Janet McKenzie Hill

Janet McKenzie Hill was an American food writer, editor, and teacher born in Westfield, Massachusetts, in 1852. She became known as an early advocate of culinary reform and scientific cooking, writing at a time when many cooks were looking for more reliable, carefully explained recipes.

She studied at the Boston Cooking School and later founded the Boston Cooking-School Magazine in 1896, editing it for many years. Through that work and through books such as The Up-To-Date Waitress, Practical Cooking and Serving, and The Whys of Cooking, she helped translate domestic-science ideas into useful advice for home kitchens.

Her writing is remembered for treating cooking as something that could be taught, tested, and improved rather than left to guesswork. That practical spirit helped shape early twentieth-century American food writing, and her work still offers a window into the rise of modern home cooking.