Culinary Historians of New York• from Raw Beef Without Salt to Freedom

• Culinary Historians of New York • Volume 22, No. 1 Fall 2008 From Raw Beef without Salt to Freedom Fries Haute Cuisine, the White House, and Presidential Politics W

By Mark McWilliams illiam J. Clinton Presidential L ibrary n politics, food makes news. Be- Ifore the Iowa caucuses, we learned that Barack Obama munched a corn dog, Bill Richardson ate pork chops, Mike Huckabee sampled pork-on-a- stick, and Hillary Clinton enjoyed a Women’s Wonder Bar. Consuming food, notes Walter Scheib, White House Chef for the Clintons and the first Bush administration, says, “I’m one of you. Vote for me.” This at- tempted connection can go horribly wrong, as with John Kerry’s request for Swiss on his Philly cheese steak or Gerald Ford’s attempt to eat tamales without removing the wrappers. But even when candidates pull off the culinary feat, not all locals feel con- Continued on page 4 Hillary and Bill Clinton at the New York State Fair, September 2000. Shaker Culinary Traditions In This Issue By Mary Rose Boswell remain to practice “Gospel Order” at Sabbathday Lake in Maine. While n 1774, a small group of religious their membership has dwindled, they From the Chair...... 2 Idissenters sailed from England to still fascinate us for unique faith, America and settled in New York beautifully crafted items, high quality A Podcast History City. They were called “Shakers” agricultural products, and nutritious, of Cooking...... 3 because of their ecstatic devotions, flavorful meals. and they practiced celibacy, pacifism, living in separate communi- confession of sin, and communal ties allowed the Shakers to practice Recipe for Literacy...... 3 property. their religion in peace. Cultivating By 1827, the numbers of this little their own produce became necessary Member News...... 10 group had had grown to nearly five to feed their growing numbers of thousand, with 21 communities in ­converts. Program Calendar...... 12 New York, Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, the first Shakers in America Georgia, Florida, and most of New sought the aid of indigenous peoples England. Today only four Shakers Continued on page 8 From the Chair

hile we have had a respite speaking about the “Tomato Lady Wfrom programming during of San Joaquin” at our November the summer, the Culinary Historians’ program. Signing up is easy (I am a board of directors has been hard at Luddite but breezed through it on CHNY Board of Directors work to shore up housekeeping mat- the first attempt) and will open a 2007–2008 ters and to extend our reach into the whole network of contacts. growing food history world. other opportunities involve Cathy Kaufman, Chairman thanks to the diligent efforts our growing relationship with the Kenneth Ovitz, Vice Chairman, of our web-savvy Holley Atkinson, National Arts Club, located in Membership Chairman we have moved our website to an the fabulous Tilden Mansion on Ellen J. Fried, Secretary improved host. The site continues Gramercy Park. Marc Levy, the Diane5 Klages, Treasurer with its beautiful design, but should Chair of NAC’s Culinary Arts Com- Carolyn Vaughan, Director, be more user-friendly. In addition, mittee, graciously extends invitations Programming Liaison Holley has created a Facebook page to our members for many of the Linda Pelaccio, Director for CHNY; what is most exciting events, which often go unpublicized about this development is the ability otherwise. To learn about these and Holley Atkinson, Webmaster to network in cyberspace with folks other events of interest to culinary Donna Gelb, Publicity and Public who are not part of our membership historians, you need to agree to Relations but are active in culinary history. receive notices by e-mail (unfor- Helen Brody, Newsletter Within the first 24 hours of activat- tunately time constraints make it Editor-in-Chief ing the Facebook site, we had new impossible to do postal mailings). friends such as Rachel Laudan (who i am also pleased to announce CHNY Information Hotline: spoke to us last January on the mo- that Willa Ying Zhen is the recipi- (212) 501-3738 rality of cooking) and Professor Ken ent of the 2008 Culinary Historians www.culinaryhistoriansny.org Albala, who has spoken previously on of New York Scholar’s Grant (for- Italian Baroque cookery and will be Continued on next page

Please send/e-mail member news, book reviews, text ­proposals to: Helen Brody 21 Spencer St., #403 lebanon, NH 03766 [email protected] (603) 727-9251 (D) (603) 727-9116 (E)

CHNY Board and advisors: (L to R) Diane Klages, Cathy Kaufman, Linda Pelaccio, Donna Gelb, Holley Atkinson, Kenneth Ovitz. (Missing: Ellen J. Fried and Carolyn Vaughan)

