Little is known about Cook. After her husband was arrested for debt, she attempted to make money by writing a cook book. This work contained a poem attacking Hannah Glasse (author of the best-selling The Art of Cookery, Made Plain and Easy), with whom Cook was engaged in a lifelong feud. The DNB characterizes the poem as "a piece of appalling doggerel." Cook's poem provides an instance in which verse (for whatever reason) is a strategically-chosen medium, rather than an attempt to craft an enduring piece of literature by a committed poet.