Taste Makers: Seven Immigrant Women Who Revolutionized Food in America

by Mayukh Sen

Who’s really behind America’s appetite for foods from around the globe? This group biography from an electric new voice in food writing honors seven extraordinary women, all immigrants, who left an indelible mark on the way Americans eat today. Taste Makers stretches from World War II to the present, with absorbing and deeply researched portraits of figures including Mexican-born Elena Zelayeta, a blind chef; Marcella Hazan, the deity of Italian cuisine; and Norma Shirley, a champion of Jamaican dishes.


In imaginative, lively prose, Mayukh Sen—a queer, brown child of immigrants—reconstructs the lives of these women in vivid and empathetic detail, daring to ask why some were famous in their own time, but not in ours, and why others shine brightly even today. Weaving together histories of food, immigration, and gender, Taste Makers will challenge the way readers look at what’s on their plate—and the women whose labor, overlooked for so long, makes those meals possible.

Genres: Nonfiction, Food, History, Biography, Audiobook, Feminism, Book Club

288 pages, Hardcover

First published November 2, 2021

About the author

Mayukh Sen is the James Beard Award-winning author of Taste Makers (2021) and Love, Queenie: Merle Oberon, Hollywood's First South Asian Star (2025). He is a 2025 Fellow at New America, and his writing has been anthologized in four editions of The Best American Food and Travel Writing. He teaches journalism at New York University and lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Reviews

[Allison · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was intrigued by this book from the title alone, but when the opening pages not only drove home the focus on marginalized voices but also set out to interrogate the role of capitalism in erasing them, I was sold. It offers a deeply personal introduction that not only sets out the author's intentions with the book but also explains his role, decisions, and lens in approaching the topic. It's a book about collective food knowledge and the amazing accomplishments of seven immigrant women, in particular.

In the book's collected essays, readers are invited to see the women's journeys as chefs alongside their experiences as immigrants in the United States. It touches on the way each fought against white American views of their home countries' cuisines, the struggles to find success in a food culture that doesn't welcome them or only does with a patronizing tone, and the way identity, artistry, and commercial pressures influenced their careers. It's a fascinating read centering impressive women.

The author decided to only rarely use direct quotes or sources in the narrative itself to leave the reader's focus on the chefs themselves. While I respect that purpose, the anthropologist in me would have enjoyed more context to the information to allow interrogation of the different viewpoints that filter the information provided. Also, he chose to focus on food-related events in the subjects' lives to keep the narrative focused on their careers. I think more personal details (where available) would have added color and context to each accomplishment and given a clearer view of each woman's personality and lived-in experiences. Finally, I appreciated the analysis offered in the introduction but didn't always see it carried through the essays themselves. For example, I couldn't help but notice how many of the women discovered a love for cooking first in the necessity of cooking for a husband early in marriage. The tension there is intriguing and meaningful, and I think with the book's stated anti-capitalist stance, there was an opportunity there to examine how this unpaid women's labor translated into financial success later on and a powerful form of self-expression and joy.

This is a carefully researched but concise read about some amazing women and larger trends in food in America that span their different stories. I found it informative and powerful.

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mayukh Sen's Tastemakers: Seven Immigrant Women Who Revolutionized Food in America is a must read for anyone who enjoys, collects, or reads American cookbooks. Sen’s volume has chapters on Chao Yang Buwei, Elena Zeleyeta, Madeleine Kamman, Marcella Hazan, Julie Sahni, Najmieh Batmanglij, and Norma Shirley, with an “interlude” on Julia Child. These women were various combinations of cookbook authors, restauranteurs, and restaurant chefs. All were pioneers in bringing the cuisine of their home countries before Americans, despite almost overwhelming challenges for many of them. The food and publishing establishments did not ease their ways.

Tastemakers will be especially enjoyable to readers familiar with any of the women profiled. Since I own and have cooked from cookbooks by Kamman, Hazan, Sahni, and Child, those chapters were standouts for me. Don’t read this book looking for recipes: very much to Sen’s credit, there’s not a recipe here.

