• Culinary Historians of New York • Volume 21, No. 2 Spring 2008 J.C. Forkner, the Smyrna Fig, and His Fig Gardens

By Georgeanne Brennan Photo courtesy Pop L aval E ducational F oundation.

.C. Forkner was a visionary Jdeveloper in the early part of the 20th century who created a yeo- man farmer’s paradise out of twelve thousand acres of scrubby, hardpan, country in Central California be- tween the young town of Fresno and the Sierra Foothills. Experienced in developing similar land elsewhere in the United States, he came West, looking for opportunity and dis- covered it. He could buy thousands of acres of parched land, subdivide them into 40 to 100 acre parcels, bring in water from the Sierras and J.C. Forkner, second from left, and one of his many fig trees, 1917. market the parcels as the American dream of the era—that of owning a only spindly weeds and tumbleweed small farm. And to make his offer could grow. In 1910 Forkner took more enticing, he added another an option on 6,000 acres of the land, In This Issue component, a farming company and spent the next year researching that would plant figs, cultivate, and the land and its potential. Through From the Chair...... 2 market them for the owners. His drilling he discovered that trapped project manifested the curious mix of beneath the hardpan, which varied Amelia Scholar’s Grant...... 3 capitalism, boosterism, and genuine from several inches to several feet in enthusiasm for community that dis- thickness, was rich, loamy soil. He tinguished much of California’s early realized that if a plant’s roots could The Oxford Symposium land development reach through the thin upper layer on & Cookery...... 6 forkner had a bent for taking of soil and through the hardpan to land which had been used for graz- the rich, sandy soil below, and be ir- Member News...... 8 ing, and turning it into farmland by rigated, almost anything would grow bringing in irrigation systems. He there. A Kosher Fish had honed his skills in the Midwest, He proved to be right. Today, the Tastes Like Pork...... 10 Texas, and Southern California. San Joaquin Valley, of which Fresno He was not dismayed by the de- is part, is one of California’s richest serted block of ground near Fresno agricultural areas. Heavily irrigated, 2007–2008 Program that was called “hog wallow” and it is planted with tens of thousands Summaries...... 11 “outlaw country.” Rather, he was of acres of orchards, processing to- actually enticed by the uneven, rock- matoes, cotton, and . solid hardpan, desert land where Continued on page 4 From the Chair

hose of you who use either business hours in advance of the Tour e-mail notices or our missed program at (212) 996-0644 website, www.culinaryhistoriansny. or [email protected]; we regret org., to keep track of the dates and that we cannot issue credits after the CHNY Board of Directors places of upcoming CHNY events program. 2007–2008 undoubtedly have noticed a recent our website remains unchanged, Cathy Kaufman, Chairman innovation: you can now purchase at least on the surface. But many Kenneth Ovitz, Vice Chairman, tickets on-line. CHNY has started changes lurk beneath, as this fall, Membership Chairman using Brown Paper Tickets as a a group of our more techno-savvy Ellen J. Fried, Secretary quick, nearly effortless way to sign up members headed by Holley Atkin- Diane5 Klages, Treasurer for all our events. In addition to being son, with the help of Ken Ovitz, Kara Carolyn Vaughan, Director, good for the environment and saving Newman, and Carolyn Vaughan, Programming Liaison on postage, Brown Paper Tickets is worked furiously to find a host that Linda Pelaccio, Director the best way to guarantee seating at now allows us to more easily update Holley Atkinson, Webmaster some of our most popular events, the website. We will continue to Donna Gelb, Publicity and Public when attendance is limited because make the website more productive Relations of the size of the host venue. and flexible over the coming months, Helen Brody, Newsletter if you haven’t already tried pur- but here is a hearty thanks and deep Editor-in-Chief chasing on-line, I urge you to check debt of gratitude to all, especially out www.brownpapertickets.com Holley, for the tremendous effort. CHNY Information Hotline: for our next event. And don’t worry, finally, the application period (212) 501-3738 www.culinaryhistoriansny.org if your plans change and you can- for the fourth annual $1,000 Amelia not make an event after registering, Scholar’s Grant to support research simply let us know before the event, in culinary history is now open. Please send/e-mail member so that we may open up your spot We are looking forward to another news, book reviews, text to last-minute requests; your ticket strong group of proposals, which are ­proposals to: purchase can be applied to a future due May 31. Further information and Helen Brody CHNY event simply by contacting application forms can be accessed at 21 Spencer St., #403 the programming committee about http://www.culinaryhistoriansny. lebanon, NH 03766 the event you would like to attend. org/amelia.html. [email protected] Please note that you must contact (603) 727-9116 Carolyn Vaughan during normal (603) 727-9251

 5 interesting. Dishes are described as 2007 Amelia Scholar’s Grant “delicious” and “quite fine.” Some, Proposal like Chowder, have many in- gredients (tomatoes, sugar, peppers, CHNY’s Amelia Scholar’s Grant is a How to Grow the Tomato and 115 Ways , , vinegar, horseradish) $1,000 stipend that supports research in to Prepare it for the Table. while others, like the Peanut Salad the field of culinary history. It is open to His target audience was the with Bananas, have just a few (let- anyone, whether student or established Alabama rural black farming com- tuce, bananas, peanuts, mayonnaise scholar, and comes with only one string munity in the counties surrounding or salad dressing). I don’t imagine attached: the recipient must present the the school. The bulletins were written that many of us would eat this par- results of his or her research in a CHNY in simple language in order to reach a ticular peanut salad today, but for session during the academic year follow- largely uneducated population. Carv- the poor black woman of the 1920s, ing the award of the grant. Membership er did much for agriculture, but I am the ingredients for this salad were in CHNY is not a prerequisite for ap- particularly interested in his selection on hand from the field, the farm, plication. of recipes for the black home cook. and the house garden. Before seeing In June (date and location to be