Patricia McBride Lousada, who was a founding member of New York City Ballet and interpreter of some of George Balanchine’s seminal early works and who later became a noted cookbook author, died on Jan. 8 in London. She was 89. The cause was a heart attack she had while riding her bicycle, her daughter Carla Capalbo said.

Ms. Lousada danced under the name Pat McBride with Ballet Society, which was founded in 1946 by Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein, and with the company after it was renamed New York City Ballet in 1948. She performed in works by Balanchine, Frederick Ashton, Merce Cunningham, Lew Christiansen and Jerome Robbins. (She is not to be confused with the principal dancer Patricia McBride, who joined City Ballet in 1959.)