Well-known Baton Rouge cookbook author Holly Clegg leaves behind more than delicious recipes—she’s left a blueprint on how to eat healthy for a long and full life.
Clegg died Nov. 1 in Dallas after a battle with stomach cancer. She was 64.
She published numerous health-conscious cookbooks that have sold more than a million copies, many of which are catered to people with diabetes or recovering from cancer. She even used one of her own cookbooks, Eating Well Through Cancer, to help aid her recovery during chemotherapy. She wrote it in 2001 after taking care of her father while he underwent chemo.
She made plenty of national TV appearances sharing her recipes, and she served as a spokesperson for major labels such as Betty Crocker, Tyson, Walmart and even Louisiana crawfish producers.
Clegg also contributed recipes and tips to 225 and was a monthly columnist for our sister publication, inRegister.
“I’ve always said I’ve flown under the radar. I’ve never had an agent,” Clegg said when she was announced as recipient of the Baton Rouge Epicurean Society’s Grace “Mama” Marino Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016. “It’s always been about what I love to do, and that’s cook.”
Earlier this year, inRegister profiled Clegg while she was recuperating from surgery at Houston’s MD Anderson Cancer Center. Clegg explained that she refused to ask “Why me?” throughout her cancer battle, instead choosing to use her high profile to make a difference for others with stomach cancer. She started the Holly Clegg Gastric Cancer Research Fund while at MD Anderson to help raise awareness about gastric cancers.
Find out more about Clegg’s work and how to donate to the fund at her website, healthycookingblog.com.
• “Working with Holly on our cookbook reminded me of working with a great surgeon. It mattered to her that everything was precisely measured, and that each recipe’s health info was perfectly accurate. She even took every picture of each completed recipe herself.” — Curtis Chastain, a physician at Our Lady of the Lake who co-wrote the cookbook Guy’s Guide to Eating Well with Clegg in 2018
• “Holly’s contributions to the promotion of health and nutrition in our community are unmatched.
She will be missed but never forgotten.” — Brian Dykes, president of the Baton Rouge Epicurean Society, which honored Clegg with the Grace “Mama” Marino Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016
• “Holly Clegg was a bright light, and she always brought energy and optimism to every endeavor. I knew her personally, and I worked with her professionally for 20 years. To the very end of her days, she was inspiring others (all of us!) to live fully and embrace each day. What a legacy to leave behind!”— Ashley Sexton Gordon, publisher and editor of inRegister magazine, which regularly published some of Clegg’s recipes
This article was originally published in the December 2019 issue of 225 Magazine.