A unique book, well structured and well written.

[Sahitya · Rating 3 out of 5]

More of a 3.5.

I think I saw this book being reviewed by one of the booktubers or bloggers I follow and immediately decided to try it out. I’ve been an immigrant for almost a decade but I’m not fond of cooking, and as such love looking for places I can find delicious Indian food in America. So, I found the premise of this book very fascinating.

And I have to agree, these seven women the author talks about are phenomenal. Some of them were probably the right people at the right time to introduce and popularize their country’s cuisine to the American audience, but others battled hardships in life and prejudices in the minds of people to establish themselves and their cooking. They are very inspirational as well as aspirational, and it saddened me that I knew of none of them except Julia Child before picking up this book. I was especially in awe of Najmieh Batmanglij who used her cooking as a way to reach the Iranian diaspora, and especially those in exile like her, never shying away from making political points through her cooking and trying to keep the Iranian spirit from before the revolution alive.

However, I did feel like we got to know these women on a very surface level. I can understand now that the author didn’t have many sources to refer to for a couple of them, but maybe we could have gotten to know more about the others, particularly Julie and Najmieh to whom the author did have access to. I guess I just have to read the autobiographies some of these amazing taste makers have written though it seems that most of them are out of print. But it’s important to remember and the many others who have carved a place for themselves in the culinary world despite not being white and privileged and not being the darlings of the establishment.

[Kristy · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 Stars

[Madeline · Rating 2 out of 5]

Woah, two stars!? Is Madeline in a psychotic state or drunkenly raging through goodreads, giving great books terrible reviews?!

No, unfortunately I am painfully sane, sober, and disappointed.

Taste Makers has all of the correct trappings to be a great book and should have been the fabric that patched one of the many gaping holes in literature on cooking and American history... Sen sets out on a grand mission: expose the capitalist underpinnings that have led to the erasure of immigrant women on America’s stage of culinary fame. I was absolutely sold during the introduction - hell yeah, capitalism devalues labor and forces artists, chefs, writers, etc. to commodify themselves. Women’s labor, especially women of color, is devalued at an especially egregious rate. No surprise there. Of course I’d like to learn about how different immigrant women shaped our food culture and preferences.

But when you promise an inflammatory and deliciously nouveau treat in the introduction and then serve lukewarm hors d’oeuvres, how do you expect readers/eaters to react?!

The essays within are basically Wikipedia entries on the various talents introduced, only lightly touching on the racism and xenophobia each experienced and skimming over the sexism within the food industry with little more than a nod. The library marketed this book under “sociology”, so I suppose I was expecting more analysis of the sociological implications of these chefs’ experiences... but even the food descriptions were lackluster. Like, if you aren’t going to deliver on your political introductory promises, at least make me want to tear out a page and eat it, right?

The most interesting essays were on the Iranian chef and Norma Shirley from Jamaica... but overall, even those essays fell short. The biography of each chef barely scraped the surface, creating one dimensional historical characters... Although Sen may not have had many references when writing about their lives, he could have imbued more information into each story by providing historical background on the various countries that each chef emigrated from and the reasons behind that region’s emigration to the United States.

Sen’s point in the conclusion, that the American culinary canon really only recognizes Julia Child and some men, is correct. There is deep seated racism, xenophobia, sexism, and classism woven into the United States’ culinary culture and it is good and necessary that this book recalls the memory of several notable female immigrant chefs.... but just... ugh. It could have been executed so much better and Taste Makers is certainly a step in the right direction, but Sen missed the mark.

This book? No seasoning.

[Charu · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wonder if this book could have benefited from a different editor as I was a bit disappointed by the writing, which seemed to lack rhythm. The biographies were fascinating, though.

