Denise Landis: the cook writes
The Best of 2023: Community
Denise Landis is the founder & CEO of The Cook's Cook.
My first career when I graduated from college was as an archeologist. I traveled around the USA working on projects, mostly short-term, at prehistoric and historic sites. What I loved most about the work as the unexpectedness of it. I never knew what surprises each day would bring, even from moment to moment, what new thing I might discover or learn. After seven years in that field, which I enjoyed immensely, my life turned in a different direction and I found myself, an unlearned home cook, advising professional chefs on how to present their recipes so that home cooks — like me — could understand and recreate what they do.
The community of professional cooks and the community of home cooks are not so different from one another. Professional cooks are not necessarily chefs – Chef is a hard-won title with deep meaning. They may be kitchen staff or food writers or recipe testers, they may have a food truck or prepare meals for a schoolfull of children.
Sharing food.
Sharing Stories.
We’re always glad to hear from readers – with questions that we can answer on this website, requests for recipes, ideas for stories.
In 2023 we started a column called “Our Featured Forum Contributors.” In 2024 we will continue to expand this column to highlight the interesting stories of the cooks who make our community such a wonderful place to gather.
At the risk of missing naming even one of our top contributors and supportive commenters, I want to thank a just few now, (and many more later!) Thanks to Neil Nijjer for his invaluable help in moderating thecookscookcommunityforum on Facebook. And Nancy Young for her guest contributions to our Instagram. Thanks to the inimitable Rose Levy Beranbaum, and to Chefs Edward Bottone and Nick Calias, for going above and beyond.
All year the members of the Facebook group, The Cook’s Cook Community Forum post such beautiful photos and recipes it’s hard to say which are my favorites. Many of them have been chosen as #FanFriday recipes, so I’ll mention just a few of them here with links to their recipes.
Smoky Beef Meatballs in a Creamy Cider Sauce
Air Fryer Parmesan Cheese Chicken Wings
Pan-Grilled Lamb Chops with Cornbread Panzanella & Peach Brown Butter
Looking Forward
In February The Cook’s Cook will be celebrating our ten year anniversary! 2024 will see us in New York City at the Tre Bicchieri tasting of Italian wines. In March we’ll be in Chicago for the International Housewares Association’s Inspired Home Show. In June we’ll be back in NYC for the Specialty Food Association’s Summer Fancy Food Show. There’s a lot more. Looking back, and looking forward, it all looks good. 
Denise Landis
Denise Landis had been employed as an archeologist for seven years before a food editor hired her to test some recipes from a cookbook manuscript. This short stint led to longer assignments, and two years later she began testing recipes for the New York Times. She has been a professional recipe tester and editor for over 25 years, is the author of a New York Times cookbook, and has written for numerous publications. She is a member of the New York Chapter of Les Dames d’ Escoffier.
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