to feed’), and eating alone. (‘People lie when you ask them what they eat when they are alone. A salad, they tell you. But when you persist, they confess to peanut butter and bacon sandwiches deep-fried and eaten with hot sauce, or spaghetti with butter and grape jam.’)” ^[14]Sax, Irene. A successful novelist has confected a tasty book of essays. New York, NY: Newsday. Wednesday, 7 September 1988. Food section, p. 3.

One of her earliest pieces for them was “Without Salt”, appearing in Gourmet in April 1985 (pp 188-189). Other pieces she wrote included “Alone in the Kitchen With an Eggplant” and “Repulsive Dinners: A Memoir.”

Apparently, Colwin was actually a bad speller.

“We had reconnected when I landed at Gourmet, and I was fortunate enough to edit her monthly essays, which she’d mail in, five or so at a time. I secretly cherished the fact that the person behind the immaculate prose couldn’t spell; it gave me something to do besides tuck in an occasional comma.” ^[15]Lears, Jane Daniels. Classic Cookbooks: More Home Cooking. New York, NY: Gourmet Magazine. April 2008.

As she wrote and submitted her columns several months ahead of time, her final columns for Gourmet were printed posthumously until November 1993.

“Last summer, Laurie Colwin, the novelist and short story writer, phoned Gail Zweigenthal, editor-in-chief of Gourmet Magazine, for whom she wrote a monthly essay and said, “I have all my columns for next year, is it OK if I send them in now?” “I was flabbergasted but I said, ‘Sure'”, Zeigenthal recalled recently… The magazine will continue printing her work until November [1993].” ^[16] Late novelist to be honored. Muncie, Indiana: Muncie Evening Press. Monday, 8 February 1993. Page 16, col. 3.

Much of the content in her two cookbooks comes from material first printed in Gourmet magazine. Those cookbooks are really culinary essays about food and eating: cozy, personal reflections written in a conversational style on various food topics from chocolate cake to Thanksgiving dinners to potato salad. The recipes, almost an afterthought, are simple and quirky. She picks dishes that interest her: gingerbread, fried chicken, and breadmaking. She dedicates a whole chapter to potato salad, and lists a recipe for brownies which she says is the one that Katharine Hepburn used.

She bucked the then-emerging trend of hating fruitcake at Christmas, and admitted a passion for it:

“I’m one of the few people who actually likes fruitcake,” says novelist and Gourmet columnist Laurie Colwin, “especially the English ones like plum puddings. But I’ll even eat the commercial cakes with the big globs of candied fruit suspended in a little batter, because I’m not discriminating.” ^[17]Sax, Irene. Fruitcake: Friend or Foe. Los Angeles, CA: The Los Angeles Times. Thursday, 19 December 1991. Page H30, col. 1.

She encouraged people to make their own bread. Her inspiration for bread came from English food writer Elizabeth David:

“Then, when [my child] was 18 months old someone gave me ‘Elizabeth David’s English Bread and Yeast Cookery.’ I kept it next to my bed and read it like a novel, and it was as important to me as the Bible.” ^[18]Sax, Irene. A successful novelist has confected a tasty book of essays. New York, NY: Newsday. Wednesday, 7 September 1988. Food section, p. 3.

In fact, much of her inspiration in cooking came from English food writers:

“Mostly she likes plain food. She has a nostalgic affection for English nursery food, which she says is under-appreciated here: gooseberry pudding, gingerbread and double cream. Her favorite cookbook writers are Englishwomen: Elizabeth David, Jane Grigson and Claudia Roden. To explain the food she likes best, she jumped up from her chair and hunted out a passage in Nancy Mitford’s “Love in a Cold Climate.” It describes “mountains of the very most delicious imaginable nursery food, plain and wholesome, made of the very best materials, each thing tasting strongly of itself.” ^[19]Sax, Irene. A successful novelist has confected a tasty book of essays. New York, NY: Newsday. Wednesday, 7 September 1988. Food section, p. 3.

Death

Colwin died of an aortic aneurism at the age of 48 on 24 October 1992:

“One morning in October 1992 she simply failed to wake up. She had high blood pressure and had relied heavily on Chinese herbalists for help .” ^[20]Quindlen, Anna. With Passion and Affect. New York, NY: Gourmet Magazine. August 2001.

