Molly O'Neill

Molly O'Neill (October 9, 1952 - June 16, 2019) was an American food writer, cookbook author, and journalist, perhaps best known for her food column in The New York Times Sunday Magazine and Style section throughout the 1990s. Her father had been a minor league pitcher before working for North American Aviation and later running an excavation business. Her younger brother Paul O'Neill became an outfielder for the Cincinnati Reds and the New York Yankees.

Molly's early exposure to cooking came from making dinner for her brothers, at times surreptitiously to circumvent "healthier" dinners left for the children by their mother.

O'Neill earned a bachelor's degree from Denison University in Granville, Ohio. She then moved to Northampton, Massachusetts where she and eight other women opened a feminist cooperative restaurant. She studied cooking formally for eight weeks at l'École de Cuisine La Varenne, one of the first cooking schools in Paris to offer instruction in both English and French. After moving to Ciro & Sal's, an Italian restaurant in Boston, O'Neill was recognized by Boston magazine as best female chef in 1982.

For many years, O'Neill lived in Rensselaerville, New York, where she hosted students for summer writing workshops as part of a program she founded called CookNScribble. She moved back to New York City as her health declined.

In July 2016, O'Neill experienced liver failure. In October 2016, she received a liver transplant, but it was later discovered that her original liver had had cancerous cells that had metastasized to her adrenal glands. Her friend, writer Anne Lamott, organized a fundraiser to help cover her medical costs. O'Neill died of complications of metastatic cancer in June 2019.

Selected bibliography

The New York Cookbook (1992) "New Mainstream: Hot Dogs, Apple Pie and Salsa" The New York Times (11 Mar 1992) A Well-Seasoned Appetite: Recipes From an American Kitchen (1995) The Pleasure of Your Company: How to Give a Dinner Party Without Losing Your Mind (1997) "Food Porn." Columbia Journalism Review. (01 Sep 2003) Mostly True: A Memoir of Family, Food, and Baseball (2006) New York, NY: Scribner. One Big Table: A Portrait of American Cooking (2010) American Food Writing: An Anthology with Classic Recipes Molly O'Neill, ed. (2007) New York, NY: Library of America