Maida Heatter (September 7, 1916 – June 6, 2019) was an American pastry chef and cookbook author who specialized in baking and desserts.
Maida Heatter | |
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Born | (1916-09-07)September 7, 1916 Baldwin, New York, U.S. |
Died | June 6, 2019(2019-06-06) (aged 102) Miami Beach, Florida, U.S. |
Occupation | Cookbook author |
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Children | 1 |
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Family | Merrill Heatter (cousin) |
Heatter was born in Baldwin, New York, the daughter of radio commentator Gabriel Heatter and Saidie Heatter (née Hermalin).[1] She graduated from New York's Pratt Institute in fashion design and began a career as an illustrator of merchandising, then subsequently switching to jewellery design, and then finally becoming a baker and baking instructor.[2]
Her career as a professional cookbook author began when her skills in dessert making caught the attention of Craig Claiborne, a former food section editor of the New York Times.[2] In part through his numerous endorsements for her[3] and his suggestion to her to write her own cookbook, Heatter began her decades-long career in teaching baking and writing cookbooks.[2]
The quality of her recipes caught the attention of many prominent figures in the trade of cooking and baking,[2] garnering praise from numerous celebrity and media sources.[4] Heatter's cookbooks have been the recipient of three James Beard Foundation Awards, and she herself was inducted into the Who's Who of Food & Beverage in America in 1988. She was also inducted into the Chocolatier Magazine Hall of Fame.[5]
Heatter was married three times. In 1940, she married shoe designer David E. Evins, who was also Jewish; they had one daughter before divorcing.[6] In 1949, she married Ellis Gimbel Jr., grandson of Adam Gimbel and brother of Richard Gimbel.[7][8] In 1966, she married Ralph Daniels (died 1994).[9] Her only child, daughter Toni Evins, died in a glider accident in 1994.[8] She turned 100 in September 2016[10] and died in June 2019 at the age of 102.[11]
Before her 29-year marriage to Daniels, she was married to Ellis Gimbel, a scion of the department store family, and to David Evins, the shoe designer. Toni Evins, Heatter's only child and her daughter with Evins, died last year at 45 in a freak glider accident. Daniels died of cancer three months later.
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