 5 From the Chair annual business meeting, members we hope this evening provided some Continued from page 2 had the chance to share information recognition of the splendid work of about recent books and projects in CHNY members. merly known as the Amelia Scholar’s the field of culinary history through we hope to see you at many Grant). Ms. Ying Zhen will be trav- short presentations designed to raise of our wonderful programs in the eling to Canton, China to study the awareness of our talented member- coming year. Please do not hesitate transmission of culinary knowledge ship’s diverse activities. We have to contact me or any board mem- in Chinese cooking schools. always regretted that, in our limited ber with questions, comments, or finally, we were excited to program year, we cannot accommo- suggestions that will help us make start the new season at Culinary date all the wonderful work done by CHNY better serve your needs and Historians of New York with our our members in formal programs, as interests. second annual “Celebration of Our well as bringing in outside scholars Members” last month. As part of our to present in their areas of expertise;

A Podcast History of Cooking he Oxford University Press sense of storytelling to bring widely Tis sponsoring a Podcast His- diverse disciplines—natural history, tory of Cooking, a series which economics, the history of trade, lin- will be featured on its upcoming guistics, political history, and the art culinary studies website. CHNY of cooking—to bear on a narrative member Jesse Browner is researcher, that follows the evolution of the writer, narrator, and producer of the culinary arts in Western civiliza- ­history. tion from their prehistoric origins the first two episodes are a brief in Africa and the Middle East to introduction to the series and a specu- twentieth century American cook- lative essay on Stone Age recipes. ing. Although of interest to culinary Three more episodes are in produc- historians, the History’s target audi- tion with estimates that the complete ence is a more general one. series will be twenty episodes. the first versions of the potcasts the Podcast History of Cook- are available at www.jessebrowner. ing draws on novelist Browner’s com and for free on iTunes. Recipe for Literacy ecipe for Literacy is a new partnerships as they go nation-wide wellness manager with his healthful Rprogram conceived by CHNY to all ages, and welcomes inquiries French-fry recipe, and the mayor, member Mary Jo Weinig of the about volunteering. who prepared latkes. Weinig Foundation. This novel the misson of this community- each week the children taste a program promotes literacy by using oriented program is to excite children new dish and write about it in their literal and figurative recipes. about writing and language by incor- Chef’s Journals. The program culmi- the seven-week-long program, porating culinary and local history, nated with a well-attended public presented to children last year in nutrition, and the environment in reception. All sorts of potato dishes Greenport, Long Island, and Jupiter, its curriculum. Last year the topic in were served and the chef-writers Florida, will be offered this fall at five Greenport was the potato because of took the stage and read from their locations in Florida and New York its long history on the North Fork journals. with the children in each location, and Long Island. Guest speakers to learn more, please contact communicating via the internet. The included a town councilman/farmer, Mary Jo Weinig at mjm95@mac. Weinig Foundation hopes to form who explained how potatoes grow, a com.

 Raw Beef Thomas Jefferson’s appreciation of April 14, Representative Charles Continued from page 1 haute cuisine as “an effete taste […] Ogle, a Pennsylvania Whig, rose which had led [Jefferson] to ‘abjure to the floor of the U.S. Congress to nected. One Iowa voter compared his native victuals.’ ” While Henry’s ridicule a recent Van Buren White such antics to faking a local accent: comment grew out of his fears of a House menu. Trying to give cor- “They’ve tried to become the people country which itself was in political rect French names, Ogle worked that they’re talking to just to gain and social upheaval, the terms of his through seven courses and almost their votes.” critique—placing rustic American thirty dishes, including soup (Potage Indeed, food has a political food against the sophistication of au tortue, Potage à la Julienne, et Potage history in America going back to haute cuisine—have proved useful to aux pois), fish Saumon,( sauce d’anchois, the Revolution. Surprisingly, it in- American politicians ever since. et Bass piqué à la Chambore), chicken cludes denigrating the food of an Henry’s comment echoes the (Supreme de volaille en bordure à la ally, France. Patrick Henry attacked period’s celebration of “native vict- gelée), meat (including Filet de boeuf

T homas Jefferson F oundation, I nc. uals.” Simple, wholesome food was piqué au vin de Champagne and Filets coded as a sign of republican virtue mignons de mouton en chevreuil), and while European cuisines were con- game (Pigeons à la royal aux champi- sidered overly luxurious and morally gnons). suspect. Foodways thus expressed to further berate the president, late eighteenth-century republican Ogle carefully set up a comparison anxieties about luxury and virtue. with common fare: the President’s to counter Europe’s decadence, “table is not provided with those an ideal of republican simplicity old and unfashionable dishes, ‘hog emerged, combining Jeffersonian and hominy,’ ‘fried meat and gravy’ A copper tortiere. natural aristocracy with frontier … with a mug of ‘hard cider.’ … All