She was buried in Cornwall, Connecticut. ^[21]The cause of death was erroneously reported as a heart attack. About Laurie. https://www.lauriecolwin.com/about Accessed January 2022.

Many of her readers at the time felt her death as a personal loss: “Nearly a thousand people crammed into her memorial service in Manhattan, many of whom had encountered her only through her writing.” ^[22]Syme, Rachel. Season to Taste: Laurie Colwin’s Recipe for Being Yourself in the Kitchen. New York, NY: The New Yorker. 11 / 18 October 2021. Accessed January 2022 at https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/10/18/laurie-colwins-recipe-for-being-yourself-in-the-kitchen

And mourning fans put pen to paper, and wrote.

“When Ruth Reichl arrived at Gourmet as editor-in-chief, in 1999, she discovered in her office a cache of about 400 letters from mourning fans who had written to the magazine after Ms. Colwin’s death. Ms. Reichl’s “very first act” as editor, she said, was to have the letters messengered over to Colwin’s husband… ^[23]Gordinier, Jeff. Laurie Colwin: A Confidante in the Kitchen. New York, NY: New York Times. 2 April 2014. Section D, P. 1.

At the time of her death, many of the obituaries contained several factual errors. Colwin did not live in Soho, she did not go to the Sorbonne, she did not speak or translate Yiddish, and she did not die of heart failure.

Her widower, Juris Jurjevics, remarried in 1998 to Jeanne Heifetz, an artist.

“Her husband is married now to one of her former writing students, a woman to whom Laurie introduced him, in what in her own novels would be seen as a kind and useful act of posthumous matchmaking…” ^[24]Quindlen, Anna. With Passion and Affect. New York, NY: Gourmet Magazine. August 2001.

Legacy

At the time of her death, she left an unfinished novel. It’s not clear where this is or what the state of it is.

She is read and admired by other cooks such as Nigella Lawson, who included Colwin’s Black Cake recipe in her own (Lawson’s) book, How to Be a Domestic Goddess.

People writing about Colwin note her “domestic sensualism” balanced with a strong sense of equality for women. She wrote:

 “We have to get our sons into the kitchen with us and teach them how to cook so that as adults our daughters do not end up working to a frazzle while our sons sit around reading the newspaper.” ^[25]Colwin, Laurie. More Home Cooking. HarperCollins. 2021 edition. P. 85. Kindle Edition.

Though none of Colwin’s books ever topped a best-seller list, they have not been out of print.

In 2012, Colwin was posthumously inducted into the James Beard Foundation’s Cookbook Hall of Fame. ^[26]Roberts, Sam. Juris Jurjevics, 75; Published Fresh Voices. New York, NY: New York Times. 9 November 2018. Section B, Page 8.

Her two food books were re-issued in July 2021.

Colwin’s recipe legacy

Now, people only speak of Colwin in reverential tones, but when her food books first came out, and she was alive, reviewers were perhaps more critical about the actual food elements:

“Her strength is, she speaks from experience. Her weakness, she doesn’t know when she doesn’t know what she’s talking about. Sometimes she says the most amazing things. Such as, “There is no such thing as really bad potato salad.” Believe me, Laurie, there is. It is out there, and lots of it, and I can get nauseated just thinking about it.” — Jones, Malcolm. Writers who write about food had better be good. St Petersburg, Florida: Tampa Bay Times. Sunday, 25 September 1988. Page 7D, col. 1.

Not everyone has always been a fan of the “writing about food” format, and some have felt that the “not-altogether-reliable recipes” ^[27]Gordinier, Jeff. Laurie Colwin: A Confidante in the Kitchen. New York, NY: New York Times. 2 April 2014. Section D, P. 1. provided in her food books just aren’t that great:

“A friend sent me Laurie Colwin’s ‘Home Cooking’, subtitled ‘A Writer in the Kitchen’. (Alfred A. Knopf, 1988.). Much as I admire Colwin’s novels, I found this part-memoir, part-cookbook thin stuff — mundane recipes, mildly entertaining chatter.'” — McFadden, Cyra. Lurid glow of a really bad dinner. San Francisco, CA: The San Francisco Examiner. Wednesday, 14 February 1990. Epicure section, Page 1, col. 3.

But then to be fair, such people would likely not be fans of Elizabeth David or even Brillat-Savarin for that matter.