an- Ingredients and preparation were this bulletin would she have made nounced), Elizabeth Simms will present simple but the dishes sound tempt- a salad composed of these ingre- her findings into the culinary aspects of ing: Tomato Bisque, Tomatoes as , dients? Maybe the salad served as George Washington Carver’s papers at a springboard for a more complex Tuskegee University. To whet your ap- recipe—next time she could add petite for this concluding session of the v chicken and other , or even 2007–08 CHNY season, we thought more , to make a heartier salad. we’d reproduce Simms’s winning pro- They [Tomatoes] can be pre- Could George Washington posal and to share our enthusiasm for the pared in so many delicious Carver’s bulletins have been the high level of scholarship that applicants first “” for the black rural for the Amelia Scholar’s Grant have ways that one can eat them community? What was his selection demonstrated. every day of the week and process? Were the recipes used? Applications for the 2008 Amelia not get tired of them. Were they popular? Did they be- Scholar’s Grant are due May 31; please come integrated into the culinary —from How to Grow the Tomato and spread the word to anyone who might tradition of these part? Carver is 115 Ways to prepare it for the Table be interested. For further information, a part of culinary history, namely visit http://www.culinaryhistoriansny. for his work on sweet potatoes, org/amelia.html. —CK v soybeans, and peanuts, but I would like to incorporate him into culinary or 45 years, until his death in Sweet Nuts, and Sweet Potato history as a writer (of sorts) F1943, George Washington Carv- Doughnuts. It stands to reason that as well. Examining the bulletins and er’s Experiment Station at Tuskegee the recipes were specifically chosen researching this time in history will University issued 44 bulletins. At to highlight the food that was being lead me to better understand Carver’s their core, these bulletins were con- grown in the field, to offer tasteful involvement with food. As I have not cerned with agricultural matters of ideas, to make it more worth- come across any specific material on interests, but for the publications while to grow the sweet potato or the the recipes contained within the bul- that dealt specifically with if there was a demand for them letins, nor could the archivist of his and vegetables, Carver recognized at the dinner table. papers as Tuskegee refer me to any the importance in presenting these Carver’s recipes were not entirely secondary sources on this subject, products not just as food staples, innovative (he does acknowledge I believe that this project will be but as culinary staples as well. These the Department of Agriculture as a innovative. Eventually I would like dual purposes can be immediately source), however because we know to publish my findings as an article observed in such bulletin titles as that the Experiment Station targeted that would potentially evolve into an How to Grow the Cowpea and 40 Ways a particular group of people, his cu- introduction to a compilation of his of Preparing it as a Table Delicacy and linary choices are that much more recipes. —Elizabeth Simms

 Fig Garden of agriculture in California, driven Roeding of Fancher Nursery near Continued from page 1 by the idea that California, with its Fresno, and the market for figs, both similar climate, could take over the fresh and dried, developed rapidly. J.C. Forkner had as his vision of a lucrative Smyrna dried fig market Later nurseries sent agents to farming community, not diversified centered in the Fertile Crescent. and to bring back cuttings crops, or small truck farms, but rath- However, there was a problem with of the Smyrna fig as well, but sur- er one with a monoculture in which Smyrna fig production in California reptitiously, because it was feared the his farming company could make the that that wouldn’t be resolved until Syrians and Turks would dupe them most profit for the owners of the land the beginning of the 20th century, if they knew that the Californians and for the company. He visited with just in time to become a major crop wanted to take away their business. the preeminent agriculturist of his for Forkner’s farmers. California’s early fig farmers day, Professor E. J. Wickson at the Mission figs had been brought were primarily of Italian, French, University of California at Berkeley, to California from Mexico, via the and later Armenian descent and were who had worked extensively with Lu- early Spanish missionaries in the late familiar with the varieties and the ther Burbank as well as many farmers 1700s. Figs had quickly established horticultural practices of their home- up and down the state. Wickson had themselves in the mission commu- land. The Mission fig and the other recently published a book on Cali- nities, and, after falling into decline European varieties were common fornia agriculture which included during the 1830s and 1840s, had figs and did not need pollination to a chapter on figs. Forkner read the been successfully revitalized when bear fruit. They also did not have the book and had begun to think figs the crops were sold to feed the gold size, flavor, or drying quality of the might be the answer for his proposed seekers who flooded the state after Smyrna figs, which dominated the small farm colony. He learned that the discovery of gold in 1848. This world market. However, the Cali- the sturdy fig trees thrived in hot success led leading agricultural pro- fornia farmers were not able to get a dry climates like Fresno and that moters and ranchers to believe that crop from their Smyrna figs. While there was a growing market for figs the fig industry could thrive and the trees grew well, they did not carry since the mystery of how to grow the develop in California. Orchards were their fruit to maturity, but dropped Smyrna fig, the fig of commerce, had planted up and down the state during them while still green. The Smyrna been recently unraveled. the last half of the nineteenth century fig and others of its type required the Smyrna fig had been a chal- with cuttings of European fig variet- pollination, a process of which the fig lenge for California fig farmers for ies imported by pioneer nurserymen growers had no knowledge or experi- nearly thirty years. Figs had played a such as Felix Gillet of Barren Hill ence. Finally, in 1890, a number of major role in the early development Nursery in Nevada City and George fig growers, GeorgeR oeding among Photo courtesy Pop L aval E ducational F oundation. Photo courtesy Pop L aval E ducational F oundation.

