- A gourmet cooking chief.
- Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives". Volume One, 1981-1985, pages 53-56. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1998.
- Pictured on one of a set of five nondemominated USA commemorative postage stamps honoring Celebrity Chefs, issued 26 September 2014. Price on day of issue was 49¢. Others honored in this set are Julia Child, Joyce Chen, Edna Lewis, and Felipe Rojas-Lombardi.
- In 1939 he launched a catering business called Hors d'Oeuvre Inc. in New York City with the Berlin cookbook author Bill Rhode.
- In 1961 he met Julia Child and helped promote her book 'Mastering The Art Of French Cooking.".
- In 1940 he began authoring cookbooks for Barrows & Co. starting with "Hors D'Oeuvre & Canapes With A Key To The Cocktail Party.".
- Upon his death he left his estate to Reed College.
- His mother Elizabeth was a closeted boarding house owner who married his father with the sole intention of having a child, James, at the age of 42.
- Attended Reed College in 1920 where he studied theater and opera. He was expelled at the end of his freshman year after he was caught in flagrante delicto with a male professor. In 1976 Reed College made amends and gave him an honorary degree.
- In 1955 he launched his cooking school.
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