Some of the recipes are just outlines — for instance, her now-famous mustard chicken recipe is three sentences long, and contains no measurements other than time and temperature:

“The chicken is cut up and coated with mustard into which some garlic has been grated, along with a little thyme, black pepper and a pinch of cinnamon. It is rolled in fine bread crumbs, dusted with paprika, dotted with butter and cooked at 350° for about two hours. It can be served hot or at room temperature and will never let you down.” ^[28]Laurie Colwin. Home Cooking. New York, NY: Penguin Random House. 2021 edition. P. 100. (Kindle Edition.) (The New York Times parsed a version of the recipe out here: Laurie Colwin’s Baked Mustard Chicken.)

It could be that Colwin’s main contribution to the home cook’s canon was not her recipes, but rather her philosophical approach to being in the kitchen. She was writing in era when Martha Stewart ruled print media with her quest for home kitchen perfection.

“[Colwin] is like the anti-Martha Stewart,” Ms. Reichl said. “It’s not about perfection.” ^[29]Gordinier, Jeff. Laurie Colwin: A Confidante in the Kitchen. New York, NY: New York Times. 2 April 2014. Section D, P. 1.

And the late 1980s was also a time when the pendulum of First World food habits was swinging heavily towards eating prepared food in some form: either take-out, delivery, grocery store chiller meals, or via routinely dining in restaurants.

Colwin preferred eating in to eating out:

“She cooks because eating out in New York is exhausting. ‘It’s either not as good as you think it will be or it’s delicious but you can’t hear anything. And the coffee is always better at home.” ^[30]Sax, Irene. A successful novelist has confected a tasty book of essays. New York, NY: Newsday. Wednesday, 7 September 1988. Food section, p. 3.

Colwin represented a quiet counter-force to this emerging “prepared meals” trend, saying that not only was it still okay to want to cook for yourself, but it was also okay if one wasn’t necessarily all that good at it or if it didn’t turn out great:

“She made it not only cool to want to be a home cook; she actually made it hip, and she made it human. At a time when perfection and intemperance were the order of the day, she wrote about failure and simplicity… But this is what is so glorious about her work: it’s sane, and it’s real… Laurie’s importance to the home cook’s canon is immeasurable” ^[31]Altman, Elissa. Laurie Colwin Is an (Often) Awful Cook. New York, NY: Epicurious Magazine. 12 June 2017. Accessed January 2022 at https://www.epicurious.com/expert-advice/laurie-colwin-100-greatest-home-cooks-in-america-article

Colwin, food, and human Relationship

Colwin encouraged people to cook simply, and to do so as a way to strengthen human relationships:

“We must march into the kitchen, en famille or with a friend, and find some easy, heartwarming things to make from scratch, and even if it is but once a week, we must gather at the table, alone or with friends or with lots of friends or with one friend, and eat a meal together. We know that without food we would die. Without fellowship life is not worth living.” — Colwin, Laurie. More Home Cooking: A Writer Returns to the Kitchen. New York: Harper Perennial. 2021. Page 4.

Willard Spiegelman, a professor of English at Southern Methodist University and a friend of Colwin’s, said, “Laurie’s primary interest was never in food per se. It was food as a way of gathering people together.” ^[32]Gordinier, Jeff. Laurie Colwin: A Confidante in the Kitchen. New York, NY: New York Times. 2 April 2014. Section D, P. 1.

Food writer Deb Perelman says that for Colwin, food was a prism through which to see the world and understand people:

“Colwin knows that food people aren’t obsessed with sustenance per se, they just see it as the prism through which everything else makes sense. She knows that talking about food is the safest way one can be nosy without being rude, because what we’re really asking when we ask what a friend ate for dinner is: Who came over, what was their favorite thing you made, did they help with the dishes, are they invited back, did you get any good gossip, wait, what do you mean they don’t like soup, who doesn’t like soup?” Colwin, Laurie. More Home Cooking (p. xvi). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition. — Deb Perelman. 2021 Foreword to: More Home Cooking: A Writer Returns to the Kitchen HarperCollins. 2021 edition. P. xvi.