L ibrary of Congress, Manuscript Division, Papers T homas Jefferson egalitarianism. these substantial preparations are In foodways, this looked upon by gourmands, French ideal became as- cooks, and locofoco Presidents as sociated with the exceedingly vulgar… .” simple, whole- Condemning Democrat Van Bu- some food of the ren for following the White House colonies: baked precedent of serving French cuisine beans, cornbread became part of the strategy of Whig in all its forms, Presidential candidate William roast game and Henry Harrison’s 1840 campaign pork, and the New to appeal to republican simplicity. England boiled After Democrats joked that Harrison dinner. would spend his presidency drink- the symbol- ing hard cider on the porch, Whigs, ic resonance of attempting to obscure Van Buren’s such rustic fare humble origins, commented on his strengthened effete taste and “pretty tapering soft, throughout the white lily fingers” and linked their early nineteenth candidate to the working class which century, and thus enjoyed “raw beef without salt” and remained politi- cider. cally useful. In the Whig’s appeal to the com- 1840, for exam- mon man illustrates what later ple, presidential candidates were trying to tap into candidates were with slogans like McKinley’s “Full First page of Thomas Jefferson’s kitchen inventory. what they ate. On Dinner Pail” in 1900 or Hoover’s

 T homas Jefferson F oundation, I nc.; watercolor by G. B. Mc ntosh ring, Swiss cheese, and a chop.” Like some predecessors, he hired contract chefs for State Dinners. Henrietta Nesbitt’s cooking experience was confined to making pies and cakes for her Hyde Park neighbors before being named by Eleanor to serve as housekeeper and cook for the 12 years of Franklin D. Roosevelt administration. Her philosophy was that she had been keeping house for her family all her life and cooking and housekeeping at the White House would be much of the same but on a larger scale. In The Presidential Cookbook, Feeding the Artist G. B. McIntosh imagines how Monticello’s kitchen might have looked in the early Roosevelts and their Guests (Doubleday 19th century, ready to prepare the haute cuisine favored by Thomas Jefferson. & Company, Inc., 1951), she recalls, “If ever humans were what their “A Chicken in Every Pot” in 1928. luxurious fare of haute cuisine has eating habits were, it was the Roos- The recent “freedom fries” debate also shaped the presidential kitchen. evelts. The President and his family occurred in a similar symbolic space, Since its beginnings, formal dining liked the hearty, vitamin-filled dishes even though fries are hardly haute at the White House meant classical that are typically America.” During cuisine. With “freedom fries,” Re- French cuisine, but conflict between the War years, the First Lady insisted publican Representatives Robert this public image and the first fami- that food rationing be practiced in Ney and Walter Jones repeated the lies’ private desires has frequently the White House as in the rest of moves made much earlier—for more led to a dual-chef system, with one the country. “Red Points” (meat) pressing reasons—by the American chef, often French, hired to craft were saved for special occasions. revolutionaries, re-categorizing elaborate state dinners and another, foods to change their symbolic force. often with a history of cooking for After using his position controlling the family, tasked with everyday fare. House cafeterias to accomplish this This trend began with the Polks, change without a vote, Ney claimed, who hired Auguste Julien (the son “This action … is a small, but sym- of Jefferson’s chef) on a contract bolic, effort to show the strong basis to prepare state dinners, but displeasure many on Capitol Hill otherwise relied on their family cook. have with our so-called ally, France.” Andrew Johnson’s daily meals were Jones cited respect for military prepared by Lizzie Mitchell, whose families to justify the renamed pota- specialties included Hopping John toes. Some restaurants had already and pecan pie. Outside the Executive banned French fries, a trend report- Mansion, however, he was feted with edly started by Neal Rowland, the ten-course Delmonico’s extravagan- owner of Cubbie’s in Beaufort, South zas. President Rutherford B. Hayes’s Carolina, who coined Freedom Fries. formal dinners were “stubbornly Similar efforts followed the congres- French,” despite family fare of beef sional action; soon a new ice cream and potatoes. Grover Cleveland company was selling “I Hate the eventually fired Chester Arthur’s French Vanilla.” French chef, substituting his cook tension between the plain food from his days as Governor of New of republican simplicity and the York for favorites like “pickled her- Continued on page 6

