Beatrice Ojakangas was born in Floodwood, Minnesota in 1934. She was the eldest of Ted and Esther Luoma’s ten children. Her love of cooking evolved from the 4-H clubs she participated in from age twelve to twenty-one; she still has a strong love of food today. Ojakangas’s success in cooking began early on, as she won many 4-H competitions. She used these triumphs to feed a passion and earned a degree in Home Economics at the University of Minnesota. Her talent led her down many diverse career paths all within the food industry. Ojakangas gained experience as a cook, teacher, food stylist, food magazine editor, restaurant owner, newspaper columnist, and television show hostess. Throughout her decades of success, Ojakangas’s skills and talents for writing cookbooks were noticed by many. Ojakangas was featured in many magazines and had published five successful cookbooks before publishing The Best of the Liberated Cook in 1981. To date, Ojakangas has written more than thirty cookbooks. She was known for having a theme for each book such as fondue, Finnish cooking, or cooking with technology.  She married Dick Ojakangas and together they had three children who she thanks for always being excited to try the strange recipes she had created. Ojakangas’s diverse career from cook to author and everything in-between has led her to become a household name throughout Minnesota, the Finnish community, and many others within the cooking industry.