John Becker, great-grandson of Irma Rombauer, and his wife Megan Scott will present the 2020 Savannah Book Festival Closing Address discussing the 2019 revised and updated edition of Joy of Cooking.  John grew up surrounded by the natural splendor of the Pacific Northwest. Spending his childhood between Portland, Oregon and the Becker family home in Cincinnati, John learned to appreciate a range of approaches to cooking. Influenced by his father Ethan’s improvisational style, and his mother’s love of international foods and spices, John has an insatiable curiosity when it comes to food and cooking. After earning an English degree, he helped publish seventeen collections of literary essays before dedicating himself to the family business and updating Joy for a new generation. Megan Scott started working for the Joy of Cooking in 2010, when she and John Becker met and immediately bonded over a shared love of blue cheese. Megan’s culinary education began in North Carolina, where she learned to cook from a long line of matriarchs. She grew up in a farming family, shucking corn and snapping green beans as far back as she can remember. She has been a cheesemaker’s apprentice, a baker, and an assistant pastry chef, and in addition to her work for Joy, she is the culinary director for a marketing agency that specializes in food.