[Jess · Rating 5 out of 5]

I almost never read deadtree anymore for a variety of reasons, but one of my friends has a family tradition of Christmas night books, and since I was doing solo Christmas, I decided this sounded like a great idea to steal. And so I took myself to the bookstore looking for a book that I would actually read if I read it in deadtree, and came across this. Which, considering I read the whole thing in just a couple of days, I think means I made the right choice.

The stories in this book are fascinating and feel intimate, and if I had a small complaint, it would be that I wish each of them were longer, but I absolutely understand why they weren't. I will also confess I do not entirely understand the decision for the Julia Child interlude, I think the book would have been fine without it, for all that I enjoyed reading her part. But really, very much recommend and I will be looking for future work by this author.

[Pooja Mathur · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the book in general. It read a little more like a textbook. I was hoping to read more narrative/opinion on the state of the world, capitalism, etc. and it's impact on these chefs. But outside of a brief comment here or there, it was more of a summary of the careers of these chefs. Still interesting though, to hear about their careers and how these chefs navigated the world.

[Rebecca Lumbrix · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is marketed as a “group biography “, but to me it reads more like a collection of essays. There is very little overlap or integration of how these women are connected, beyond being immigrant chefs & cookbook authors. I want more big themes, more social commentary. The author made efforts to let the reader feel close to the subjects—referring to them by their first names, for example—but it still feels very cut-and-dried, merely a listing of the events of their lives. I still don’t feel like I know any of these women beyond what they DID. Interesting, yes. Moving? No.

[Sarah Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was a pleasure to read and incredibly informative- I keep finding myself mentioning fun bits of information and stories from it to my friends. I love food but don't always find myself engrossed by historical biographies. This was an anomaly, however, and I couldn't help but read it throughout the day at any chance I got. Feels like it'll be one of those books I'll have to keep buying copies of because I want to lend my own to everyone I know so they can read it too.

[Jordan Gilbert · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. I really liked the content but it was a bit of a dry read. I know there was a lack of source material to draw on, but it felt lacking at some points. I really liked the discussion at the end and I think if that had been woven more through the whole book it would have added a lot.

I also think I would have liked it more if I cared more about cooking, but alas I meal prep every week so I only have to cook once a week instead of every night 🤷🏼‍♀️

[Liz Mc2 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sen takes on a lot here, and as a result not all of it is fully explored—the power of the “food establishment” in journalism, for instance. This is a diverse group of women in every way, spanning much of the 20th century and with different backgrounds, careers, and fame. Sometimes the connections he makes between them seem like a bit of a stretch.

That said, this is a thoroughly enjoyable book, combining brief, lively biographies of fascinating women with a consideration of American food culture (and culture in general) and what immigrants have brought to it. I liked Sen’s approach of letting the women speak as much as he could. And I’d like to get my hands on some of the more obscure cookbooks they produced.

[Ash · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is not a memorable book. It fell specifically into my wheelhouse niche love or food related, women based non-fiction, and somehow just didn't land.

It came through libby as a general content, adult non-fiction recommendation but read YA.
Had I been expecting YA, maybe I would have appreciated this.

[Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked up this book after I heard that my friend Chris was discussing the book with the author at Newburyport Literary Festival this year. A biography of seven immigrant women who changed food and cooking in America sounded perfect to me.

I listened to the audiobook version. The performance was excellent. The writing was great. The book discusses the life of seven women in detail with a brief interlude for Julia Child (not an immigrant but hugely influential.) The only other person I knew of was Marcella Hazan. The others were completely unfamiliar to me but their lives were fascinating. These women came from China, Italy, France, Mexico, Jamaica, Iran, and India. Their names many not be well known today, but their influence is clear from the painstaking research in this book. They battled against ignorance and prejudice to bring their recipes and food to the world. What suprised me (though probably shouldn’t) was that many of the women fell into cooking and it wasn’t their first choice of career. But they taught, and wrote cookbooks, and started restaurants, and established their cuisines in the United States.