A book reviewer wrote that how any given character in her novels approached food was a reliable portend of how successful they would be in relationships:

“Colwin’s characters are fun and full of life. And interesting. Definitely the kind of people that you would like to have lunch with. Speaking of lunch, her books are also full of food. Good food. prepared with love, is always in her novels. Characters who eat terrible meals deliberately do not function well in relationships in Colwin’s novels. In one of her stories, a single father constantly prepares himself scrambled eggs with mace. As soon as I read that, I knew he was not going to turn out to be the prince he seemed to be.” — Lemen, June. Books full of life — and food. Nashua, New Hampshire: Nashua Telegraph. 24 November 1992. Page 6.

In the early 1980s, Colwin started volunteer work at the Olivieri Center for Homeless Women, cooking meals.

“Fourteen years later, in 1982, she began volunteering at the Olivieri Center for Homeless Women, located on Manhattan’s West Side. There, she edited the Coalition for the Homeless newsletter, co-edited The Shelter Worker’s Handbook (Rafferty et al. 1984), and cooked for hundreds of women (Spiegelman 2001, 66). Although they were from every background imaginable, they all had one thing in common: they had to be fed. Colwin, a woman who drew strength from the home and believed in the comforting and healing properties of food, prepared baked dishes, stews, and other satisfying meals for homeless women, helping to create a sense of happiness and stability, if only briefly, in their uncertain lives. As her activism illustrates, cooking in a socially responsible way is always revolutionary, for there are many ways to define revolution. For Colwin, revolution began in the kitchen.” ^[33]Tanfer Emin Tunc. Domestic sensualism: Laurie Colwin’s food writing, Food, Culture & Society. 21:2. 2018. Pp. 128-143.

She related that her cooking for the crowds was not always a success:

“Colwin has even fed… the residents of a drop-in center for homeless women where she regularly volunteers. In ‘Feeding the Multitudes’, she recounts her brilliant idea ‘to serve colcannon, an Irish dish combining spring onions, cabbage and mashed potatoes. It bombed and one of the homeless women told her so: ‘Lunch today, honey. A disaster.'” ^[34] Howe, Joyce. Home on the Range. San Francisco, California: The San Francisco Examiner. Sunday, 16 October 1988. Page 5, col. 3.

Colwin and bloggers

In many ways, Colwin’s conversational style of food writing presaged food blogs which were just around the corner:

“I think of her as kind of a proto-blogger,” said Mitchell Davis, executive vice president of the James Beard Foundation, which in 2012 inducted Ms. Colwin into its cookbook hall of fame. “I would say she’s a transitional figure between M. F. K. Fisher and Julie Powell.”” ^[35]Gordinier, Jeff. Laurie Colwin: A Confidante in the Kitchen. New York, NY: New York Times. 2 April 2014. Section D, P. 1.

Though Colwin missed the blogging age by just a few years, she strikes a chord with food bloggers and shows up regularly in their writings:

“Her musings, anecdotes and quirkily imprecise, not-altogether-reliable recipes show up with regularity on food blogs. Which only makes sense, because even though Ms. Colwin expressed wariness about technology and cranked out her essays (most of them for Gourmet magazine) on a mint-green Hermes Rocket typewriter, there is something about her voice, conveyed in conversational prose, that comes across as a harbinger of the blog boom that would follow.” ^[36]Gordinier, Jeff. Laurie Colwin: A Confidante in the Kitchen. New York, NY: New York Times. 2 April 2014. Section D, P. 1.

Laurie Colwin and food pseudo-science trends

It’s worth noting that Colwin presaged some trends which would continue to grow after her death.

One was the blogging style of writing about food. Another was an awareness of the importance of locally-sourced food.

And, some trends she presaged were those of pseudo-science around food being born. For instance, she praised organic foods as being “healthier”, and dismissed regular sugar as a “chemical” (spoiler alert — all forms of sugar, and food for that matter, are chemicals, and no reputable dietitian will affirm that organic necessarily means healthy.) ^[37]”For everyday use I like raw sugar, which tastes like sugar to me and not like some supersweet chemical.” — Laurie Colwin. Home Cooking. New York, NY: Penguin Random House. 2021 edition. P. 6.

Colwin helped amplify emerging, scientifically-invalid, alarmist statements such as these:

— “As far as meat is concerned, if you have a source for organic beef or veal, go for it. Not only is it tastier (and frequently leaner), but you also do not have to worry about feeding anabolic steroids to friends and loved ones.” ^[38]Laurie Colwin. Home Cooking. New York, NY: Penguin Random House. 2021 edition. P. 5.. (See: Steroid Hormone Implants Used for Growth in Food-Producing Animals )

— “When my daughter was a toddler and beginning to drink large quantities of apple juice, I (and the rest of the mothers in this country) learned that the apple crop was universally sprayed, year after year, with a known carcinogen and mutagen…” ^[39]Laurie Colwin. Home Cooking. New York, NY: Penguin Random House. 2021 edition. P. 5.