 White House was traditional, and the entire White luncheon featuring new processed Continued from page 5 House was concerned with its mak- foods like powdered orange juice ing. Each New Year’s Eve the creamy and cheese spread. In the 1960s, “Mrs. Roosevelt said ‘chicken it is’ mixture was prepared in the same LBJ’s long-time cook Zephyr Wright so chicken we had.” After chicken way, and the great punch bowl was fixedT exas favorites while Executive it was turkey. For a family dish the carried before the President. And Chef Henry Haller, who served from Roosevelts preferred their chicken each time, lifting his cup, President Johnson through Reagan, was re- fried with Maryland gravy. (See reci- Roosevelt gave the same toast: “To sponsible for formal occasions. Like pes below.) the United States!” some of his predecessors, LBJ’s taste Mrs. Nesbitt confides that for Eisenhower, “continental seems to have been suspect: he once “Cocktails and Highballs were served fare was strictly for state occa- rejected Haller’s tournedos Rossini, upstairs and I had nothing to do with sions” while daily meals followed declaring the meat “rotten” before them, but the New Year’s eggnog 1950s fashions, including a famous many guests had been served. As presidential historian Barry Landau points out, however, Johnson simply Maryland Chicken wasn’t used to the taste of pâté de foie Disjoint frying chicken into serving pieces. gras. During Gerald Ford’s term, Haller’s lobster en Bellevue might be Put in paper bag served in the State Dining Room, 2 tablespoons flour but lasagna and stuffed cabbage were 1 teaspoon salt found at family meals. ½ teaspoon pepper regardless of presidential tastes, public events revolved around classi- Place several pieces of chicken in bag at a time and shake. Pan fry with cal French fare, with menus printed either bacon fat or bacon fat and butter, until nicely browned. Turn in French without translation. (Jackie down heat and cook until tender. Take out chicken, add another piece Kennedy introduced a variant with of butter and 1 tablespoon of flour and blend with the caramel. Add main ingredients in English.) De- rich milk or thin cream and make gravy. Season with ½ teaspoon salt spite occasional complaints that the 1 and /8 teaspoon pepper. Boiled rice is served with this. Two pound president should promote American chicken serves 4. cooking, the White House only recently moved away from these French roots. when the Clintons announced that they wanted to showcase Amer- ican art, Alice Waters wrote an open New Years Eggnog letter to the Clintons, signed by many leading chefs, urging Ameri- 12 eggs, beaten separately can cuisine in the nation’s kitchen. 3 quarts heavy cream 6 The letter echoed the rhetoric of (thin may be used) republican simplicity—“We chefs 1 pound sugar … believe that good food, pure and ¼ pint rum wholesome, should be not just a 1 quart brandy privilege of the few, but a right for Nutmeg to taste everyone”—and urged environmen- tal stewardship: “By promoting the Beat egg yolks with sugar until creamy. Add cream gradually, then value of organically grown fruits beaten whites of eggs. Add liquor and nutmeg last. Yield, about 6 and vegetables, your table would quarts. reaffirm Thomas Jefferson’s ideals of a nation of small farmers.”

