Legendary editor Maria Guarnaschelli, the editor behind a number of influential cookbooks, nonfiction titles, and works of literature, died on Saturday, February 6, at Northwell Health Stern Family Center for Rehabilitation in Manhasset, N.Y., from complications of heart disease, according to her daughter, chef and Food Network television personality Alex Guarnaschelli. She was 79 years old.

Among the many cookbooks Guarnaschelli edited during her four-decade publishing career, she is perhaps best known for the 1997 revision of The Joy of Cooking. She worked with a number of culinary writers, including J. Kenji López-Alt (The Food Lab), Judy Rodgers (The Zuni Café Cookbook), Rose Levy Beranbaum (The Cake Bible), and Maricel Presilla (Gran Cocina Latina).