Stand Facing the Stove: The Story of the Women Who Gave America the Joy of Cooking
By Anne Mendelson

I remember Mrs. Joy, as we all called Irma S. Rombauer, from my earliest days. I started out using her book, so I read her biography with great interest. It really captures who she was, how she worked, and how she put together the Joy of Cooking. I loved that first edition because you felt that she was there—that she was behind the stove with you. I met her once in Paris in the 1950s; I remember she was quite elderly and frail by then.