If you’re like me and love books about food and cooking, you have to pick this one us. You could devour this in one bite, or savor each section over time. Either way, the book is delicious.▪️

[Emma · Rating 5 out of 5]

Taste Makers: Seven Immigrant Women Who Revolutionized Food in America was a gripping read that managed to be both expansive in scope yet intimate. Sen does an incredible job placing the reader inside the lives of the seven women. I really liked the use of Julia Child as a means of viewing how a chef's relationship with the food establishment and food media shaped the trajectory of her career. Each profile left me with a lot to think about in terms of who gets a big platform in the food space and why.

Taste Makers was really informative and deeply engrossing. I absolutely recommend it to lovers of food and history.

[T · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars rounded up to 4. My biggest point of contention is this book was too short! The profiles on each of these amazing ladies felt too brief. During the chapter on Chao Yang Buwei alone, I found myself googling all sorts of things. Obviously, it isn’t meant to be an exhaustive tome, yet alone one so centered around history. However, food and history directly impact one another and context is key.

tl;dr immigrants - especially immigrant women - get the job done.

[Frances Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting idea, unevenly written. Some chapters were riveting, others quite dry.

The case the author makes that these women "revolutionized food in America" is not all that strong, except for maybe Marcella Hazan.

[Nusrah Javed · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a brilliant work of food journalism. Cannot recommend it highly enough.

[Callie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is fascinating, a quick read and got me so curious about many food institutions, writers, cookbooks and history. A nonfiction book that gets you EVEN more interested to read on the topic is probably the most impressive thing you can do in the genre.

[Carey · Rating 4 out of 5]

**3.5/5 stars**

Taste Makers felt almost like an insider exclusive of the women's culinary scene throughout the 20th century and I loved it for all the juicy bits about what the food world was like! The seven women chosen were each fascinating in their own ways, but I especially loved the sections on how most of these women brought international cuisine to American tastebuds and the response of this culinary shift. I always find the intersection of food and culture interesting, but the framework of these elements with immigration experiences here worked well.

Having said that, I do think there was quite a bit of room for further exploration of both the personal lives of the women as well as other aspects of their professional careers. As noted in the Afterword, the author was working with limited resources for some of the women. However, for some of the more well-known figures featured I think including more information would help flesh out their lives and culinary influence in a broader context. Furthermore, I was slightly disappointed when the author mentioned wanting to include Desta Bairu to discuss how Eritrean and Ethiopian food came to the US, but not having enough sources to do so. I understand the limitations from a research perspective, yet, it feels like such a missed opportunity to have no African female chefs represented in this work.

Another issue I had was that this book felt more like a collection of articles rather than a cohesive narrative. In the Introduction, the author states their intent and goals for this book and I don't think he had strong connections back to his main argument. There also needed to be better connections drawn between the women as there were times where obvious connections weren't addressed and other times where connections drawn by the author seemed rather arbitrary. For example, I noticed late into one chef's section that two other chefs who were also main subjects in the book were alive and in the culinary world at the same time, but the connection being made by the author was to Julia Child instead of the other two authors. It would have been much more impactful to discuss the intersection of these women's lives and careers instead of approaching them in such an individualized way.

Overall, this was still an incredibly enjoyable read. I certainly learned a lot about the culinary world these women were navigating and about the history of more diverse foods being incorporated into American diets. Structural and narrative issues aside, I think this is a great introduction to food journalism for those new to the genre and I hope this author returns to the food journalism world to write more stories like these because I am eager to read more long-form works by them!

[Rachel · Rating 1 out of 5]

A true disappointment. The idea is great and I like the women they chose to focus on but the writing is poor and convoluted.

