Anna Thomas wrote her first cookbook The Vegetarian Epicure (1972) while still a film student at UCLA. It had a strong impact on the natural foods movement within the American counterculture.[1][2] As noted in The Roanoke Times, "for many of the young people turning to vegetarianism in the late 1960s and early 1970s, Anna Thomas was the guru in their kitchens."[3] Thomas later said that while she was a student at UCLA, she "wasn't eating much meat," and thus was focusing on vegetarian cooking. However, she states that there "weren't any good vegetarian cookbooks then. So I was just making things up in 1968 and '69, and somebody said, `Gee, Anna, you're such a good cook, you should write a cookbook.' And when you are 19 or 20 you say, `Yeah, OK, I think I will,' and then you do."[4] The success of the book was due to the fact that it turned away from the ascetic approach found in American vegetarian cookbooks,[4] and its ability to introduce pleasure to American vegetarian meals.[5][6]
Thomas has also published four additional cookbooks. Her next two books were also vegetarian: The Vegetarian Epicure, Book Two (1978) and The New Vegetarian Epicure (1996). However, her final two books included a mix of vegetarian and vegan recipes: Love Soup, and the Vegan Vegetarian Omnivore (which also included meat-based dishes).[7][8]
^Kauffman, Jonathan (2018). Hippie Food: How Back-To-The-Landers, Longhair, and Revolutionaries Changed the Way We Eat. Harper Collins. ISBN9780062437303.
^Belasco, Warren (2007). Appetite for Change: How the Counterculture Took on The Food Industry. Cornell University Press. ISBN978-0801473296.
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