author

Evora Bucknum Perkins

A pioneer of early vegetarian cooking, this American educator and restaurateur wrote practical, welcoming recipes to make meatless meals feel appealing and everyday. Her work grew out of lecture courses in hygienic cookery and a broader mission of health reform.

1 Audiobook

The Laurel Health Cookery

The Laurel Health Cookery

by Evora Bucknum Perkins

About the author

Born in 1851 and active into the early 20th century, Evora Bucknum Perkins was an American educator, cookbook author, restaurateur, and missionary associated with the Seventh-day Adventist Church. She worked in the temperance and vegetarian movements, teaching and lecturing on cookery and hygiene and helping bring health-focused food ideas to a wider public.

She is best known for The Laurel Health Cookery (1911), a cookbook centered on "non-flesh foods" prepared in appetizing, practical ways. The book reflects her goal of sharing everyday methods rather than technical theory, and it helped present vegetarian cookery as both approachable and nourishing.

Perkins died in 1929, but her writing still offers a vivid glimpse into an important moment in American food and health history, when diet, reform, and home cooking were closely linked.