 the White House has occasion- “light menu” featuring local ingre- rang true enough to be picked up by ally attempted to showcase American dients—just the kind of chef Waters mainstream news outlets, including a cuisine, as at a series of dinners had recommended. Scheib’s first state story from the Onion reported as fact. hosted by Ronald Reagan in 1983: dinner, for the Emperor of Japan, Indeed, the menu says more about “first a southern-themed dinner, offered a regional American menu food’s entanglement with fundraising then an American seafood luncheon, uniting cosmopolitan sophistication than any meal ever actually served at then a ‘Creole Occasion,’ then a with republican simplicity, reflecting the White House. Tex-Mex lunch.” Notably, however, America’s maturation as a political eventually, the Bushes fired these meals occurred in Williams- and cultural power. Scheib and hired Cristeta Com- burg. Presidents seem less bound by unsurprisingly, the chef hired by erford, the first woman to serve tradition away from the Executive the Clintons was fired byL aura Bush. as White House Executive Chef. Mansion, as in 1939, when Eleanor Scheib claims that he had adapted Though specializing in ethnic and Roosevelt served hot dogs and baked to the Bush’s desires for what he American cuisine, Comerford was beans to King George VI and Queen termed “country club food.” But at trained in French classical techniques Elizabeth at Hyde Park. the end of the first Bush administra- and had spent much of her career in the White House itself, the tion, Scheib found his cooking under in French restaurants. Clearly, the changes suggested by Alice Waters repeated attacks, from being sent White House kitchen isn’t headed came slowly. Hillary Clinton worked dog-eared magazines like Martha back to Patrick Henry’s “native vict- with the White House Chef, Pierre Stewart Living, with instructions to uals.” Balancing her background and Chambrin, though he bristled at “make it look just like the picture” goals, Comerford uses her classical changing the Inaugural Dinner to to the social secretary’s claim that he skills to produce “American flavors,” celebrate American food. The menu, always overcooked vegetables. as the White House puts it. a collaborative effort with a “Kitchen the best commentary on this the precariousness of this bal- Cabinet” of three outside chefs, conflict in theW hite House kitchen ance reminds us that the Freedom started with “smoked marinated came in a meal that was never served. Fries incident, like Raw Beef in shrimp with a mango horseradish According to a story written by 1840 or last year’s pilgrimages by chutney, roast tenderloin of beef, Deanna Swift on her satirical site presidential primary candidates, was baby vegetables in a zucchini basket titled “The Swift Report,” Scheib’s about image rather than substance, and Yukon Gold potatoes with Vida- “relationship with the first family presentation rather than taste. After lia onions.” After a salad of “winter had grown increasingly tense since all, not even Representative Ney greens with a hazelnut dressing and he was asked to stop using French suggested that patriotic Americans [Massachusetts] goat cheese” came […] techniques after France refused should stop eating fried potatoes. “an apple sherbet terrine with Apple- to support the U.S. led invasion of jack mousse and hot cider sauce.” Iraq.” Things soon got worse, Swift Mark McWilliams is an associate Wines were American; the menu was reported, as the Bushes requested that professor of English at the United in English. Yet this was more than their chef support not American food States Naval Academy. He writes an exercise in translation. Unhappy but American corporations: “Ten- about food and culture, specializing with the new direction the kitchen sions were further exacerbated … by in the shifting portrayals of food in was taking, Chambrin disagreed with White House orders that Scheib cre- literature. His work has appeared in emphasizing American and low-fat ate a special inaugural menu to honor various scholarly journals includ- food. With his cookbooks “all in the brand names represented by … ing the proceedings of the Oxford French and all by dead people,” Bush campaign donors. Scheib was Symposium on Food & Cookery. Chambrin was “incapable of doing reportedly vocal about his unhappi- He received his M.A. and Ph.D. in low fat,” according to The New York ness over having to create dishes that English Literature from the Univer- Times in 1994, so the Clintons re- featured such ingredients as Coca- sity of Virginia. placed Chambrin by someone with Cola, Krispy Kreme Doughnuts up-to-date cookbooks. and Pilgrim’s Pride Whole Butter at the Greenbrier, Walter Scheib Basted Turkeys.” Though false, had been in charge of developing a like all good satire, the Swift menu

 Shaker Traditions Believers in Watervliet, New York, also provided a source of income. Continued from page 1 issued its first dated herb catalog, of- always interested in furthering fering 128 herbs, as well as medicinal the physical and spiritual health of to locate herbs and plants. Meals waters, pills, and syrups. By 1850, the their members, Shaker physicians changed with the seasons and de- nineteen existing Shaker villages had occasionally recommended a bever- pended upon what they could grow, at least 150 acres under cultivation age or banned a particular food. A preserve, and store. Busy forming for medicinal herbs. popular diet developed in the 1830s their communities and overseeing while we think of herbs for by Sylvester Graham, a nutritionist new converts, the early Shakers fol- seasoning our food today, the early who advocated the abstention from lowed the eating habits of the day Shakers used them primarily for me- meat, refined flour, alcohol, season- and ate simply: minced meat, bean dicinal purposes. From 1847 to 1854, ings, and stimulants, caught their porridge, potatoes, “Indian bread,” they began to sell summer savory, attention. A Presbyterian minister, cider, and occasionally milk, butter, sage, sweet marjoram, thyme, and Graham reasoned that this diet or cheese. As their fields and or- occasionally horseradish, for culinary would also reduce sexual cravings, chards grew, so did their choices of use. From 1849 to about 1865, the so it is no wonder that in 1841 the food. The goal to feed their members Shakers planted roses for the sale Shakers’ Lead Ministry issued formal was also joined by a goal to provide of rosewater for flavoring and other recommendations to adopt it. The a source of income to ensure their purposes. They also added maple communities in New Lebanon, Can- survival. sugar and honey to sweeten their terbury, and Harvard, Massachusetts, in 1794, seven years after it was food. Molasses was used for making were the first communities to adhere formed, the community in New beer and as well as medicine. to this advice. Lebanon, New York, started an herb Perhaps the most interesting although popular among the business. The next year, it started a aspect of their culinary history was “World’s People” (those outside the seed business, as did the Shaker com- their attempt to adopt vegetarianism. Shaker Community), the Graham munity at Hancock, Massachusetts, This effort ran counter to their tradi- diet proved to be very controver- and the New Hampshire commu- tional eating habits, which included sial among the Shakers. The older nities in Canterbury and Enfield. abundant servings of pork, beef, and members were accustomed to more Other villages followed suit. dairy products. Elder Henry Blinn variety, the meat eaters missed their By 1812, the New Lebanon reported that in 1801, the Canter- servings of beef and pork, and the Shakers established an herb garden bury Shakers processed 2,222 pounds cooks fretted about having to prepare to ensure a steady supply of rare of cheese and 942 pounds of butter. too many customized dishes. More- plants. Canterbury established an In 1811 they slaughtered about 15 over, the vegetarian Believers felt herb garden in 1816, and in 1820, the cows and 70 pigs to produce 5,835 that the diet was not strict enough. Believers in Harvard, Massachusetts, pounds of beef and 5,616 pounds of (At Canterbury, red meat and fish began selling herbs. By 1830, the pork. This meat fed the Believers but were permitted on Sunday, and a sin-