Leveling the land with “motorized” tractors. Dynamiting hardpan.

 them, realized that the Smyrna fig Photo courtesy Pop L aval E ducational F oundation. needed pollinating. They success- fully proved this by hand-pollination, using the pollen from Capri figs, a pollinator type, to pollinate the fruit of the Smyrna. In nature, this is accomplished by the Blastophaga wasp. In 1899, Walter Swingle, an agricultural explorer for the United States Department of Agriculture, sent six boxes laden with wasps from the Botanical Gardens in Algiers to George Roeding, who placed them throughout his orchards. The crop was a huge success and the Smyrna, with the marriage of California and Smyrna, was renamed Calimyrna, for its new homeland. Figs rapidly be- Young women packing figs, 1921. came a significant crop in California, divided into plots ranging primarily would be kept apprised of expenses including the variety that Forkner from sites of 10 to 40 acres and a incurred, and the company would had planted in what would be called grand avenue, Van Ness Avenue, was keep “true and accurate” books which Forkner’s Fig Gardens. laid down the middle. On either side, would be open to all owners at any forkner, at Wickson’s sugges- reaching as far as the eye could see time for inspection. After harvesting tion, went to see George Roeding to were fig trees, laid out so spaciously season, defined in the Agreement talk to him about figs.A fter Roeding that “You could drive a greyhound as June 1 to January 1, the owners confirmed that figs were an extreme- bus between them,” as Bud Buck, a would receive a detailed statement ly suitable crop for the land under former employee of Forkner’s farm- of receipts and disbursements, as consideration, Forkner exercised his ing division, tells it. well as a check for 10 percent of the option to buy the six thousand acres land was marketed to all and net profit. The agreement could be and eventually bought six thousand any, no need to be a farmer because terminated in writing with 60 days more. the farming division of the company notice. By 1915 when the Fig Gardens could take care of the trees. The Most of the buyers of the Fig officially opened, his company, Farming Division was headed by W. Garden properties appear to have the J.C. Forkner Fig Gardens, had M. Bacon, the general manager, who been of northern European de- leveled the land using 100 new oversaw 16 superintendents who, in scent. Bud Buck called them mostly “motorized” tractors with specially turn, oversaw as many as 200 employ- blue-collar types who had left poor designed scrapers (Henry Ford even ees. As the concept was explained in farms, seeing the Fig Gardens as an came to observe), and dynamited one of the brochures, the Farming opportunity. Forkner marketed his 660,000 holes in the hardpan, so Division was staffed with experts property as the American Dream of that the roots of the fig trees he had in various aspects of fig cultivation, owning a small farm, making it pos- purchased could reach the sandy soil harvesting, and marketing. sible for purchasers to pay for the below. Forkner’s Fig Gardens were in the Farm and Marketing land over time, and having the farm- now the largest fig orchard in the Agreement offered by Forkner, the ing taken over by his corporation if world. The company had also built buyers of the fig garden land could need be. Eventually there were about an irrigation system which drew sign over the land for farming pur- 800 owners. Some of the homes built water from the foothills of the Sierra poses to Fig Gardens, Inc. The figs on the land were large and elegant, Mountains, twenty-five miles away, would, according to the agreement, while others were stucco bungalows, and supplied water to all the 12,000 be properly cultivated, pruned, kept or even tank houses with wooden acres that eventually comprised The free of noxious weeds, irrigated, shacks built underneath. Later the Fig Gardens. The land itself was sub- harvested, and marketed. The owner Continued on page 6

 Fig Garden California, San Diego, is the author and Slow Food movement for many years, Continued from page 5 co-author of numerous books. Her most she has served as a jury member for the recent is a food memoir titled A Pig in Slow Food International Award and is popular low-slung ranch houses were Provence (Harcourt 2008). She writes a member of the organization’s Ameri- built, and even some adobes. regular features for the San Francisco can Ark Selection Committee. Married the Fig Gardens had a sense Chronicle and is a contributor to Fine with four children, she spends her time of community. In 1921, residents of Cooking, Bon Appetit, and Cook- between her small farms in northern the Fig Garden District formed the ing Pleasure magazines. Active in the California and France. “Improvement and Boosters Club of Fig Garden” and in 1923 a Fig Garden Chamber of Commerce was The Oxford Symposium established as well. The Fig Garden Bulletin was published monthly with on Food & Cookery a letter from W.M. Bacon, the Vice ewer members of Culinary quickly became the pre-eminent An- President of J. C. Forkner Fig Gar- NHistorians of New York may glophone venue for culinary history. dens, Inc., that discussed such topics not be aware of one of the leading The Oxford Symposium is now a as winter irrigation, price of dried conclaves of culinary historians, registered trust under British law and figs, and the importance of cover which occurs every late summer in is administered by Claudia Roden, crops. Oxford, England. It is the Oxford Paul Levy, and CHNY alumna Caro- though J.C. Forkner eventually Symposium on Food & Cookery, lin Young. lost his company in bankruptcy dur- founded in 1981 by the late Alan By the turn of the millennium, the ing the Depression, the farmers of Davidson, the driving force behind symposium’s success meant that it had Fig Gardens continued to produce The Oxford Companion to Food (1999), outgrown its cozy quarters at St Ant- and market their figs individually and Dr. Theodore Zeldin, an intel- ony’s. In 2006, it moved to spacious and through farming co-operatives. lectual powerhouse who specializes accommodations at St Catherine’s Eventually, with Fresno’s increas- in French social history. College, an