Marilynn Marter, a prolific and knowledgeable food writer for more than 30 years, retired from The Inquirer a year ago.
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Marilynn Marter, Inquirer food writer, dies at 66
Marilynn Marter, 66, a retired Inquirer food writer known for her encyclopedic knowledge of nutrition, cooking, and baking, was found dead Thursday at her home in Philadelphia.
She died of cardiovascular disease, said Jeff Moran, spokesman for the city Medical Examiner's Office. He declined to give further details.
Miss Marter, who lived in the Fairmount section, retired from The Inquirer in June 2008 after three decades in the Features department, mainly writing food stories and a monthly column called "MarketBasket."
She was known for her command of the minutiae that are keys to cooking, said Gerald Etter, her editor from 1992 to 2001.
"Marilynn knew all the intricacies of cooking. It was amazing," Etter said. "She knew how it worked with the chemistry of baking, how everything came together with yeast. If you ever had a question, she could answer it. You would go to her before you would pick up a book."
Ken Bookman, who was her editor from 1982 to 1990, called Miss Marter "tenacious and detail-oriented."
"When something needed to be reported and gotten to the bottom of, she found out everything that needed to be found out. I thought she did a good job of putting together stories," Bookman said.
Bookman said Miss Marter worked hard to craft just the right phrase for the thoughts she wanted to convey. But for someone so fastidious, she was gracious about editing changes, Bookman recalled.
"She accepted editing very well, and flattered me with quite a bit of, 'Wow, that was exactly what I was trying to say,' " Bookman said.
"The Inquirer and its readers were so very fortunate to have Marilynn grace us with her knowledge and talent for more than three decades," said deputy managing editor Tom McNamara. "She was a highly skilled journalist whose writing and reporting had a major impact on the region's food scene, whether in Center City restaurants or suburban kitchens."
Articles archived in The Inquirer's electronic library show her depth, range, and productivity; there are more than 1,600 stories under her byline - and that is not her entire body of work, since her career predated digital archives.
In the first of her stories to be electronically saved, on Jan. 21, 1981, Miss Marter wrote about how to prepare fish as a quick meal; in the last, on June 12, 2008, she described how flavored bread crumbs could be adapted to various dishes.
Among the topics she wrote about in 2008 were the uses of a good vinaigrette and how Philadelphia restaurants were offering bigger portions of beef than in the past.
In 2007, Miss Marter weighed in on wine tastings and cookbooks, as well as what to make for a Jewish holiday. Her breezy style was evident in a December 2004 story on latkes.
"Certainly," she wrote, "you don't have to be Jewish to love latkes, commonly made from grated potatoes and onions and fried in oil. Or to make them."
Miss Marter was responsible for "MarketBasket," for which she would shop for the same 35 items at local groceries. She would write about what she found in terms of prices and selection; Bookman, her editor, said readers told him they found it useful.
She also wrote "Feedback," a running dialogue with readers, long before that became a trendy format.
"I thought she did a good job with that. Part of her tenacity was to find out the real answers to their questions," Bookman said.
Miss Marter maintained a quiet presence in her cubicle on the third floor of the Inquirer Building. She didn't discuss her private life with colleagues, both editors said.
She was the author of a book, Dining In - Philadelphia Cookbook.
Miss Marter loved flea markets and traveling to a time-share she owned in Williamsburg, Va. At one point, she rode a motorcycle, said a colleague, retired Inquirer food writer Elaine Tait.
Miss Marter was born and raised in the Philadelphia area. She joined The Inquirer as a clerk, then became a Features copy editor and later a food writer, Tait said.
Miss Marter is survived by a nephew. Plans for a service were incomplete.
Contact staff writer Bonnie L. Cook at 215-854-2913 or bcook@phillynews.com.