Such statements displayed ignorance of relevant factors such as regulatory and testing regimes, dosage, etc. But neither of her aborted degrees were in food science or any science for that matter, so she had no background knowledge to draw on to inform her thinking. As one reviewer when she was alive put it, “she doesn’t know when she doesn’t know what she’s talking about.” ^[40]Jones, Malcolm. Writers who write about food had better be good. St Petersburg, Florida: Tampa Bay Times. Sunday, 25 September 1988. Page 7D, col. 1.

There’s no doubt, though, that misinformation such as this would grow over the next couple of decades and be prevalent even still today.

She was strongly anti-salt, perhaps because of her own personal high blood pressure. “I keep in mind that when I feed people without salt, I am actually doing them a favor.” ^[41]Laurie Colwin. Home Cooking. New York, NY: Penguin Random House. 2021 edition. P. 129. And at the time of her death, we know she was relying on Chinese herbalist therapy to help manage her blood pressure. We don’t know if these two factors — salt avoidance and Chinese herbalist therapy — were in addition to having a family physician manage her blood pressure with actual medication, but if not, the disinformation she was following sadly may have contributed to her untimely death. ^[42]Hypertension is a serious disorder and must be managed with the aid of a physician, and can only very rarely be managed through diet alone or without the use of prescription medication.

You’ll never cook alone

One of Colwin’s most famous quotes is that no one cooks alone in the kitchen:

“No one who cooks, cooks alone. Even at her most solitary, a cook in the kitchen is surrounded by generations of cooks past, the advice and menus of cooks present, the wisdom of cookbook writers.” — Laurie Colwin. Authors’ Note: Home Cooking. New York, NY: Penguin Random House. 2021 edition. P. ix. (Kindle Edition.)

In a 1988 interview with the Boston Globe, Colwin explained that her kitchen friends were the food writers who have inspired her. (She would go on to mention people such as Elizabeth David, Jane Grigson, and Edna Lewis):

“Colwin, like most cooks, has what she calls in her book “friends in the kitchen,” those food writers or books which have encouraged and inspired her to try new dishes…” ^[43]Simonds, Nina. She’s a real morale-booster. Boston, Massachusetts: The Boston Globe. Wednesday, 2 November 1988. Pp. 37, 42.

Colwin admired David and Grigson for being masterful writers:

“Elizabeth David is a wonderful prose writer,” [Colwin] says, “and reading her, even if you aren’t a cook, is a wonderful experience because she writes so well. I do think, though, that you have to be a pretty relaxed cook to like her because she assumes that you know how to cook. Jane Grigson is a very good writer too.” ^[44]Simonds, Nina. She’s a real morale-booster. Boston, Massachusetts: The Boston Globe. Wednesday, 2 November 1988. Pp. 37, 42.

Social media

https://twitter.com/lauriecolwin (The estate of Laurie Colwin)

https://www.facebook.com/lauriecolwin (Laurie Colwin fan page)

Food books

1988 — Home Cooking (a collection of essays about food)
1993 — More Home Cooking (published posthumously)

Novels

1975 — Shine On, Bright and Dangerous Object (novel)
1978 — Happy All the Time (novel)
1982 — Family Happiness (novel)
1990 — Goodbye without Leaving (novel)
1994 — A Big Storm Knocked It Over (novel, published posthumously)

Short story collections

1974 — Passion and Affect (short story collection)
1981 — The Lone Pilgrim (short story collection)
1986 — Another Marvelous Thing (short story collection)

Quotes

“I am no superwoman, but I like to cook and… while I like a nice meal, I do not want to be made a nervous wreck in the process of producing one. I like dishes that are easy, savory, and frequently cook themselves.” — Laurie Colwin, in “Home Cooking”. — Laurie Colwin. Home Cooking. New York, NY: Penguin Random House. 2021 edition. P. 6. (Kindle Edition.)