E nfield S haker Museum. gle dairy serving was allowed at every meal.) Although attempts were made to enforce the diet over the years, it was never officially adopted. shaker cooks readily collected recipes from the “World’s People” and adapted them for their own use. About 1882 Mary Whitcher’s Shaker House-Keeper, a collection of recipes and ads promoting Canterbury’s medicinal products, was published. Canterbury Shaker Eldress Mary Whitcher wrote in her introduction, “The Shakers recognize the fact that Onion field at Enfield Shaker community in New Hampshire. good food, properly cooked and

 E nfield S haker Museum. promote the Shakers’ fine produce. Eldress Bertha believed that cooking was an art. A fine meal not only had to have fresh produce, but it also had to be delicious and “eye-appeal- ing.” The Shaker culinary style, she said, was plain, nourishing, “country cooking.” she was taught that a typical Shaker meal might consist of soup, one or two types of meat, bread, several kinds of vegetables, and at least one kind of dessert. Pie could be served for dessert but was often served at breakfast. Applesauce, in- troduced at Canterbury in 1815, was served at each meal. A meal also had to have color and texture. Eldress Bertha followed Shaker tradition by Apple picking in the Enfield Shaker community. keeping her favorite recipes in scrap- books. A true artist, she continued to well digested, is the basis of sound and worked until about two in the experiment and improve. health.” She espoused that food not afternoon. The head cook planned Her style of cooking does not only be “savory” but also “economi- the meals and cooked the meats, and differ from Sabbathday Lake Sister cal.” The cookbook included typical the second cook washed and cooked Frances A. Carr, who published her nineteenth century New England the vegetables. The messer fixed own cookbook, Shaker Your Plate: Of dishes such as boiled dinner and leg special dishes for the elderly, the Shaker Cooks and Cooking, in 1985, of mutton. Although some recipes bedridden, and the spiritual leaders two years before Eldress Bertha pub- were deemed “Shaker,” most were who lived in separate quarters. Two lished hers. Sister Frances describes taken from newspaper clippings from Sisters worked in the bake room and Shaker cooking as “plain, wholesome across the country. made bread, pies, and pastries for the food, well prepared.” By 1985 Sister shaker cooks and bakers fed their entire community. Frances had worked for more than own members as well as potential in her memoirs, Seasoned With 30 years in the Shaker kitchen. As did converts, visitors, and hired hands. Grace: My Generation of Shaker Eldress Bertha, she learned how to Canterbury Shaker Elder Henry Cooking, Eldress Bertha Lindsay of cook as a child, and was given recipes Blinn recorded in his “Historical Canterbury Shaker Village recalled a that had been passed down through Record” that an estimated 4,000 life that revolved around the harvest- the years. meals were given away in 1846 to ing, processing, and serving of food. today, Shaker traditions con- “inquirers and young Believers not She began her culinary training with tinue through their programs and yet gathered into the Family.” Orga- other girls when she was about 10, herb catalogue at Sabbathday Lake nization was therefore important. At first learning how to cook potatoes in New Gloucester, Maine, as the Enfield and Canterbury, the Church and then taking on more complicated only remaining active Shaker com- Family dwelling house had a dining tasks. At age 20 she was promoted munity. Other Shaker museums offer hall, kitchen, and a bakery. Built-in as head cook in the Trustees Office, tours and meals. The EnfieldS haker cupboards and shelves provided stor- where some of the Shaker leaders Museum in New Hampshire (www. age with minimal space. The layout and guests had meals. A separate shakermuseum.org) offers the unique allowed a head cook, a second cook, dining room was set aside for hired experience of touring the Great Stone and a third cook, or “messer,” to hands outside the community (as Dwelling. Completed in 1841, this work together. The cooks and bak- many as 25 men). Serving meals to handsome granite structure is among ers rose at four-thirty in the morning the “World’s People” was a way to Continued on page 10