architecturally distin- ing urbanization, The Fig Garden the original 1981 Symposium guished campus designed by Arne District became more valuable as grew out of a series of seminars on Jacobsen circa 1960. Affectionately residential and commercial land the historical relationship between known as St. Catz, its bold gardens than as farm land, and the acreages science and cookery conducted in and furnishings meld modernism with were subdivided again, and sold, 1979 by Davidson at St Antony’s the vocabulary of a traditional college and commercial fig farming moved College, Oxford. Zeldin, a fellow of quadrangle, in many ways evoking the further east, to Madera. Today, St Antony’s, had sponsored Davidson spirit of the symposium. the Fig Garden District, which for a fellowship to study cookery each symposium is organized remains distinct from Fresno, with from an academic perspective, an around a theme, selected several its own police and fire department, iconoclastic idea in Anglo-American years in advance by what can only is considered one of Fresno’s most circles in the late 1970s. Greeted be described as a chaotic vote at desirable areas. The area has great with skepticism by certain members the closing plenary session (not dis- character as a neighborhood because of academia, the popularity of the similar to the televised sessions of the houses were independently seminars with such influential culi- the Prime Minister addressing the built. The streets are lined with the narians as Elizabeth David, Sri and House of Commons): this coming ornamental trees Forkner planted, Roger Owen, Richard Olney, Jane 12–14 September, the theme will the houses are on spacious lots, and Grigson, and Elizabeth Lambert Or- be “vegetables.” Simon Schama has many have the accouterments of the tiz, encouraged Davidson and Zeldin provisionally agreed to speak and era in which they were built, such to repeat the gathering of scholars, biodiversity expert James Godfrey, as cellars and libraries. Fig trees are writers, and others with a serious Chairman of the International Pota- scattered throughout the backyards, interest in the history and cultural to Centre, will also deliver a plenary a reminder of the area’s origins. implications of food and cookery. address. Georgeanne Brennan, with a master’s Within a few years, the symposium the 2009 Oxford’s Symposium’s degree in history from the University of morphed into an annual event and dates are 11–13 September, with the

 topic of “Food and Language.” this topic in November 2003, and the but you will meet smart people and in 2010 the Oxford Symposium sage judges at the Oxford Symposium get to chat informally with some will change to a July date. The were equally impressed, compliment- of today’s leading food historians, 2010 Oxford Symposium’s dates are ing both Mendelson’s elegant prose chefs, sociologists, writers, philoso- 9–11 July. The topic will be “Cured, and scholar’s insights into a largely phers, students, in short, the gamut Smoked, and Fermented .” undocumented . of the wonderfully interdisciplinary a much-anticipated part of the in addition to the Sophie Coe world of culinary history. For fur- opening session of each symposium Prize, this year will mark the first ther information, visit http://www. is the announcement of the winner time that the Symposium will be oxfordsymposium.org.uk. of the Sophie Coe Prize in Food able to offer a research stipend and —Cathy Kaufman History. The prize, the most presti- underwrite attendance at the sym- gious award in the field of culinary posium for a young scholar. Made history, was endowed in memory of possible by a very generous grant Sophie Coe (coincidentally, an early from an anonymous American do- member of CHNY) and author of nor, the trust has just awarded the several books and articles on culinary “Cherwell Studentship” (Cherwell history, including America’s First Cui- is the small river abutting St Catz, sines (1994) and, with her husband, so there is no ill-hidden clue to the Stay in Touch! Michael Coe, The True History of donor’s identity) to Allyson Sgro, a Chocolate (1993). First awarded in doctoral student in chemistry and Spam blockers 1995, over the years the purse has neuroscience at the University of If you want to receive organization grown to a plump £1500 for first Washington. news, spam blockers must accept prize, with a number of smaller sgro will be presenting a paper at CHNY program announcements awards given for other notable essays this year’s symposium entitled “Who from Carolyn Vaughan (TFOX2@ in food history. Put the in the Cock-a-Leekie nyc.rr.com)h and CHNY newsletter long-time CHNY member ?” If this sounds far afield from announcements from Helen Brody Anne Mendelson was the winner of neuroscience, well, it is. Sgro has ([email protected]). the 2007 Sophie Coe Prize for her been researching late medieval Scot- ground-breaking essay “The Le- tish cuisine as a labor of love for the Correct e-mail address? napes: In Search of Pre-European past three years and, the paper is, in CHNY members receive numer- Foodways in the Greater New York her words: “part of a larger project ous announcements by e-mail, not Area.” CHNY members will recall to characterize the transition from only about our own programs, but Mendelson’s fascinating program on late medieval to early modern cuisine also about other events of culinary in Scotland. The sources I am using interest, including talks, tours, and span this time, with dates ranging tastings. Please send new address from 1598 to 1712. With this work changes to www.culinaryhistori- I hope to illuminate how long the ansny.org/contact. Auld Alliance with France influenced Scotland’s cuisine after the Union of Program Registration News the Crowns in 1603 and how tradi- You can now register for CHNY pro- tional Scottish ingredients such as grams online, through Brown Paper kail and bere were incorporated into Tickets (www.brownpapertickets. this new culinary era.” com). Brown Paper Tickets accepts if this sort of brilliantly eclectic MasterCard, Visa, and Discover. No presentation excites you, then con- more scrambling for a stamp and an sider crossing the pond to attend envelope! Of , we will con- the symposium. You do not need to tinue to accept registrations through present a paper (indeed, space and the mail for those who prefer it. Anne Mendelson, winner of the 2007 Sophie time constraints limit the number Coe Prize. of papers that can be presented),

