Laura Mason (1957–2021) was an author and food historian whose career started in researching and helping to draft articles for Alan Davidson’s Oxford Companion to Food (first published 1999), Laura’s work has explored many corners of the British food psyche. Why do sweets and confectionery have such a over the nation? What can be revealed about the ‘traditions’ of food in Britain by applying EU criteria to items as diverse as mint sauce, black puddings and Sally Lunns? A love of cookery and historic cookery books, a background in rural England (she grew up in the Yorkshire Dales), and a desire to make the past relevant to the present have led to four cookery books with the National Trust. Over the years she contributed to many radio and television programmes, taught at the Slow Food University of Gastronomy, been a Trustee for the Sophie Coe Trust, spoken at conferences both in the UK and abroad and worked as a taster for Nestlé. She was also Honorary Chairman of the organizing committee of the Leeds Symposium on Food History and Traditions.