 Shaker Traditions Continued from page 9 Member News the most outstanding architectural achievements of the Shakers and of The Woman’s Day Cookbook for Healthy Studies program, a graduate seminar New England. The six-story high Living by Elizabeth Alston and about “Food Narratives.” building was for many years the tall- the Editors of Woman’s Day will be est building north of Boston. It was published this month. The book intended to serve nearly 100 Shaker serves as a guide for those who want Donna Goldman had a recipe for Sisters and Brethren and was a tes- a healthy lifestyle, complete with her “Purple & Gold Coleslaw” tament to their success. The design exercise tips and sections on cook- published in The Providence Journal is an excellent example of how the ing methods, without giving up on in February after reading a call for Shakers embraced new technology. delicious meals. entries for cost effective recipes. She One innovation was soundproof- is a chef and graduate of The Natural ing the building so that the Shakers Gourmet, specializing in utilitarian could carry out their tasks and not Carolina M. Capehart’s historic cookery. Members can receive a copy disturb others. In addition to tours, cooking series “Fireside Feasts” was of her recipe by e-mailing recipes- the Great Stone Dwelling is open for again held at Brooklyn’s Wyckoff [email protected]. dining and overnight stays. Farmhouse Museum this summer. The open-fire cooking workshops Mary Rose Boswell is Executive Di- included such early 19th-century fare Cathy Kaufman is working with rector of Enfield (New Hampshire) as a boiled egg pudding with a cream Context Travel to offer walking sem- Shaker Museum (www.shakermuse- sauce, a tansey, and “scolloped” toma- inars of New York City foodways that um.org.) She worked at Canterbury toes. Two Brooklyn newspapers ran focus on the social and culinary his- Shaker Village for four years. She articles on the classes and there was a tory of Manhattan neighborhoods. edited and annotated Eldress Bertha mention in The New York Times. She is currently offering “Tasting Lindsay’s book Seasoned with Grace: the Immigrant Experience.” During My Generation of Shaker Cooking. She a walk through Little Italy and Chi- is also the co-author of The Earth Jody Eddy, author of the culinary natown, she traces the 19th and 20th Shall Blossom: Shaker Herbs and Gar- website www.eddybles.com and century immigration patterns, and dening. Both publications are sources former cook at Jean Georges and contrasts the vibrancy of Chinatown for this article. She has written many The Fat Duck in Bray, England, with the fossilization of Little Italy. other articles about the Shakers on a is the new Executive Editor of Art Generous tastings are provided en wide variety of topics; two publica- Culinaire magazine. route. Visit www.contexttravel.com tions have received national awards. for more information. She is a recipient of the Institute of Museum & Library Service’s Na- Betty Fussell’s most recent take tional Award for Museum Service. on American food history, Raising Judy Levin is currently working at Steaks: The Life and Times of American the Lower East Side Tenement Mu- Beef, will be published this month seum and investigating immigrant by the newly integrated publishing foodways. company Houghton Mifflin Har- court. In August she did a corn and beef tasting at Peter Hoffman’s Back Chocolate Epiphany: Exceptional Cook- 40 in Manhattan. and she headed a ies, Cakes and Confections for Everyone, panel of “The Future of Farming” by François Payard with Anne E. at the first national conference of McBride, was published by Clarkson Slow Food Nation in San Francisco. Potter in April. Anne also collabo- In September she began teaching a rated with Mitchell Davis on the one-semester course for NYU’s Food James Beard Foundation’s first white

10 Meryl Rosofsky, with her colleague Susan Yager, co-lead a graduate in- tensive field trip/seminar on “The East End of Long Island as a Case Study for Sustainability,” for Food Studies students at NYU. The course will focus on the agriculture, aquaculture, wine industries, and restaurants of Long Island’s North and South Forks and will include visits to wineries; scallop and oyster fish hatcheries, organic, biody- namic, and conventional farms; and restaurants continuing family traditions and/or embracing local, seasonal products.