 Stir it Up: Home Economics in Ameri- can Culture by Megan Elias is to be Member News published in May by the University of Pennsylvania Press. Jean Anderson, a member of the Carolina Capehart will be prepar- James Beard Cookbook Hall of ing early American recipes during Founded in 1979 by Gary A. Gold- Fame, was a featured author at the June, July, and August and conduct- berg and Martin Johner, The Culinary Alabama Book Festival in Old Town ing 18th and 19th century cooking Center of New York is one of the Montgomery. Recipes from her book workshops, “Fireside Feasts,” at first large culinary arts programs A Love Affair with Southern Cooking Brooklyn’s Wyckoff Farmhouse established in New York City. From were served at the opening reception. Museum. Specific dates are to be an- 1987-2007, the company was an in- Half a dozen appetizer recipes from nounced. Previous participants have dependent contractor to The New Love Affair were also served at Gour- prepared dishes ranging from School, and ran The New School met magazine’s Culinary Weekend tarts to pound cake to switchel (a type Culinary Arts program. The Culinary at Kiawah Island, South Carolina, of punch). Admission is free. Center separated itself from the New where Jean was a featured speaker. School this spring, and continues to Jayne Cohen’s recently published- offer over 100 courses for recreational Rynn Berry, advisor to the North book Jewish Holiday Cooking: A Food cooks and hopeful professionals under American Vegetarian Society, has Lover’s Treasury of Classics and Impro- its own name only. Contact Culinary recently published The Vegan Guide visations (John Wiley & Sons, 2008) Center of New York: 212-255-4141 to New York City, 2008. Now in includes Eastern European favor- www.culinarycenterny.com. its 15th year, the guide is the only ites plus dishes from communities exclusively vegetarian restaurant throughout the Diaspora including Zilkia Janer’s new book, Latino Food guidebook. Rynn spoke on “Veg- Classic with Toasted Sesa- Culture (Greenwood Press, 2008) etarianism and Non-violence in the me- Matzohs, Moroccan Fish is a volume in the Food Cultures in World’s Religions” at the first animal with and - America Series. It provides cultural rights conference in Sao Paulo and Aioli, and Iranian Grilled Chicken insight into Latinos from all back- will be the featured speaker in the Thighs with . In addition there grounds. Readers learn about the centennial International Vegetarian are dozens of new takes and re-inter- diverse elements of an evolving pan- Union’s World Vegetarian Congress pretations of traditional dishes for Latino food culture including the in Dresden, Germany. today’s palates. She is also the author history of the various groups, their of The Gefilte Variations (Scribner, foodstuffs, cooking, diet, and eating Jesse Browner has made an agree- 2000). Her website highlights upcom- habits. Representative recipes and ment with Oxford University Press ing holidays with a recipe contest. photos are interspersed in the essays. (OUP) to sponsor his “Podcast For details, visit http://jewishholiday- A chronology, glossary, resource History of Cooking.” The series, cooking.com. guide, and bibliography make this a to be comprised of approximately one-stop resource for students and sixteen episodes of 20 to 25 minutes food writers. Zilkia teaches Latin each, and covering the history of American and Latino literature and cooking in the western world from culture at Hofstra University. the Stone Age to Stone Barns, will ultimately be posted on the OUP Cathy Kaufman presented a lec- Culinary Studies website, which is ture, cooking demonstration, and still in development. Browner is the tasting of ancient Roman food titled author of The Duchess Who Wouldn’t “When in Rome, Eat as the Ancient Sit Down: An Informal History of Romans Did” at The New York Times Hospitality (Bloomsbury, 2003) and Travel Show in March. Included was The Uncertain Hour (Bloomsbury, information on restaurants in Italy 2007), and has written for Food & that specialize in historical cookery Wine magazine, Gastronomica, and for the adventurous tourist. Cathy Bookforum.com, among others. will be presenting a history of Mardi  Gras foods, specifically beignets, at Nora Maynard has wrapped up events including demos, tastings, and the IACP conference in New Or- her weekly column “The Celluloid seminars for professionals. Measuring leans this April, sharing the stage Pantry” on food and drink in film some of their success in garnishes, the with Ken Albala and a monumental after an enjoyable two-year run, and 2007 event used 7250 mint leaves, olla podrida. has launched a new series, “Straight 3580 lime wedges, 800 watermelon Up,” on the art of the cocktail for cubes, 560 gin-soaked dried cherries, Author and sommelier Eliza- Apartment Therapy Media’s “The 1390 slices, 2 tons of ice, and beth Knight (www.teawithfriends. .” See http://www.apart- more for thousands of sippers. com) conducts private seminars and menttherapy.com. guided walking tours of New York’s Susan McLellan Plaisted, propri- unique tea emporiums. Learn about Since the beginning of the year, etress of Heart to Hearth Cookery Asian and European tea traditions, Marion Nestle has given lectures in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, shop for tea and wares, enjoy dim on issues related to her books, Food will be featured in a “Fire and Ice” sum, wagashi, and afternoon tea. A Politics, Safe Food, and What to Eat at program theme at Old Sturbridge certified English tea master, Knight the Society of Fellows at Princeton, Village, Sturbridge, Massachusetts, served as the tea sommelier at the St. the California Endowment in Los on July 19. Susan will be providing Regis Hotel. Her new book, Celtic Angeles, the Orfalea Foundation in the “Ice” component of the program With Friends—Teatime Traditions from Santa Barbara, the program in ethics by preparing 18th-century ice cream Cornwall, Ireland, Scotland and Wales and society at Stanford University, and