“My idea of a good time abroad is to visit someone’s house and hang out, poking into their cupboards if they will let me… In foreign countries I am drawn into grocery shops, supermarkets and kitchen supply houses. I explain this by reminding my friends that, as I was taught in Introduction to Anthropology, it is not just the Great Works of mankind that make a culture. It is the daily things, like what people eat and how they serve it.” — Laurie Colwin. Home Cooking. New York, NY: Penguin Random House. 2021 edition. P. 3. (Kindle Edition.)

“The table is a meeting place, a gathering ground, the source of sustenance and nourishment, festivity, safety, and satisfaction. A person cooking is a person giving: even the simplest food is a gift.” — Laurie Colwin. More Home Cooking: A Writer Returns to the Kitchen HarperCollins. 2021 edition. P. 4.

“When people enter the kitchen, they often drag their childhood in with them.” — Laurie Colwin. Home Cooking. New York, NY: Penguin Random House. 2021 edition. P. 3. (Kindle Edition.)

Further reading

Tanfer Emin Tunc. Domestic sensualism: Laurie Colwin’s food writing.  Food, Culture & Society. 2018.  21:2. Pp. 128-143, DOI: 10.1080/15528014.2018.1427925

Sources

Altman, Elissa. Laurie Colwin Is an (Often) Awful Cook. New York, NY: Epicurious Magazine. 12 June 2017. Accessed January 2022 at https://www.epicurious.com/expert-advice/laurie-colwin-100-greatest-home-cooks-in-america-article

Corrigan, Maureen. Laurie Colwin: The Smile and the Blade. New York, NY: The Wall Street Journal. 18 June 2021. Accessed January 2022 at https://www.wsj.com/articles/laurie-colwin-the-smile-and-the-blade-11624026195

Corrigan, Maureen. Decades Later, Laurie Colwin’s Books ‘Will Not Let You Down’. National Public Radio. 24 November 2014. Accessed January 2022 at https://www.npr.org/2014/11/24/365227833/decades-later-laurie-colwins-books-will-not-let-you-down

Gordinier, Jeff. Laurie Colwin: A Confidante in the Kitchen. New York, NY: New York Times. 2 April 2014. Section D, P. 1.

Lambert, Bruce. Laurie E. Colwin, 48, a Novelist And Short Story Writer, Is Dead. New York, NY: The New York Times. 26 October 1992. Section D, Page 10.

Laurie E. Colwin, 48, a Novelist And Short Story Writer, Is Dead. New York, NY: The New York Times. 26 October 1992. Section D, Page 10.

Lears, Jane Daniels. Classic Cookbooks: More Home Cooking. New York, NY: Gourmet Magazine. April 2008.

Leblanc, Lauren. Escape 2021’s sourdough hellscape with Laurie Colwin’s delightful reissued books. Los Angeles, California: The Los Angeles Times. 25 March 2021. Accessed January 2022 at
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/books/story/2021-03-25/escape-2021s-sourdough-hellscape-with-laurie-colwin-delightful-reissued-books

McAlpin, Heller. Laurie Colwin possessed a ‘positive genius for comfort’. Boston, Massachusetts: Christian Science Monitor. 26 July 2021. Accessed January 2022 at https://www.csmonitor.com/Books/2021/0726/Laurie-Colwin-possessed-a-positive-genius-for-comfort

Quindlen, Anna. With Passion and Affect. New York, NY: Gourmet Magazine. August 2001.

Roberts, Sam. Juris Jurjevics, Enterprising Publisher and Novelist, Published Fresh Voices, Dies at 75. New York, NY: The New York Times. 9 November 2018. Section B, Page 8.

Specter, Emma. How Laurie Colwin’s Food Writing Turned Me Into a Happy, Confident(-ish) Cook. New York, NY: Vogue Magazine. 12 October 2021. Accessed January 2022 at https://www.vogue.com/article/laurie-colwin-more-home-cooking-ode

Syme, Rachel. Season to Taste: Laurie Colwin’s Recipe for Being Yourself in the Kitchen. New York, NY: The New Yorker. 11 / 18 October 2021. Accessed January 2022 at https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/10/18/laurie-colwins-recipe-for-being-yourself-in-the-kitchen

Yardley, Jonathan. Laurie Colwin: A Story Too Short but Still in Print. Washington Post. 1 July 2003.

Zeidner, Lisa. Happy Most of the Time: The Sneaky Subversiveness of Laurie Colwin. New York, NY: The New York Times. 15 July 2021. Page 16.