Rombauer had only a genteel education, but she read voraciously all her life and took tremendous pleasure in friends and conversation. Essentially, that’s what made ““Joy’’ a success. ““Her good luck at being an amateur cannot be overstated,’’ writes Mendelson. Unlike that of the food professionals behind the other big, basic cookbooks, Rombauer’s instinct was to convey personality, not just data. Thanks especially to Becker, an early devotee of fresh ingredients and organic farming, the kitchen basics in ““Joy’’ were extensive and often ahead of their time. But icebox cookies and homemade yogurt alone would not have assured the book a long life. What readers wanted in the kitchen with them was ““Joy’s’’ special voice. ““Can you read a graph?’’ Rombauer wrote in a section on high-altitude baking. ““Among the fairies that stood at my cradle the mathematical one was conspicuously absent–or on a binge–for I struggle helplessly with graphs and assume that others are similarly afflicted.’’ Fannie Farmer and her well-trained colleagues would have choked before dealing with the science of baking so frivolously.
After the first, privately printed edi- tion, Bobbs-Merrill became the publisher; and Mendelson’s account of the company’s acrimonious relationship with Rombauer and Becker is hair-raising. The worst moment came right after Rombauer’s memorial service in 1962, when a mourner mentioned to Becker that the new revision was now in bookstores. That was a surprise; Becker hadn’t even delivered all the material yet. Bobbs-Merrill, eager to milk its cash cow, simply tacked together various drafts and then published them behind her back. (A corrected edition quickly followed.)
Becker died a year after completing the 1975 edition. Today the publisher is Scribner, and a new revision, the first since 1975, is due next fall. On this happy note, Mendelson’s book ends. Too bad! A chapter on the tempests raging around the new ““Joy,’’ originally scheduled to appear last spring, would have made a fine coda–think Keystone Cops in the Kitchen. An estimated 80 of the nation’s best cookbook writers, recipe developers and consultants have been assigned to write chapters on their specialties or revise the work of their colleagues. Many were ignored after submitting their work; others were fired and still others had to sic their agents on Scribner in order to get paid. ““It’s been a little chaotic,’’ admits editor Maria Guarnaschelli. Why engage a parade of superstars to rewrite a book made great by an amateur? ““It’s such a complex field now,’’ Guarnaschelli says. ““We live in a world where [cake expert] Alice Medrich couldn’t do the meat section.’’ But for millions of devotees, ““Joy’’ was never about making the ultimate pumpkin-cardamom crEme brUlEe. It was about having a friend in the kitchen. The new revision is bound to be a good book; it’s got the finest roster of food experts since Thomas Jefferson dined alone. But fans will be searching for the voice that brought them ““Joy.''
