Denise Tillar Landis has a B.A. degree in
cultural anthropology from the
State University of New York at Buffalo. She was employed as a professional contract archaeologist between 1976 and 1983, working in various locations around the country. In 1983 she met and married
James David Landis, then Editor-in-Chief of
William Morrow & Co., Inc. In 1985, she was hired by
Carol Shaw as a freelance recipe tester for
The New York Times; she held that position for over twenty-five years before leaving to publish the first international food magazine for professional and aspiring food writers, ''The Cook's Cook: A Magazine for Cooks, Food Writers & Recipe Testers''. Landis' career in the food world began when she took a short-term job testing a few recipes for Maria Guarnaschelli, a cookbook editor at
William Morrow. It evolved into a freelance job that she performed for two years before she was hired by Carol Shaw as a freelance recipe tester for the Living Section of
The New York Times, a job she held for over twenty-five years. In 2001, Michalene Busico, then Dining section editor at
The New York Times, invited Landis to begin writing for the section. Her subsequent contributions included the "Test Kitchen" column, reviews of kitchen ware, "Diner's Journal", articles for the Living section, and a Q&A food column called "Food Chain". She also taught cooking classes for children (including a three-month-long after-school class on Medieval cooking), and began writing articles on food and reviews of cooking products for the
Times and other publications. She is a member of the New York Chapter of Les Dames d'Escoffier. ==Personal life==