Lorna Sass

Lorna Sass is a widely published food writer and an award-winning cookbook author. Her career in food began as a culinary historian: while studying for her PhD in medieval literature at Columbia University, Lorna wrote four historical cookbooks that were published by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Lorna became interested in pressure cooking during the mid-eighties after her vegetarian mother carted a cooker back from India and began producing delectable curries and dals in a matter of minutes. Realizing that the pressure cooker could produce “fast food” that was both nutritious and delicious, Lorna began culinary experiments that led to the publication of Cooking Under Pressure by William Morrow in 1989. Cooking Under Pressure sold briskly from the start and has been back to press 28 times, claiming best-seller status. With almost 250,000 copies in print Cooking Under Pressure is considered the bible on the subject and Lorna is considered the country’s leading authority on pressure cooking. Lorna followed Cooking Under Pressure with Great Vegetarian Cooking Under Pressure, and The Pressured Cook.

In 2005, William Morrow published Lorna’s Pressure Perfect, her definitive work on pressure cooking. This latest volume contains over 200 recipes and divulges all of the cooking secrets Lorna has developed over almost two decades of cooking under pressure. For many years, Lorna was a vegan. During this time she wrote many vegan cookbooks, including Recipes From an Ecological Kitchen (now called Lorna Sass’ Complete Vegetarian Kitchen in the paperback edition), Lorna Sass’ Short-Cut Vegetarian, The New Soy Cookbook, and The New Vegan Cookbook. Her fourteenth cookbook, Whole Grains Every Day, Every Way, was published by Clarkson Potter in November 2006 and was awarded the prestigious James Beard Award in the “healthy focus” category, reflecting her passion for an organic, health-promoting, sustainable way of eating.