Making the World Safe for American Cookbooks
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VOLUMEVOLUME XVI, XXVIII, NUMBER NUMBER 4 4FALL FALL 2000 2012 Quarterly Publication of the Culinary Historians of Ann Arbor Making the World Safe for American Cookbooks How the American Century Assimilated French, Italian, Jewish, and Other Cuisines A housewife prepares an Italian dish in her kitchen in this photo from LIFE magazine, December 1954. Among the items on the counter are garlic and a garlic press, salt, black pepper, Ehlers Grade A oregano leaves, and a canister of Kraft grated parmesan cheese. Photo: Eliot Elisofon. REPAST VOLUME XXVIII, NUMBER 4 FALL 2012 MORSELS & TIDBITS Sherry Sundling of Chelsea, MI, a longtime CHAA equipment, and research materials; and non-functional sculpture member, is retiring from catering after 30 years in the and artwork referencing dinnerware. The collection has some business and is selling everything. Anyone who is interested special focus on Chinese dinnerware; museum director Carney, or knows someone who is starting up a restaurant or catering whose grandparents were from Ann Arbor, holds a Ph.D. in company is welcome to contact her at Asian art history, especially ceramics. For more information, [email protected], or to check out her online visit http://www.dinnerwaremuseum.org or contact Dr. Carney at listings on Ann Arbor Craigslist (search there for “catering”). [email protected] or tel. 607-382-1415. Sherry notes enticingly, “It’s just like Christmas in my house and garage!”. Sherry will be speaking to the CHAA about her In conjunction with Julia Child’s birthday centennial earlier catering career on January 20 (see calendar, page 24). this year, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C., has established a permanent new Margaret Carney announces progress in establishing The exhibit, “Food: Transforming the American Table 1950-2000”. Dinnerware Museum in Ann Arbor, which will celebrate a The 3800-square-foot exhibit, curated by Paula Johnson, is the significant aspect of our daily lives. A grand opening is museum’s first major installation on food— although one part of envisioned for April 2013 in a location yet to be determined. it, Child’s personal kitchen from Cambridge, MA, has been on The museum’s collection includes industrially designed and display since 2002. Other sections of the exhibit include “New manufactured pieces; one-of-a-kind dinnerware items and and Improved!”, on TV dinners and other home convenience accessories created from ceramics, glass, metal, paper, foods, supermarkets, fast-food restaurants, and innovations such plastic, lacquer, and wood; archival materials from individual as food additives, microwave ovens, and the Veg-O-Matic; artists, designers, and companies, including photographs, “Resetting the Table”, on the influences of Latino and other advertisements, personal and company records, immigrant groups, the backyard cookout craze, the natural food movement, and gourmet food purveyors; and “Wine for the Table”, on the development of the Napa Valley wine industry and associated technologies. As centerpiece, an 18-seat table invites visitors to sit down and share their own food memories with one another. ISSN 1552-8863 We can’t let this calendar year go by without noting some Published quarterly by the sweet centennials: Culinary Historians of Ann Arbor (CHAA) Both Oreo and Lorna Doone cookies were introduced in 1912 by the National Biscuit http://www.culinaryhistoriansannarbor.org Company, later renamed Nabisco. The Oreo Biscuit, An archive is available at http://cooks.aadl.org/cooks/repast manufactured in the Chelsea factory district of Manhattan, was intended to compete against the Editor……………….…….…..……Randy K. Schwartz similar Hydrox cookie that had been launched by CHAA Presidents……….Joanne Nesbit and Judy Steeh the Sunshine brand four years earlier. Over the past CHAA Program Chair...……………Laura Green Gillis century, the Oreo has been the best-selling cookie in CHAA Treasurer………..…………..……Dan Longone the U.S. Lorna Doone, an imitation of Scottish CHAA Website Editor…..………………….Kim Bayer shortbread, was named after the popular Victorian CHAA Founder and Honorary President…Jan Longone novel Lorna Doone, whose title character is a member of a Scottish clan. In the same year, Crosby Mint was founded in St. The material contained in this publication is copyrighted. Passages may be copied or quoted provided that the source is credited. Johns, MI, by J. E. Crosby, Sr. A succession of four generations has overseen the Crosby farm and its For submissions or inquiries about Repast, contact: distillery, which produces essential oils used as Randy K. Schwartz medicinals and for confectionery and other 1044 Greenhills Drive flavoring. This company is still in business Ann Arbor, MI 48105-2722 (www.getmint.com or tel. 800-345-9068). St. Johns tel. 734-662-5040 is situated