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January 2020 Vol. 7, Number 10 A Life Plan Continuing Care Retirement Community Published Monthly by John Knox Village • 651 S.W. Sixth Street, Pompano Beach, Florida 33060 IN THIS MONTH’S ISSUE Cookbooks Have Been A Hot Read Chef Mark’s In Good Taste Recipe ........................ 3 Since The Beginning Book Review ....................... 3 JKVConnect ......................... 4 Beward Of Scams ............... 4 Visit Us In January ............. 5 Where Possibility Plays ...... 6 Taste Of The Good Life ...... 7 South Florida Events, Shows & Arts ....................... 8 Two of the most recent icons of cooking and cookbooks. Julia Childs on the left, and Martha Stewart right. Images source: Alamy. ArtSage Alliance Events ...... 8 People who love to eat, are always warmth of a chicken noodle soup recipe. The Doctor Is In ................. 9 I was wondering why so many are fascinated with cook- the best people. – Julia Child books while reading William Sitwell’s book, “A History of Food in 100 Recipes.” It’s a well-researched, fun romp Live In Style ........................ 9 t might be a strange hobby to Nona Cree Smith through the history of food. Although Sitwell mentions more some, but there are millions of I than 100 recipes, he describes the cooking methods, cooks Gazette Contributor us, and the numbers are growing. and authors he considers to be the most exciting or amus- We’re the slightly dotty people who ing, like the first “recipe” painted on a wall of a Luxor tomb, enjoy recipe reading as much as a good book or story. We around 1319 B.C., which shows Ancient Egyptian bread mak- avidly search for old cookbooks, rummage through second- ing. According to Sitwell, the hieroglyphs are very conversa- hand bookstores, garage sales and visit many recipe websites tional with one baker saying to another “I do as you wish, I to satisfy our foodie reading. In our searches, we sometimes am hard at work.” score a treasure like an early Elizabeth David book, “The Robert Carrier Cookbook,” a tome of encyclopedic pro- The History Of Food Via Cookbooks portions and extraordinary recipes, or become converted to He mentions a recipe from the Old Testament (Genesis Gwyneth Paltrow’s beautifully photographed cookbooks 43:11) for tiger nut sweets and who doesn’t love pasta? It filled with strange recipes like Furikake. According to cook- made its appearance around 1100 A.D. in “Tabula Rogeriana” A General’s Thoughts ....... 10 book historian Waldo Lincoln, “in the history of Western (The Book of Roger) by Muhammad al-Idrisi. The book con- publishing, cookbooks have produced more bestsellers than NSU Art Museum ............. 10 tained a geographical map drawn of the island of Sicily. Ac- any other genre.” cording to al-Idrisi, Sicily had many estates where they manu- Like a well-written short story, a good recipe can put me Techie Learning Opps ...... 11 factured an abundance of pasta products which they exported in a foodie trance, take me to exotic places or revel in the Savvy Senior ....................... 11 See “Cookbooks” On Page 2 Train Your Brain ............... 12 The Featured Laurel–A Circle These Dates For The ArtSage Alliance Villa Home ........................ 12 web JohnKnoxVillage.com January and February Presentations JohnKnoxVillage The year is just beginning and the Marty Lee ArtSage Alliance, a cooperative artistic Gazette Contributor venture of John Knox Village (JKV), the Venetian Arts Society (VAS) and Nova Southeastern University (NSU), has a great schedule of events PAID to start 2020. JKV has a long-standing partnership with VAS, a NONPROFIT FT. LAUD, FL FT. U.S. POSTAGE PERMIT NO. 48 PERMIT ORGANIZATION South Florida fine arts organization that provides a unique op- portunity for an intimate, and interactive, artistic experience with world-class artists from the great stages of the world, stimulating conversation and a connection with artists and like-minded arts enthusiasts. Make your plans now to join in the arts celebrations in January as the ArtSage Alliance presents an Art & Antique Appraisal Fair, and a meet and greet with Author Barbara Lefka. Then in Febru- ary, the legendary operatic soprano and civil rights advocate Grace Bumbry comes to South Florida for a multi-day celebration of her life, career and social advocacy during Black History Month. Art & Antique Appraisal Fair The ArtSage Alliance invites you to “Meet Us at the Fair,” on Saturday Jan. 18 for an Art & Antique Appraisal Fair from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the John Knox Village Centre Auditorium. If you are a fan of PBS’s “Antiques Roadshow,” you will want to attend, 651 S.W. Sixth Street 651 S.W. as the knowledgeable staff from Ft. Lauderdale’s Abington Auc- Pompano Beach, FL 33060 tion Gallery will assess your valued