Barbara Kafka was born Barbara Joan Poses in Manhattan, New York on August 2, 1933. She received a bachelor's degree in English literature from Radcliffe College. While her husband was attending medical school, she edited medical journals. Before becoming a food writer, she was an editor at Mademoiselle. She was a food columnist for The New York Times and Gourmet, Family Circle, and Vogue magazines.
She wrote several cookbooks including Microwave Gourmet, The Opinionated Palate: Passions and Peeves on Eating and Food, Food for Friends, Roasting: A Simple Art, Vegetable Love, and The Intolerant Gourmet: Glorious Food Without Gluten and Lactose. She received two Lifetime Achievement Awards and the Cookbook Hall of Fame Award from the James Beard Foundation. She died from complications of Parkinson's disease on June 1, 2018 at the age of 84.
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