receipts in her sabotiere, a hand- will be published in June 2008. Tea in pediatric grand rounds at the Univer- cranked reproduction 19th-century the City: New York was published by sity of Rochester, among others. Her ice cream maker. the Benjamin Press in 2006. article with Dr. Steven Woolf, “Do dietary guidelines explain the obesity Ammini Ramachandran’s book Judith Krall-Russo, tea specialist, is epidemic?” appeared in the American , Greens, and Grated Coco- curator for a juried art exhibit titled Journal of Preventive Medicine in March. nuts was one of four self-published “The Elegant Eccentric Teapot” with She now co-authors a regular column cookbooks ranked as #76 in the the teapot as the theme. The exhibit at on pet food for The Bark, a quarterly February issue of Saveur magazine’s the Barron Arts Center, Woodbridge, magazine about life with dogs. top 100. Last November she gave a New Jersey, is open to all 2D and presentation titled “The Rise of Asia: 3D media. Exhibition dates are from Jacqueline M. Newman gave a Culinary Traditions of the East and June 13–July 3, 2008. Please contact keynote address in December at the Flavor Discovery in 21st-Century Nancy Casteras at Nancy.Casteras@ 2007 China Culture Interna- America” at the Worlds of Flavor In- twp.woodbridge.nj.us or phone (732) tional Forum in Shaoxing, China. It ternational Conference & Festival at 634-0413 for more information, entry was part of the inauguration of the The Culinary Institute of America in fees, or a prospectus. two story state-of-the art Shaoxing Napa Valley. Her book was reviewed National Sauce Culture Museum in in The New York Times in July and Michael Krondl is currently working that city. Jacqueline’s latest book is won the 2007 self-published cook- on a series of on-line cooking videos Cooking from China’s Fujian Province book award presented by the Cordon spotlighting medieval and renaissance (Hippocrene Books, 2007). d’Or International Cookbooks & food for Devour.tv. The first three Culinary Arts Awards. The book was videos are expected to air in May. Kara Newman has signed a contract also picked as the overall winner. They feature Ambrosino, a fourteenth with Chronicle Books to write century Venetian recipe for capon and Ice: The Art of Spicy Cocktails. The Toni Silber-Delerive’s paintings braised with spices from the Anonimo book is slated for publication in 2009, make you see our world from above. Veneziano; a fifteenth century recipe and will include an overview on the Her aerial landscapes offer an unusual for baked sardines from the Catalan historic use of spices in cuisine and perspective; by flattening the picture Libre del Coch attributed to Ruperto cocktails. Kara also will be leading a plane they reduce details to strong de Nola; and Cristoforo Messisbugo’s mixologist panel on spicy drinks at graphic images. Her work was recently ravioli from his 1549 masterpiece “The Tales of the Cocktail” confer- displayed at the Interchurch Center. Banchetti, composizioni di vivande et ence in New Orleans in July 2008 Her website is www.tonisart.com. apparecchio generale. which features five days of cocktail Continued on page 10  Member News Continued from page 9 A Kosher Fish Tastes Like Pork By Kenneth Ovitz Kabbr, located on Ninth Avenue be- Andrew F. Smith will be moderating tween 47th and 48th Streets, serves a symposium, “Julia Child: Culinary iddle Eastern cookery is as one of its specialties. Revolutionary,” on June 12 at the Msome of the oldest documented shortly after Nasrallah’s presen- New School. Scheduled speakers cuisine in the world, stretching from tation, two Israeli scholars, Rabbi Ari include Joan Reardon, author of Babylonian recipes dated ca. 1700 Zivitofsky and Dr. Ari Greenspan, M. F. K. Fisher, Julia Child, and Alice BCE through biblical texts recorded presented a talk at the Orthodox Waters: Celebrating the Pleasures of the in the 5th and 6th centuries, to the Union in Queens on “Rare Kosher Table; Judith Jones, author of The great Islamo-Persian cookery books Animals.” This lead to lively debate Tenth Muse; Molly O’Neill, author in the 9th and 10th centuries and be- on esoterica such as how to properly of American ; and Laura yond. Jews, Christians, and Muslims slaughter a giraffe, the location of a Shapiro, author of Julia Child. See all can look to the ancient Near East giraffe’s jugular, and which species of http://www.newschool.edu/ for more for some of their culinary traditions, grasshopper are considered kosher information. and one of the joys of culinary history and which aren’t. Amidst these de- is the exploration of the common bates came the topic of a fish known Lyn Stallworth toured Bangcock, roots and differing evolutions of food- in both the Jerusalem (aka Palestin- Vietnam, and Cambodia in February. ways. All of this was brought home by ian) and Babylonian Talmud as the Best : vegan at a female a bit of detective work sparked by a shabuta. No one could identify with Buddhist monastery, and a 12-course 2003 lecture presented to the CHNY certainty the precise species, but the lunch with at a non-English- by Nawal Nasrallah, an Iraqi scholar fish was intriguing for its seemingly speaking restaurant in Danang. and author of Delights from the Garden illicit flavor. of Eden (Authorhouse, 2003). the Babylonian Talmud claimed Ogden Publications (http://www.og- as part of her lecture on ancient that shabuta was a kosher fish with denpubs.com/), the parent company Mesopotamian cuisine and its ed- brains that taste like pork, at least if of Mother Earth News, The Com- ible legacies in contemporary Iraqi one credited the palates of the non- panion, and other environmentally cuisine, Nasrallah showed pictures Jewish servants of the rabbis who focused magazines, has re-published of a large fish known as theel shabut, worked on the Talmud and compared William Woys Weaver’s award-win- which is indigenous to the and the taste of the shabuta to the forbid- ning Heirloom Gardening in rivers and is nowadays den treyf. Rabbis suggested eating CD. Will has recently written an ex- popularly used to prepare a dish the shabuta’s brains when one craved tensive monograph on the medieval known as masgouf. To make masgouf, pork, but wanted to adhere to the origins of the wines of