Barbara Haber

Author and Editor

Barbara Haber is the author of From Hardtack to Home Fries: An Uncommon History of American Cooks and Meals, published by Simon and Schuster’s Free Press and by Penguin in paperback. Praise for the book came from Julia Child, Gourmet Magazine and other food notables, and a chapter appeared in Best Food Writing 2002.  She has also written on food subjects for Harvard Magazine, Yankee Magazine, the Los Angeles Times, the Dictionary of American History, Notable American Women and many other popular and professional publications, including Through the Kitchen Window: Women Explore the Intimate Meaning of Food and Cooking and From Betty Crocker to Feminist Food Studies, which she co-edited with Arlene Avakian. Earlier books include Women in America: A Guide to Books and Macmillan’s American Women  in the Twentieth Century, a respected ten volume series for which Haber was General Editor.

Contributions to Food History at Harvard University and Cambridge and Oxford Presses

At Harvard’s Radcliffe Institute, Barbara Haber developed a collection of over 16,000 volumes on cooking and food for the Schlesinger Library.  To support the collection, she established the Radcliffe Culinary Friends and sponsored lectures and panel discussions by food-world notables.  In addition, she co-founded the Radcliffe Culinary Times and the Boston Culinary Historians, introduced First Mondays, a discussion group for local restaurateurs, and co-developed a landmark exhibition on food at Harvard’s Widener Library that featured resources from Harvard and Radcliffe libraries and museums.  To further promote the study of food, she served as senior advisory editor and contributed chapters on culinary history to the Cambridge World History of Food and the Encyclopedia of the History of American Food and Beverages, published by Oxford University Press.

Food Association Board Member and PR Consultant to Food Companies and Associations

Barbara Haber currently serves on the awards board of the James Beard Foundation where she initiated and serves as a curator for Beard on Books, a speaker series featuring notable food writers and cookbook authors.  She has also served on the governing board of the International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP), the advisory board of the University of California Food and Culture series and its journal, Gastronomica, and the board of Spoons Across America, a resource for children’s culinary education. Haber has also been a consulting writer, speaker and advisor for public-relations agencies sponsoring such organizations as Kraft Foods, McCormick, the Olive Oil Council, the Walnut Marketing Board, and the Chocolate Manufacturers of America.