Some chapters were marginally better than others but they often drew what seemed like tenuous connections and conclusions about the women. To focus on one section--They talk about Julie’s (the author refers to all the women by their first names) microwave cookbook but then a few pages later draws the conclusion Julie didn’t get respect as a cook because Americans wanted quick, easy Indian recipes. What could be quicker and easier than food made in a microwave? The author also talks about the “high profile celebrity” Sean Lennon going to Julie’s restaurant between 1984-1986 when he would have been an elementary school student. Of course, a child can dine out but surely he would have been with his very famous mother or some caretaker? He wasn’t going to the Nirvana Club One with Duran Duran and Pointer Sisters as the author implies. How did that slip through? What else is just wrong or misinterpreted?

The thread of these women largely starting to be interested in cooking after marriage and often after having other major interests and even careers outside of the food industry was never remarked on which seems like a massive missed opportunity. I would have liked some reflection on the age of the women at the time of their success as well. Largely they were not particularly young women with little formal training yet had great success in a male-dominated industry.

I really tried not to nitpick but it was tough, especially for a book that was supposedly fact-based. The issues were so glaring and odd. Way too many to list here.

Where was the editor? Was this rushed to print as some mea culpa for all of the recent wrongdoing in the food world? I can’t figure out what went wrong here.

These women deserved so much better. I go into more detail on my blog.

[MaryBeth · Rating 2 out of 5]

As a woman that loves to cook, I was excited to read this book, it was going to present the story of 7 immigrant women who helped shaped American food. Sadly, I was disappointed. The author’s telling of these women’s stories was lifeless and uninspiring. It felt like he was more concerned with telling you about his process of how he researched their stories then about creating interest in these women. He was very fair in representing the marginalization of these immigrants and their foods in America and how they helped break through that. But, he injected more life into the tidbits about Julia Child (who wasn’t one of the featured women) then he did for his subjects.

[Katie Esh · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book acknowledges at several times that the limiting of their voices impacted the amount of source material he had access to, so I recognize that this leads to a dryer more factual recollection of their contributions. However, title is misleading to me as I’m not sure writing an acclaimed cookbook equates to revolutionizing America’s food. I did enjoy learning about the women (Elena and Madeleine’s chapters being the ones I enjoyed most).

[Emily Panzero · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was interesting learning about these incredible women and their impact on the American food scene. The writing was a bit academic for my taste, and I spaced out a bit at times. I do feel inspired to cook more though, and now I have some great recipe ideas!

[Grace · Rating 4 out of 5]

I mean, it's about my three favorite subjects (immigrants, women, food), so I was never not going to like this book. I learned a lot and appreciated the fact that I had never heard of the subjects. I did think the structure of the material was a little under-edited; the introduction mentioned that it would juxtapose these seven women with Julia Childs via an interlude, since she's sort of the untouchable elephant woman in the food-in-America room. However, in addition to this mini-chapter (which was sort of stuck haphazardly in the middle), each of the women was also described in relation to one of her contemporaries. This got confusing because I not only was also meeting each of the women for the first time in her chapter, I was then introduced to the specifics of another cook from the same time period and the same part of the world, usually another woman. Furthermore, if I were editing this book, I would have removed half of the instances of each of the following words: American food media, glossies, and legible. It kind of read like a collection of independent essays. But, I cannot help myself, I really liked it.

P.S. I also thought that Sen's use of the term "immigrant" was interesting...he uses it to describe both Julia Childs ("reverse-immigration" is what he calls her return to the United States, not repatriation) and Norma Shirley, the final subject, who returned to Jamaica after a time in the U.S. I wonder if he's trying to create like a more equitable use of the term; I remember on social media a while ago when the question was raised, why do we refer to people of color as immigrants and white people as expats? But the term being applied to both of them, I think, really misrepresents both of their experiences: it underemphasizes Julia's privilege as the wife of a diplomat who had a lot of mobility and lived in not only France but also Germany and Norway and it similarly undersells Norma's agency in living abroad in multiple countries (Europe and the U.S.) and ultimately choosing to return to her country of origin, not just at the end of her life, but for the last 25 years of it. This is just my personal thought on the lack of specificity around these two terms.

