Helen Jean Anderson (October 12, 1929 – January 24, 2023) was an American cookbook author and editor.

Life and work

Anderson was born in Raleigh, North Carolina. Her father was a botany professor at North Carolina State University at Raleigh at the time of her birth, though he later moved to the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. Anderson had a BS in food and nutrition from Cornell University and a MS in journalism degree from Columbia University. She began her journalistic career at The Raleigh Times, after receiving her undergraduate degree, and started at Ladies' Home Journal as a graduate student. Anderson helped organize the James Beard Journalism Awards and for two years, co-chaired that committee. Though best known for her articles in Bon Appétit, Food & Wine, Gourmet, More, Travel + Leisure and other magazines, Anderson served as assistant food editor, then managing editor of The Ladies’ Home Journal, as contributing editor at Family Circle and Diversion magazines, as chief consulting editor for Reader's Digest cookbooks, and as food columnist for New York Newsday and the Los Angeles Times Syndicate. She was a member of the James Beard Cookbook Hall of Fame and a charter member of Les Dames d’Escoffier and the New York Women’s Culinary Alliance. Anderson wrote around 30 books, with the last being published in 2019. An authority on Portugal, its food, wine, and folk art, Anderson traveled around that country for 40 years. Her Food of Portugal was named "Best Foreign Cookbook" in the 1986 Tastemaker Awards. Anderson's food, travel, and general features won various awards, among them, the Pulitzer Traveling Scholarship, the George Hedman Travel Writing Award, and two commendations from the Portuguese government.

Personal life and death

Anderson moved back to Chapel Hill in 2007, after spending much of her adult life in New York City. She died at her home on January 24, 2023, at the age of 93.