Career
After finishing her first book, in 1997, Hesser was hired as a food reporter for The New York Times where she wrote more than 750 stories. Hesser was involved in two cases of conflict of interest while working at the Times. In 2004, she awarded the restaurant Spice Market a three-star rating without disclosing that the year before, the restaurant’s owner, Jean-Georges Vongerichten, had provided a complimentary jacket blurb for her book Latte.
In both cases, the Times subsequently pointed out the conflicts of interest with editors’ notes.
While Hesser left the Times in March 2008 to focus on the development of Food52 she continued to write the "Recipe Redux" feature for the Times magazine until February 27, 2011. Hesser was featured in Food & Wine"s 40 under 40 list, was named one of the 50 most influential women in food by Gourmet Magazine, and had a cameo as herself in the film Julie & Julia.