author
Mary Randolph
1762–1828
Best known for the landmark 1824 cookbook The Virginia House-Wife, this early American food writer helped define Southern cooking in print. Her work mixed practical household advice with recipes that reflected Virginia ingredients and many cultural influences.
1 Audiobook
The Virginia Housewife; Or, Methodical Cook
by Mary Randolph
About the author
Born in Virginia in 1762, Mary Randolph came from the prominent Randolph family and later married David Meade Randolph. She is remembered above all for The Virginia House-Wife, first published in 1824, a book often described as the first important American regional cookbook.
The book was much more than a list of recipes. It gathered instructions for cooking, entertaining, and running a household, and it showed how Virginia foodways drew on local produce as well as African, European, and Native influences. That mix helped make the book one of the most influential guides to domestic life and Southern cuisine in the 19th century.
Randolph died in 1828. She is also noted in American history because she was the first person buried in the area that later became Arlington National Cemetery.