Francine Segan, cookbook au- “Tasting the Immigrant Experience” at a Chinatown market on Mott Street. thor and lecturer, has co-edited a two-volume encyclopedia entitled, paper, “The State of American Cui- and schedule may be found on her Entertaining from Ancient Rome to the sine.” The paper is available at www. website www.hearttohearthcookery. Super Bowl, which will be published jamesbeard.org/resources. com. by Greenwood Press this month. Several CHNY members, includ- ing Cathy Kaufman and Andrew F. Marion Nestle’s book, Pet Food James Reford has written a profile Smith, are contributors. In October Politics: The Chihuahua in the Coal of Michelin Guide director Jean-Luc at the 92nd Street Y, Francine will Mine about last year’s pet food re- Naret for the fall issue of NUVO, a give a lecture on the history of Italian calls and their implications for food lifestyle magazine which publishes desserts and moderate a discussion safety was published in September Canadian and international con- between Lidia Bastianich and Do- by University of California Press. tent. natella Arpaia on Italian foods and She is now writing a regular column, restaurants. “Food Matters,” for the San Francisco Chronicle. Peter G. Rose is working on a new book titled Food, Drink and Celebra- Valerie Saint-Rossy, who grew tions of the Hudson Valley Dutch to be up in Taiwan, has been teaching Susan McLellan Plaisted, Propri- published by the The History Press the course “Chinese Characters for etress of Heart to Hearth Cookery (Charleston, SC) in 2009 as part Chinese Food Lovers” since 2006. in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, of the Hudson/Fulton/Champlain The course (mentioned in The New presented a program in Skowhegan, Quadricentennial year. She serves York Times food section) was first Maine, on “The Bake Oven” at the on the Advisory Committee of the offered at NYU’s School of Con- KNEADING Conference. Open to upcoming celebration exhibit at the tinuing and Professional Studies, professional and home bakers, farm- Museum of the City of New York and and now meets privately. Learning ers, millers, and oven builders, the is involved with similar celebrations to read the basic food characters conference investigates progressive at other locations. As a member of opens the door to those pink-slip ideas in the art of wood-fired bread the Speakers’ Bureau of the New daily specials and Chinese-only baking and production; grain grow- York Council for the Humanities she menus, and it also reveals the cul- ing and milling; and oven-building. will be speaking throughout the state tural, political, and economic roots of Information about Susan’s classes on topics related to the celebration. Continued on page 12

11 Member News A Global History, by Ken Albala, Continued from page 11 and Pizza: A Global History, by Stay in Touch! Carol Helstosky. The series will Chinese food names. Valerie is also be launched at 8 pm on November 2008 Membership Directory a copy editor for Saveur magazine. 18 at the National Arts Club (15 Directories have been mailed. Please Gramercy Park South) in New York. e-mail chnydirectory@helenbrody. Andrew F. Smith’s next book, Smith, Albala, and Helstosky will com with changes and corrections Hamburger: A Global History, will briefly present their works. The and they will be included in an up- be published by Reaktion Books launch party is free to all members coming newsletter. this month. It is part of the new Ed- of the Culinary Historians of New ible series, which includes Pancake: York. Spam blockers If you want to receive organization news, spam blockers must accept CHNY program announcements from Carolyn Vaughan (TFOX2@ nyc.rr.com) and CHNY newsletter upcoming programs announcements from Helen Brody ([email protected]).

Monday, October 20 Correct e-mail address? Bee Wilson on her new book, Swindled: The Dark History of Food Fraud, from CHNY members receive numer- Poisoned Candy to Counterfeit Coffee ous announcements by e-mail, not Astor Center only about our own programs, but also about other events of culinary interest, including talks, tours, and Monday, November 17 tastings. Please send new address Ken Albala, “The Tomato Queen of San Joaquin” changes to www.culinaryhistori- Location TBA ansny.org/contact.

Program Registration News Tuesday, December 9 You can now register for CHNY pro- Anne Mendelson, on her new book Milk: The Surprising Story of Milk Through grams online, through Brown Paper the Ages Tickets (www.brownpapertickets. National Arts Club com). Brown Paper Tickets accepts MasterCard, Visa, and Discover. No more scrambling for a stamp and an envelope! Of course, we will con- tinue to accept registrations through the mail for those who prefer it.

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