Legally blind home cook adapts setbacks into sheet-pan dinners.

Anne Hatton Ogden, 67, who has retinitis pigmentosa, uses her other senses and assistive tools like a guide dog, a talking scale and a smart oven to prepare sheet‑pan meals and other dishes.

Anne Hatton Ogden is a 67-year-old home cook who prepares meals while living with progressive vision loss from retinitis pigmentosa. She grew up on farmland in Pahokee, Florida, and learned to cook alongside her grandmother. As her sight declined she left a bookkeeping job after becoming print-disabled, but continued to develop her cooking. In recent years she has favored sheet‑pan cooking and shared techniques on a 2024 video podcast. Key details: - Ogden was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa at age seven and has experienced gradual vision loss. - She learned to cook in childhood on a Florida farm and later baked and delivered muffins to cousins as a young adult. - She left a bookkeeping job after losing the ability to read and became print-disabled. - She uses a guide dog named Angelo, obtained in 2022 from the nonprofit Dogs Inc., to navigate trips like grocery shopping. - Ogden relies on smell and touch when cooking and uses tools such as a talking scale, a pair of Meta Glasses to identify labels, an Amazon Echo and a smart oven to manage tasks; she also favors a sharp knife and sheet‑pan recipes. - In 2024 she appeared on the video podcast "Cooking Without Looking," demonstrating a sheet‑pan lemon garlic chicken with vegetables and fresh herbs. Summary: Ogden’s approach shows how sensory awareness and assistive technology can be combined to keep cooking accessible as vision changes. She continues to focus on sheet‑pan meals and to share her methods publicly; future activities are undetermined at this time.