Betty Ellen Fussell (née Harper; born July 28, 1927) is an American writer[1] and is the author of 12 books, ranging from biography to cookbooks, food history and memoir.

Her memoir, My Kitchen Wars, was performed in Hollywood and New York as a one-woman show by actress Dorothy Lyman.

Her most recent book is Eat Live Love Die,[4] and she is now working on How to Cook a Coyote: A Manual of Survival.

[5][6] Fussell has traveled widely throughout Europe, the Near East, Africa, India, China, Russia, Latin America, Southeast Asia.

She has lectured on American food history at many venues, such as the Natural History Museum of the Smithsonian; Metropolitan Museum of Art in NY; Princeton University Art Museum; New York Historical Society; Radford University; New York University; New School University; Cornell University; Dartmouth College; AIWF National Conferences at the Smithsonian in Washington DC, in Boston, Miami, New York; AIWF branches at Washington DC, Santa Barbara, Chicago, Houston, Dallas, Cleveland; IACP National Conferences in San Francisco, Philadelphia, Portland, Phoenix, Montreal, Baltimore; Workshop for Professional Food Writers in West Virginia; keynote address to National Association for Interpretation in Cleveland; Nestle International in Ohio; Culinary Historians of New York, of Boston; Friends of Schlesinger Library in Cambridge; Cambridge School of Culinary Arts; Boston University; Johnson & Wales University; Institute of Culinary Education, French Culinary Institute, James Beard Foundation, Culinary Institute of America, New York University, The Mercantile Library, YMHA, Coffee House Club, National Arts Club, Dutch Treat Club, Century Association, Cosmopolitan Club.

Her essays on literature, theater, movies, comedy, travel, and food have appeared in a variety of publications, including The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The New Yorker, Holiday, Travel and Leisure, Connoisseur, Vogue, Savvy, Lear’s, Cosmopolitan, Journal of Gastronomy, Food Arts, Wine and Food, Bon Appetit, Cooking Light, Redbook, Ladies Home Journal, More, Kitchen Gardener, Metropolitan Home, Saveur, Gourmet, Living History, American Horticulturist, Countryside Magazine.