Hesser was born in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. After graduating with a degree in economics and finance from Bentley College in 1993, she studied cooking in Europe. With a grant from Les Dames d'Escoffier, she worked in bakeries and restaurants in Germany, Switzerland, Italy and France.

She spent two years in France, where she worked for Anne Willan, the founder of Ecole de Cuisine La Varenne. It was during this time that Hesser's writings started appearing in newspapers and magazines, including The Washington Post.

After finishing her first book, in 1997, Hesser was hired as a food reporter for The New York Times. Hesser has since written about the influence of Costco on the wine industry. She has uncovered the politics behind the New York City Greenmarket. And she was the first reporter at a major publication to write about Ferran Adria of El Bulli in Spain.

Early in her career at the paper, she wrote a controversial story in which she examined the failings of the popular chef Emeril Lagasse.

Hesser applied for a buyout from the Times in late March 2008 and is no longer with the newspaper. She continues to write her "Recipe Redux" feature for the Times magazine.There is a chapter about her in Julie Powell’s book Julie & Julia.

Hesser lives in Brooklyn Heights with her husband, Tad Friend, a staff writer for The New Yorker, and their two children.

Books

• The Cook and the Gardener (W. W. Norton & Company, 1999)
• Cooking for Mr. Latte: A Food Lover's Courtship, with Recipes (W. W. Norton & Company, 2004) [Collected Food Diary columns she wrote from 2000-2002]
• Eat, Memory: Great Writers at the Table, a Collection of Essays from the New York Times (W. W. Norton & Company, 2009) [Edited 26 previously published essays]
• The Essential New York Times Cookbook: Classic Recipes for a New Century (W. W. Norton & Company, 2010)

Anthologized Works

• Women Who Eat (2003)
• Best Food Writing (2002, 2004)
• The Art of Eating (2004)
• Alone in the Kitchen with an Eggplant (2007)

International Association for Culinary Professionals' Literary Food Writing Award for both The Cook and the Gardener and Cooking for Mr. Latte: A Food Lover's Courtship, with Recipes