in Clinton County, just north of Lansing, [email protected] whose soil and climate have made it a longtime Subscriptions are $20/year. To subscribe to Repast or leader in the cultivation of both peppermint and to become a CHAA member (which includes a spearmint. subscription), contact one of our Presidents: On the Back Burner: We invite ideas and submissions for M. Joanne Nesbit and Judy Steeh Repast, including for these planned future theme-issues: tel: 734-213-2412 / 734-665-5813 Civil War Sesquicentennial, Part 4 (Winter 2013); Historical [email protected] African-American Cooking (Spring 2013); American Or download a membership form from the web address Cookery at the Turn of the Century (Summer 2013); given at the top of this box. Formative Food Experiences (Fall 2013). Suggestions for future themes are also welcome. 2 REPAST VOLUME XXVIII, NUMBER 4 FALL 2012 RIPPLES IN THE SOUTH ASIAN COMMUNITY Our two recent issues on “Food Customs of India” (Winter and Spring 2012) created wider ripples than usual, thanks to some help from supporters in the South Asian community. Zilka Joseph, who is Academic Affairs Program Manager at the Univ. of Michigan’s Center for South Asian Studies (CSAS), and who wrote three poems that were included in the Spring issue, suggested to editor Randy Schwartz that the two issues could be used to increase awareness of our publication in the community. With her encouragement, Schwartz put together a promotional flyer about the issues, and Mrs. Joseph sent this out to CSAS’s large e-mail list. One of those who responded to the e-mailing was Anique Newaz, a Univ. of Michigan alumna in South Asian Studies, now a homemaker and an independent researcher and writer. She and her husband Golam, a professor of mechanical engineering at Wayne State Univ. in Detroit, soon joined CHAA, and Anique participated in our theme meal in August. Mr. and Mrs. Newaz are originally from the Dhaka area, in what is now the nation of Bangladesh. Anique is the author of The Best of Bangladeshi Cuisine (Dhaka, 2010). That book consists of her selection, translation, and adaptation of recipes from the 1965 cookbook written by her aunt, Tayyeba Huq, Shasthya, Khadya o’ Ranna, the earliest Bangla cookbook. Photo: Randy Schwartz Schwartz had purchased Anique’s book a year ago at the Om Market on Plymouth Road and was highly appreciating it, with no Asst. Prof. Mahaveer Swaroop Bhojani and his inkling that the author lives only two blocks away from him! wife Sumi sold copies of Repast to customers at their health food restaurant, Hut-K Chaats. Mrs. Joseph and Mr. and Mrs. Newaz suggested selling Repast via local Indian-owned restaurants and groceries, and offered advice about the best ones to approach. As a result, Also this Summer, Veronica “Rani” Sidhu of Scotch Schwartz was able to get copies of the two issues displayed for Plains, NJ, who wrote about traditional Punjabi and Sikh sale, on a consignment basis, at three Ann Arbor establishments cooking in the Winter issue, contacted Schwartz with the this past Summer. news that she and her husband, both 1963 graduates of the Hut-K Chaats, a restaurant on Packard Road, is owned Univ. of Michigan, were about to make a visit to Ann Arbor by Swaroop and Sumi Bhojani, who are Jain immigrants and wanted to give a talk there. Schwartz suggested that she from the northwestern Indian state of Rajasthan. contact Debbie Gallagher at the Ann Arbor District Library Swaroop, an assistant professor at the Univ. of Michigan to be added to their ongoing series of presentations. Medical School, and his wife Sumi, a Montessori school teacher, founded this eatery to sell vegetarian versions of Rani’s talk and tasting, “Health Benefits of Indian snack foods, called chaats (literally, “licks”). Swaroop, Spices”, was held at the downtown library on Sep. 10 and who had received a diagnosis of diabetes a couple of drew a sizeable audience, including CHAA members years ago, has completely re-formulated traditional Schwartz and Marionette Cano. Also among the audience chaats based on his knowledge of health and nutrition, were some members of a two-year-old cooking group led by hence the name “Hut-K”, Mumbai slang for “cool, Ann Arbor collage artist Carol “Toots” Morris different, out of the ordinary”. ([email protected]); about 10 participants meet 2-3 times a The Om Market, in Plymouth Mall, is a grocery owned year at Carol’s home, near Burns Park, for a Punjabi potluck by Vipin and Surekha Patel, from the northwestern dinner using recipes from Rani’s cookbook, Menus and Indian state of Gujarat. (The family also owns the Curry Memories from Punjab: Meals to Nourish Body and Soul Up restaurant and the Wine Seller, all located in the (Hippocrene, 2009). Numerous signed copies of the book, same mall.) and copies of the India-theme issues of Repast, were sold at Foods of India and the Kitchen of India are a grocery Rani’s talk.