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Helen Evans Brown

Helen Evans Brown
Helen Evans Brown.jpg
1961
Born Helen Oakley Evans
(1904-11-16)November 16, 1904
Brooklyn, Kings County, New York
Died December 5, 1964(1964-12-05) (aged 60)
Pasadena, California
Nationality American
Other names Helen O. Evans, Helen Comstock
Occupation chef, cookbook writer
Known for turning cookbook writing into a scholarly effort
Notable work Helen Brown's West Coast Cook Book (1952), Chafing Dish Book (1950)

Helen Evans Brown (1904–1964) was an American chef and cookbook writer. She was a nationally known expert and wrote regular food columns, as well as collecting cookbooks from other authors. She was known as the authority on the west coast food scene of the 1950s and 1960s. She was one of the first chefs to advocate using fresh produce and promoting California cuisine.

Helen Oakley Evans was born as a twin on November 16, 1904, in Brooklyn, New York, to Lucy Margaretta (née Walker) and Alfred Kinn Evans. She was the oldest child of two brothers, John W. and Allen J. Evans, and grew up in Brooklyn, New York. She studied at Connecticut College for Women and Hunter College, before continuing her education at the Yale School of Fine Arts, as an art major in 1924 and 1925. Around 1926, Evans married Stephen Comstock, with whom she had a son, William, and began running a catering business called "The Epicurean" with a friend. Comstock later opened the Brownstone House Restaurant, in New Haven, Connecticut. After around a decade of marriage, in which the couple also had a daughter, she met Phillip S. Brown, who was an uninvited guest at a dinner party Comstock hosted. The two had a whirl-wind courtship and within weeks, Phillip had convinced Comstock to move to California by way of Reno, Nevada. She left her two children with Stephen, married Brown in Nevada and then reunited with her children.

Brown began writing for the Territorial Enterprise in Virginia City as a food editor, soon establishing a name for herself as an expert critic. The couple moved on to Pasadena, California in 1937, where Brown continued writing for such magazines as House & Garden, Sunset and Woman's Day and worked as a consultant to a Hollywood bakery. Phillip started working in an antique book store, building their collection of cookbooks and served as Brown's taste-tester, research assistant, and typist.


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