Ann Cook (cookery book writer)

Ann H. Cook (fl. c. 1725 – c. 1760) was an English cookery book writer and innkeeper. In 1754 she published Professed Cookery, which went on to two further editions in her lifetime.

Living in Hexham, Northumberland, Cook, and her husband John, became embroiled in a feud with a well-connected local landowner, Sir Lancelot Allgood, following an argument over an invoice the Cooks had issued. Although they were later exonerated, Allgood continued his attack on them, forcing them to leave their inn and move. Their finances suffered and John was imprisoned for non-payment of debts. To earn money, Cook wrote Professed Cookery in 1754; in the work, in addition to a range of recipes, she included a poem and an "Essay upon the Lady's Art of Cookery". This was an attack on Allgood's half-sister Hannah Glasse, who had published a best-selling cookery book, The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy in 1747.

Further editions of Professed Cookery were published in 1755 and 1760; an edited edition, with selected recipes, was published in 1936. In the first two editions of the work, Cook was stated as living in Newcastle upon Tyne; for the 1760 third edition, she was living in lodgings in Holborn, London. There are no records of the dates or locations of her birth and death.

The second and third editions of Professed Cookery cover several areas, including a critical analysis of Glasse's work, traditional English recipes and an essay on household management that includes a biography of a friend and Cook's autobiography. The introduction, written as a poem, accuses Glasse of plagiarism and mocks her capability of being a teacher, as well as poking fun at her illegitimacy.