Irma S. Rombauer

About the Author

Born in St. Louis in October 1877 of German stock, Irma von Starkloff Rombauer grew up and married, never expecting to earn her own living. But after her husband’s sudden death in 1930, this celebrated hostess became a cookbook author. With the publication of the first Joy of Cooking in 1931, she began a family tradition that was passed to her daughter Marion Rombauer Becker in the 1950s and to Marion’s son Ethan Becker in 1976.