Cyprus, with the el shabut is split open down the Jewish dietary laws of Kashrut. particular attention to the famous back, butterflied, and suspended on the Jerusalem Talmud identi- dessert wine known as Commandaria. two stakes in front of a fire. Once fied seven hundred different types of This monograph is being published almost cooked, it is roasted, skin kosher fish that accompanied the Jews in Cyprus in both English and Greek side down, directly over the embers when they were exiled to and will be available for purchase in of wood. A classic (about 50 miles south of modern-day May. masgouf is enticing, garnished with ) in 586 BCE. It also stated sliced tomatoes, cucumbers, , that all of the species of fish except for Laura Weiss (www.lauraweissau- and pickled and served with one returned to the land of Israel with thor.com) has been named managing warm from the tannour. Many the Jews in 522 BCE. The shabuta, of editor of Edible East End (www.edi- Baghdad restaurants lay claim to “the course, was the one species of fish that bleeastend.com), a magazine which best masgouf in town,” and remained in the Tigris and Euphrates covers local and sustainable food is- preparing masgouf over a campfire rivers. Thereafter the shabuta was sues on Long Island. Look for Edible have traditionally lined the Tigris mentioned in the Midrashic texts; Manhattan to launch this September. and Euphrates rivers. Masgouf re- however its species could no longer be To subscribe, visit http://www.edi- cently reached American shores: properly identified by the commenta- blemanhattan.com/. Manhattan’s only Iraqi restaurant, Le tors because they lived in Palestine

10 and had no first-hand knowledge of A Kosher Fish Tastes Like Pork the fish. The true identity of shabuta Summary of 2007–2008 Programs was lost to Jewish history in around September: A Celebration of Cape Town, South Africa, where 600 CE. of CHNY Members he lived from 1985–2001. A native intrigued by the near-linguis- Business meeting, member pre- of New York, he is currently a vice tic identity between el shabut and sentations on recent books, research, president at Brooklyn College. shabuta, as well as the fact that they or projects, including Rynn Berry, were both found in , but “The History of Vegetarian Restau- November: Molecular not Israel, I corresponded with rants”; Carolina Capehart, “Fireside and the Zivitofsky, Nasrallah, and Dr. Susan Feasts: Early 1800s Culinary Ad- Role of Science in the Weingarten, a food scholar at Tel ventures”; Bunny Crumpacker, Kitchen Aviv University, to learn more. I The Sex Life of Food: When Body and “The Past, Present, and Future of learned that both the 13th-century Soul Meet; Zilkia Janer, Latino Food Scientific Cooking” with Hervé Baghdad Cookery Book and the tenth Culture; Cathy Kaufman, “Cooking This and Mitchell Davis. century Ibyn Sayyar Al Warraq (the in Ancient Civilizations”; Elizabeth is a gen- latter recently translated by Nasral- Knight, Tea in the City: New York; eral term for a style of cooking lah) refer to el shabut. Moreover, and Ammini Ramachandran, Grains, informed by science and scientific ex- during medieval times, the tongues Greens, and Grated Coconut. perimentation. Even chefs who don’t and the head of the el shabut were use the phrase have been influenced eaten together as a delicacy; earlier, October: Bones of by the changes brought about by this the Babylonian Talmud mentioned Retention technologically savvy approach to that the tongues of the shabuta were “Reconstructing Prehistoric Diets handling and transforming food. a delicacy. One possible final avenue from Fossils” with Andrew Sillen. Celebrated French professor of of research is whether shabuta and el over the past decade, archae- chemistry Hervé This, who coined shabut are the same fish as sirbuttu. ologists have reconstructd aspects of the term “molecular gastronomy,” Sirbuttu appears in tablets prehistoric human diets by reading and Mitchell Davis, adjunct profes- as a delight well before the trace elements and isotopes in human sor at NYU and vice president of Talmud; the pre-eminent author- and animal skeletons that shed light the James Beard Foundation, discuss ity on Mesopotamian cuisine, Jean on the consumption of certain kinds and demonstrate this unique style of Bottéro, was unable to identify the of foods, such as meat vs. vegetable or cooking. species before his death. After exten- seafood vs. terrestrial. These studies sive research, Zivitofsky concluded challenge popular past conceptions December: The Spectacu- that the fish known as el shabut is in about key events, such as the origin lar Failure of Prohibition fact shabuta, but whether they are the of the human line in the Pleistocene in New York City same as the yet-unidentifiedsirbuttu (around one to three million years With Michael Lerner is still unknown. Nonetheless, the ago), and the origin of farming Drawing from his recent book, fish that has eludedT almud scholars around 10,000 years ago. Dry Manhattan: Prohibition in New since 600 CE was finally identified. Andrew Sillen was Professor of York City (Harvard University Press, Kenneth Ovitz, a graduate of the Paleoanthropology at the University Continued on page 12 Professional Culinary Arts program of The Institute of Culinary Education, Kosher Fish, continued nawal Nasrallah, Delights from The has written numerous articles with Garden of Eden: A Cook Book and a History Jewish historical, cultural, and spiritual 110b, Shabbat 119a; 110b, Kiddushin of the , Authorhouse, 2003 relevance. 41a, Pesachim 76b, 112b, Bab Kamma susan Weingarten, “Food in the Sources cited: 55a, Sanhedrin 59b. Babylonian Talmud: Memories of the Mishna (the first set of volumes the Palestinian Talmud Ta’anit chap- Foretastes of Baghdad,” unpublished which comprise the Talmud) Shabbat ter 4 The Midrash in Yalqut Shimoni 69b paper presented at the World Congress 22:2,Machshirin 6:3. Jean Bottéro, The Oldest Cuisine in of Jewish Studies, Jerusalem 2005. the Babylonian Talmud in the Ge- the World:Cooking in (Teresa ari Zivitovsky and Zohar Amar, “A mara (second set of volumes included Lavender Fagan, trans.), University of Fishy Tale: Identifying the Talmudic in the Talmud) Chullin, Tractate 109b, Chicago, 2004. Shibuta.”

