MinnPost: A modest memoir about Beatrice Ojakangas’ amazing life in food

In her first book that isn’t a cookbook — she has written 29 cookbooks, a feat that landed her in the James Beard Hall of Fame — Ojakangas tells some stories from her own life. From growing up the first of 10 children in a family of Finns in Northern Minnesota to becoming an influential writer and thinking on cooking and food culture, Ojakangas has collected some amazing stories. She wouldn’t put it that way, though.

Ojakangas_Homemade coverNow, in her first book that isn’t a cookbook — she has written 29 cookbooks, a feat that landed her in the James Beard Hall of Fame — Ojakangas tells some stories from her own life. From growing up the first of 10 children in a family of Finns in Northern Minnesota to becoming an influential writer and thinking on cooking and food culture, Ojakangas has collected some amazing stories. She wouldn’t put it that way, though.

“I didn’t set out to have any kind of special life. I just did what I wanted and needed to do, and opportunities kept coming along. But I come from people who don’t make a big deal out of things. Finns are very shy. They tend to pull back and not boast. They are just busy getting their lives together,” says Ojakangas, who has appeared on numerous TV programs and wrote a popular column for the Duluth News Tribune for many years. “But they are also very creative in their own way. The Finns that grew up rural tend to stay rural. They are not materialistic. They are not philosophical. Finns feel that they are really boring.”

Full article.

Published in: MinnPost
By: Amy Goetzman