[Lindsey · Rating 4 out of 5]

✨ Review ✨ Taste Makers: Seven Immigrant Women Who Revolutionized Food in America by Mayukh Sen

This book gives us "America’s modern culinary history told through the lives of seven pathbreaking chefs and food writers." The book includes "portraits of figures including Mexican-born Elena Zelayeta, a blind chef; Marcella Hazan, the deity of Italian cuisine; and Norma Shirley, a champion of Jamaican dishes."

Pros: I loved that this book took us beyond Julia Child in thinking about how women have influenced the culinary history of the U.S., in particular thinking about the role of ethnic food and its perceptions by different U.S. communities as well as immigration, culinary writers, and so much more. It introduced me to amazing chefs and cookbook authors who I hadn't heard of before.

Cons: this book is pretty dense. Anything that includes biographies of so many people gives you sort of a whirlwind tour of a life, and then begins again with the next person. I think it can be hard to transition from person to person in that way. At times it also felt a bit name-droppy -- not in power move as much as a contextualization move -- but all of the names, book names and dates, etc. felt a little overwhelming.

I really liked what this book was trying to do, and overall I enjoyed it, but it also left me feeling a little overwhelmed. I'm glad I finally picked this one up and gave it a listen!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre: non-fiction, food history, gender history

Thanks to W. W. Norton & Company and #netgalley for an advanced e-copy of this book!

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

I double dipped with this one, reading during my errands run this weekend and finding time to read in the quiet. This novel offers a small take on seven women (Mexican, Iranian, Chinese, Indian, French, Italian, Jamaican, all from different walks of life) and their important contributions to the food industry during a vast span of decades. I’m definitely sad to say that I knew none of this women had such prolific profiles until reading this. I now am staring at my own kitchen, trying to see if I can come up with anything half as tantalizing as these women managed to do in their respective careers. This is less than two hundred pages and offers great insight into women I wish I learned about sooner

[Justin (Bubbas_Bookshelves) · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 rounded up
Although this book was short, it certainly was mighty. Each of the 7 women in this book helped bring their home countries and cultures into American kitchens and aided in revolutionizing American gastronomy forever. Having just read Taste by Stanley Tucci and My life in Paris by Julia Child I was slightly let down by the author’s Wikipedia-like account of each woman. I felt at times it seemed like an article about them and not a true portrayal of the obstacles and hardships they faced as immigrants trying to survive in America. Overall a decent food memoir of 7 brave women who brought the world to America.

[Tram · Rating 3 out of 5]

More like a 3.5.

I really enjoyed the concept of this book. It served as an introduction to seven formidable immigrant female home-cooked and restauranteurs. The essays were brief and skimmed the surface of their careers. I would have loved more insight into their lives and successes and joys.

The author highlighted how these women couldn't get away from being attributed as the "Julia Child" of their respective home countries, but also reinforced that idea. I have no idea how many times she was referenced but in addition to her own insert chapter, it was a ton.

These women made such a mark on cooking and so many of their accomplishments were swept under the rug or credited to white Americans or male cooks who followed them.

The author also does a good but v brief afterword on these themes of assimilation, necessity, belonging, and sexism, and I would have loved to have seen an expansion of this.

Overall, a good introduction, and maybe its a full biography that I want.

[Dani · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to love this book more than I did. I have been anxious to get my hands on it since I saw it featured on the NYTs before its release. It covers two of my strongest interests - food and women breaking barriers.

Unfortunately this book could have used a stronger edit - the writing is choppy, didn't flow very well, and was sometimes just cheesy. I think the author was going for a story-teller vibe, but it ended up reading like a list of facts sprinkled with opinions and semi-intellectual cultural analysis. The writing style took away a lot from the women's stories because of how poor it was. Because of that, I didn't feel a great connection to the text or women.

The one chapter that really stood out to me and I think was better written was Najmieh Batmanjlij's chapter. I learned a lot and was moved by her story. Because of that, I will be making Javaher Polow this week :)