11 Program Summaries most treasured of our native oysters. the “age of exploration” changed the Continued from page 11 Although no bigger than a 50-cent world’s appetite for spices. piece, the Olympia is known for its Michael Krondl is the author of 2007), Michael Lerner recalls “the distinctive sweet taste and “coppery” The Taste of Conquest: The Rise and long thirst” and its unintended con- finish. Seattle oyster enthusiast and Fall of the Three Great Cities of Spice sequences as he depicts a city in the historian Jon Rowley regales us with (Ballantine, 2008). He has written throes of open rebellion against the the history of the Olympia, which for the Oxford Encyclopedia of Food dry laws, and explores how the effort begins with the California Gold Rush and Drink in America, The Business of to reform New York through Prohi- and continues through two brushes Food: Encyclopedia of the Food and Drink bition helped define the era, while with extinction to today’s cautious Industries. He is the author of Around creating some of the most vibrant optimism for the future. the American Table: Treasured Recipes culture in the history of the city. Jon Rowley is a rare combination and Food Traditions from the American Michael A. Lerner is Associate of food scholar, writer, fisherman, Cookery Collections of the New York Dean of Studies at Bard High School and businessman. He is a contribut- Public Library. For more information Early College in New York. ing editor to Gourmet magazine, and see http://spicehistory.net. was named to Saveur’s 2008 Top 100 January: Refined Cuisine Favorites in the food world. May: Dates in Medieval or Just Plain Cooking? Baghdad “Moralists in the Kitchen” with Ra- March: The History of “Sweet Eats to Heady Drinks” with chel Laudan Chop Suey in America Nawal Nasrallah as far back as the Ancient Greek With Andrew Coe Professor Nawal Nasrallah illu- world, philosophers and others have “A toothsome .” “The na- minates the ways in which medieval struggled with the question of wheth- tional dish of China.” “A cheap kind Baghdadi cooks and wine makers er refined cookery is moral. Does of Cantonese hash.” Chop suey is a have exploited the humble date. complicated cooking purify, refine, remarkable success story, a dish that a wide variety of date palms have and perfect foods, and thus elevate opened American palates to exotic been cultivated in from time and enhance the diner’s virtue? Or and now has almost disap- immemorial. Dates were prized for does such cooking falsify and cor- peared from America’s tables. Join their versatility, from flavoring rupt that which nature made perfect, Andrew Coe to discover the truth to preparing delectable desserts. De- and, by extension, pollute the diner, behind the legends. spite conflicting views on consuming creating unnatural appetites, illness, andrew Coe has written for The alcoholic drinks in the Islamic world, despotism, and war? New York Times, Saveur, Gastronomica, dates were also made into heady rachel Laudan holds a PhD in and Flavor & Fortune and is a con- wines and balsamic-like vinegar. the History and Philosophy of Sci- tributor to The Oxford Encyclopedia nawal Nasrallah, a native of Iraq, ence from the University of London. of Food and Drink in America. With was a professor at Baghdad and Among her honors are the Jane his wife, Jane Ziegelman, he is a co- Universities. Of her culinary books, Grigson/Julia Child Award for Dis- author of Foie Gras, a Passion (Wiley, Delights from the Garden of Eden: tinguished Food Scholarship for her 2000). Andrew is currently writing a A Cookbook (Authorhouse, 2003) book The Food of Paradise: Exploring history of Chinese food in the United has received the Gourmand World Hawaii’s Culinary Heritage; and the States to be published by Oxford Cookbook Special Jury Award, and Sophie Coe Prize in Food History University Press in 2009. her translation of Annals of the Ca- for her essay “A Kind of Chemistry,” liphs’ : Ibn Sayyar al-Warraq’s exploring the dietetic underpinning April: Lisbon and Spices Tenth-Century Baghdadi Cookbook of 17th-century French cookery. “Transforming the World’s Culinary (Brill, 2007) won the Best Transla- Horizons” with Michael Krondl tion award in the 2007 Gourmand February: The Olympia Michael Krondl explores the World Cookbook Awards. Oyster European taste for spices during With Jon Rowley the Renaissance, how it influenced June 5: Amelia Scholar’s the Pacific Northwest’s Olym- and was affected by the trade routes Grant. pia oyster is one of the rarest and created by the Portuguese, and how see page 3.

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