Maida Heatter

Who is Maida Heatter?

Maida Heatter is a pastry chef and cookbook author who specializes in baking and desserts. The daughter of the famous radio commentator Gabriel Heatter, Maida Heatter graduated from New York's Pratt Institute in fashion design and began a career as an illustrator of merchandising, then subsequently switching to jewellery design, and then finally becoming a baker and baking instructor.

Her career as a professional cookbook author began when her skills in dessert making caught the attention of Craig Claiborne a former food section editor of the New York Times. In part through his numerous endorsements for her and his suggestion to her in writing her own cookbook, Maida Heatter began her decades-long career in teaching baking and writing cookbooks.

The quality of her recipes caught the attention of many prominent figures in the trade of cooking and baking, garnering praise from numerous celebrity and media sources. Maida Heatter's cookbooks have been the recipient of three James Beard Foundation Awards, and she herself was inducted into the Who's Who of Food & Beverage in America in 1988. She has also been inducted into the Chocolatier Magazine Hall of Fame.