treasures. Abington excels in John Knox Village of Florida, Inc. John Knox Village its evaluations of fine art, sculpture, jewelry, silver; mid-century The JKV ArtSage Alliance will honor legendary operatic See “ArtSage Alliance” On Page 8 star and civil rights advocate Grace Bumbry in February. Page 2 The John Knox Village Gazette January 2020 ‘There Is No Sincerer Love Than The Love Of Food’ – George Bernard Shaw From “Cookbooks” On Page 1 available to a broader to Calabria and to other Muslim and Christian re- public by the cookbooks gions. The stringy pasta they made in Trabia was of great chefs like Alexis called Itrya (spaghetti). Soyer (1809-58), whose Sitwell travels around the world, through time, and “Shilling Cookery for the at each stop gives a colorful insight into the food and People” sold more than recipes of a given period. He journeys around Chi- 100,000 copies. One of na, the Middle East, Greece and Ancient Rome and the most successful and describes the clay tablets, manuscripts and paintings popular cookbooks of all that were the means of recording the recipes. time was produced in the The most relatable recipes of the ancient world U.S. in 1896 when Fan- are from fragments of a poem “Hedypatheia” by nie Merritt Farmer took Archestratus of Gela, about 350 B.C. Archestratus on the editorship of “The traveled the ancient Greek world from the Black Sea Boston Cooking-School to southern Italy, recording their cuisines. He pre- Cook Book.” She revo- ferred simply prepared fi sh dishes cooked with light lutionized how a recipe seasonings like fresh thyme and olive oil, wrapped in was laid out in sequence, a leaf and placed on embers. Occasionally, he liked a standardized methods more complex dish with cheese sauces and pungent and measurements, thus herbs such as marjoram. assuring reliable results The Roman Empire produced “Apicius,” one of for her readers. the earliest cookbooks. It was a compilation of reci- Julia Child’s pes named after the famous Roman epicure Marcus Kitchen In uence Gavius Apicius during the 1st century A.D. Apicius According to the New was a gourmand and enjoyed hosting elaborate ban- York Times, “A self-con- quets of exotic and rare food. His lavish and extrava- fessed ham, Julia Child gant entertaining eventually led to his bankruptcy. became a darling of Ancient Oriental Cuisine audiences almost from the moment she made her One of the most fascinating treatises on ancient debut in 1963 at the age Chinese food has the amusing name of “The Import- of 50.” ant Things to Know About Eating and Drinking,” by The modern kitchens of today with their electric or natural gas conveniences have come a long Julia Child’s “Mas- way from the open fl ame and hearth of earlier centuries. Image source: Wikimedia Commons. Huou, master chef of the imperial court of Kublai tering the Art of French Khan. His comprehensive collection consists mainly Cooking” is arguably one success and went on to receive the Daytime Emmy of recipes for soups and stews, but it is also a useful of the most infl uential books on French cuisine ever Award. encyclopedia of household tips and information. published in the U.S. Childs and her husband lived in Early European Cookbooks Paris, France for six years after World War II, while The Culinary Art Of Cookbook Reading there she attended the Cordon Bleu cooking school Recipes have a story arc. You must go through Medieval Europe produced several infl uential and studied privately with master chef Max Bugnard. the tricky early prepping stages of chopping, slicing, cookbooks or beautifully illuminated manuscripts. She and two friends, Simone Beck and Louisette dicing, measuring and heating before taking the com- Among the earliest in English was “The Form of Bertholle founded L’École des Trois Gourmandes pleted dish out of the oven, appealing and giving off Cury” compiled in the 12th century with recipes and for the next 10 years worked together to write a delicious aroma. But if we forget the prepping and that clearly show their French origin. One of the fi rst the best-selling cookbook “Mastering the Art of cooking and “simply” read the recipe while imaging French household books was called “La Ménagier French Cooking,” published in 1961. “This is a book the tantalizing fi nished product, we can enjoy the de Paris” and is an anonymous compendium written for the servantless cook, the recipes achievable with recipes without all the work. Let’s not underestimate around the end of the 14th century. In it an elderly ingredients bought from supermarkets,” was clear- the real pleasure of recipe-reading, which is the feel- Parisian husband gives advice to his 15-year-old ly stated on its front page. America’s housewives ing that while you will probably never cook many of bride. It is a fi lled with nearly 200 recipes, many bought the book and used it.