Melissa Clark Biography

Melissa Clark is an American food writer and cookbook author. Since 2007, she has been a food columnist for The New York Times. She has written more than 40 cookbooks.

Melissa Clark Age

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Other Personalities: Taylor Clark

Melissa Clark Height

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Melissa Clark Education

The daughter of two psychiatrists, Clark is a third-generation Brooklynite, growing up in the Ditmas Park neighborhood. Her parents were avid home cooks, influenced by Julia Child. As a child, Clark spent the month of August with her family each year in Provence, France. Clark is Jewish.

Clark attended Stuyvesant High School and then Barnard College, where she studied English and history and wrote a thesis on the role of food in Don Quixote. She earned an MFA from Columbia University, where she took a food writing class taught by Betty Fusse.Stuyvesant High School is a specialized high school in New York City, United States. Operated by the New York City Department of Education, these specialized schools offer tuition-free accelerated academics to city residents. Stuyvesant is a college-preparatory high school.

Stuyvesant was established as an all-boys school in the East Village of Manhattan in 1904. An entrance examination was mandated for all applicants starting in 1934, and the school started accepting female students in 1969. Stuyvesant moved to its current location at Battery Park City in 1992 because the school had become too large. The old building now houses several high schools.Admission to Stuyvesant involves passing the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test. Every March, the 800 to 850 applicants with the highest SHSAT scores out of the around 30,000 eighth- and ninth-graders who apply to Stuyvesant are accepted.

Melissa Clark Recipes

Blackberry Jam Crostata

With a press-in-the-pan buttery cookie crust and a tangy jam filling that’s topped with almonds and Demerara sugar, this crostata is simple, homey and utterly delightful. A touch of whole-wheat flour gives the crust complexity and a gentle nutty flavor, while homemade blackberry jam spiked with lemon verbena makes the confection festive enough for guests. This recipe is adapted from Elizabeth Minchilli, a food writer in Rome, who often buys excellent-quality cherry jam for the filling. If you’d like to substitute store-bought jam, use 1 1/2 cups.

Featured in: Satisfying As A Pie, But As Easy As Cookies. NGREDIENTS
FOR THE FILLING:
3 cups/340 grams blackberries
1 cup/125 grams blueberries
¾ cup/150 grams granulated sugar, plus more as needed
2 teaspoons minced fresh lemon verbena (optional)
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice, plus more as needed
½ teaspoon grated lemon zest
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
⅓ cup sliced almonds
Demerara sugar, for sprinkling
FOR THE CRUST:
1 ½ cups/190 grams all-purpose flour
¾ cup/95 grams whole-wheat flour
12 tablespoons/170 grams unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks), softened
½ cup/100 grams granulated sugar
2 large egg yolks, at room temperature
1 tablespoon finely grated lemon zest
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ teaspoon fine sea salt
¼ teaspoon almond extract

PREPARATION
Make the jam: In a medium saucepan, stir together blackberries, blueberries, sugar and lemon verbena, if using. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally at first, then more frequently as the mixture starts to bubble and reduce.When mixture has reduced and looks syrupy (about 30 minutes total), stir in lemon juice and zest. Taste and add sugar if necessary. (This depends on how sweet your berries were to begin with.) Cook for 3 minutes longer, stirring frequently to prevent burning. When the jam is thickened and shiny but still slightly runnier than you expect jam to be, take it off the heat; it will continue to thicken as it cools.

Scrape jam into a bowl or heatproof container, stir in vanilla and let cool to room temperature. Taste and stir in a little more lemon juice if the jam seems very sweet. At this point, the cooled jam can be chilled for up to 1 week.Make the dough: In a medium bowl, whisk together all-purpose and whole-wheat flours, and set aside. In a second bowl and using an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in egg yolks, lemon zest, vanilla, salt and almond extract until combined, then beat in flour mixture.

Scoop 1/2 cup of the dough into a bowl or container, cover and chill. Transfer remaining dough to a 9- or 10-inch tart pan and use floured fingers to press evenly into bottom and sides. Chill crust in the refrigerator for at least 20 minutes.When ready to bake, heat oven to 350 degrees. Spread jam evenly into crust, then using your fingers, crumble reserved 1/2 cup dough over jam. Sprinkle with almonds and Demerara sugar.Bake until golden, 38 to 48 minutes. Let cool completely to room temperature before serving.

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Melissa Clark New York Times

In her early career, Clark was a freelance writer for various publications, including the New York Times, and worked in “front of house” jobs at restaurants. In 2007, she began her weekly “A Good Appetite” column at The New York Times, She became a full-time staff writer at the Times in 2012, writing about 65 recipes each year for the newspaper. Clark has frequently described herself as “an advocate for the home cook” and “the voice of the home cook” in interviews.

In 2015, Clark gained attention for a recipe for guacamole with green peas that she had reported on a few years earlier (the recipe was created as a collaboration between chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten and chef de cuisine Ian Coogan for Vongerichten’s restaurant ABC Cocina); the piece was re-tweeted by The New York Times and attracted viral feedback, including tweets from President Barack Obama and former Governor of Florida Jeb Bush, who all disapproved of her addition of peas to the traditional recipe ingredients. Clark’s most favored ingredient is anchovies, which she praises for their versatility.

Clark has written more than 40 cookbooks, including Braise: A Journey Through International Cuisine (2007), with Daniel Boulud; East of Paris with David Bouley; The Last Course: The Desserts of Gramercy Tavern with Claudia Fleming, the former pastry chef at Gramercy Tavern in New York; and Cook This Now (2011), which focuses on seasonal cooking. Clark’s cookbook Dinner: Changing the Game won an award in 2018 from the International Association of Culinary Professionals.