Amanda has designed a seventeenth-century-style herb garden at a French chateau, developed the Twitter app Plodt, and appeared in Julie & Julia, playing herself. She was recently named one of the 50 most influential women in food by Gourmet.
Amanda grew up in a family where everyone, including her father, cooked. In college, she worked at a bakery on Saturday nights and drove a truck around Boston at dawn, delivering the bread. She later picked grapes in France, made pretzels in Germany, and cleaned rabbits in Italy.
As a longtime staffer at the New York Times, Amanda has written more than 750 stories, created the columns Food Diary and Recipe Redux, and was the food editor at the Times Magazine. She has written the award-winning books Cooking for Mr. Latte and The Cook and the Gardener, and edited the essay collection, Eat, Memory. Her latest book, a New York Times bestseller and the winner of a James Beard award, is The Essential New York Times Cookbook.
Amanda lives in Brooklyn with her husband, Tad Friend, and their twin son and daughter, who by age 2 had eaten both pigeon and uni, whether they liked it or not.
Kitchen Tour (version 3.0) from Food52 on Vimeo.
Her foodisms:
Let's ask Amanda:
The Essential New York Times Cookbook
Eat, Memory: Great Writers at the Table: A Collection of Essays from the New York Times
Cooking for Mr. Latte: A Food Lover's Courtship, with Recipes
The Cook and the Gardener: A Year of Recipes and Writings form the French Countryside 
The Art of Eating
M.F.K Fisher among the Pots and Pans: Celebrating Her Kitchen
Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen
Dinner for Eight: 40 Great Dinner Party Menus for Friends and Family
Alone in the Kitchen with an Eggplant: Confessions of Cooking for One and Dining Alone
Women Who Eat: A New Generation on the Glory of Food
Best Food Writing 2004
Best Food Writing 2002
