• CULINARY HISTORIANS OF NEW YORK• Volume 17, No. 2 Spring 2004

Saint Honoré—Patron Saint of Bakers & Chefs And the Evolution of the Created In His Honor By Meryle Evans Tracking down reliable informa- Chiboust paid homage to both the to tion about both the saint and the saint and the name of the street the Prince of origin of his namesake cake has with his cake but gave his own Monaco, re- been an exciting search laced with name to the filling, made by fold- called in their legends and very few solid facts. ing beaten egg whites into a classic reminiscences Honoré, I was finally able to estab- pastry cream. that the first lish, was a 6th-century Bishop of The 1840s were a period of Saint-Honorés Amiens in Northern France who ferment in French pastry, a time of were made with was so modest that he didn’t even change from tall, inedible pièces a circle of want to be consecrated (his re- montées to simpler, more flavorful brioche dough mains are in the cathedral). His old creations that could be eaten right (docked and family nursemaid was at home bak- down to the base. Like the savarin, weighted down) ing bread one day when a invented at Julien Frères, an surrounded by mysterious oil poured on Honoré’s esteemed establishment founded small brioche balls. In the earliest head, a sure sign from the heavens by three brothers in 1844, many of printed Saint-Honoré recipe I lo- that he should be anointed. She the classics we enjoy today were cated, (Louis Bailleux’Le Pâtissier threw down a bud from a mulberry born in famous Parisian pastry Moderne, published in the 1850s) tree and exclaimed that she would shops of that era. the brioche base was then spread believe this miracle if the bud took As to Chiboust’s Saint-Honoré, with a layer of choux paste and root. Instantly, the bud became a after consulting with culinary his- baked. Hazelnut-sized cream puffs tree bearing full foliage and fruit— torians in France and the were dipped in a cooked syrup of and a legend was born. Though his Confédération Nationale de la glazed fruits, attached to the base, connection with baking is pretty Boulangerie-Pâtisserie Française and sprinkled with pink or green tenuous, Honoré eventually be- and pouring over dozens of old tinted sugar. Pieces of glazed fruit came a saint and patron of the cookbooks with master chef and were placed between the puffs and trade, always depicted in medieval archivist Jacques Coustar in the the center filled with a pastry cream statues and prints holding a long marvelous library of the Société lightened with whipped cream. baker’s peel and loaves of bread. Culinaire Philanthropique in mid- According to Favre, Chiboust’s Even today, bakers throughout town Manhattan, I discovered that original filling was just whipped France celebrate May 16th—the the original gâteau was so different cream perfumed with strawberries, day he died in 600 A.D.—with fes- from what we now consider to be violets, roses, raspberries, or tivals and processions. the “classic”and that the only con- vanilla. However, when fresh According to accounts in 19th- stant in the recipe has been a cream became hard to find in Paris century pastry books, the gâteau crown of puffs circling a round during the summer months, a Saint-Honoré was invented around base with an airy cream filling. pastry cream lightened with beaten 1846 by a pâtissier named Two renowned 19th-century egg whites was substituted. Chiboust who ran a shop on the culinary authorities, Swiss chef Soon pastry chefs were coming Rue Saint Honoré in Paris. Joseph Favre and Pierre Lacam, Continued on page 10 CHNY Steering Committee 2003–2004 FROM THE CHAIR Chair: Cathy Kaufman Vice-Chair: Stephen Schmidt I am happy to announce the launch of the website for the Culinary His- Treasurer: Diane Klages torians of New York, www.culinaryhistoriansny.org. Created by Secretary: Kara Newman CHNY member Tae Ellin, it will supplement the hardcopy program Members-at-Large: announcements and semiannual newsletters that all members will Stacey Harwood, continue to receive by mail. Membership We had four goals in creating the website. First and foremost, we Linda Pelaccio, Programs wanted to make it easier for non-members to learn about the organiza- Kathy Cardlin, Publicity tion, attend programs, and join CHNY. Second, we wanted to create a convenient archive of CHNY informa- tion (handy if, like me, your mailed program announcement gets lost on CHNY Information Hotline: your desk). This will include an on-line archive of our newsletters and (212) 501-3738 book reviews and has the added advantage of greater space (for more in- depth essays) than our print version permits. Third, we wanted to coordinate and contribute to the information CHNY Newsletter available to both passionate amateurs and serious scholars alike. In our Editor: Helen Brody “Books and Resources” pages you will find links to cookery collections at Copy Editor: Karen Berman universities and libraries, many of which can be accessed by a click of a mouse. Browse these links to reach Michigan State University’s “Feeding Please send/e-mail member America: The Historic American Cookbook Project,” where you can news, book reviews, events study works like Mrs. Ellet’s The Practical Housekeeper (1857). For those who prefer their research in the kitchen, peruse and contribute to our calendars to: “Virtual Cookbook: Recipes with History,” where we will post recipes Helen Brody placed in their historical and social context. We hope that everyone will PO Box 923 share recipes with history. Grantham, NH 03753 Finally, we are offering members an “opt-in” e-mail notification sys- [email protected] tem: register your e-mail address and receive notice of non-CHNY (603) 863-5299 events (such as the current exhibition of chocolate, tea, and coffee accou- (603) 863-8943 Fax trements at the Metropolitan Museum of Art). We hope that you enjoy the website and will visit soon. We are still Papers demonstrating serious “under construction,” and I invite you to contact me with questions or culinary history research will ideas ([email protected]) about making the website bet- be considered for inclusion in ter serve your needs. issues of the CHNY news- letters. Please contact Helen Brody, newsletter editor. Matriculating students of Cathy Kaufman culinary history or related topics are invited to contribute.

2 Inglysch, editd by Constance B. the Smithsonian Institution on the Hieatt and Sharon Butler, page history of American bread titled “A LETTERS 98).There are much earlier recipes, Century of Change in the Ameri- but this one is particularly perti- can Loaf: Or Where are the Breads nent in that it concerns beans dried of Yesteryear?” To the Editor: in an oast before being seethed, She has co-authored or edited In “Early Sephardic Foodways that is cooked exceedingly slowly, eight published works and her in the Hudson Valley,” Judith then eaten with bacon. newest edited work Mr. Jefferson’s Hausman posits that “Chamin There are other errors, but Table: Culinary Legacy of Monticello known to Ashkenazic Jews as versions of this particular bit of is forthcoming. cholent, may in fact have been an wishful thinking are a staple in antecedent of the popular Boston writing culinary history. Let us all To the Editor: baked beans.” do our homework. We were pleased to see a The use of long, slow cooking —KAREN HESS reprint of our article on Sephardic methods goes back to the dawn of foodways in your Fall 2003 issue. civilization, countless millennia be- Ed. Note: Karen Hess is a found- However, we noticed that the fore Abraham, not to mention ing member of the Culinary photo credits were missing. Photo Moses and the commandment to Historians of New York. In addi- credits are for Jerry Novesky/The observe the Sabbath. Until the ad- tion to many other presentations, Valley Table. vent of metal cooking pots in the in 1994 she gave the keynote ad- —JANET CRAWSHAW, Publisher Bronze Age, all cooking involving dress at a two day symposium at The Valley Table liquid had to be executed very slowly. Perforce, primitive “stone boiling” was painfully laborious and barely kept the liquid hot. CULINARY BOOKSHELF Earthenware pots, while a wonder- ful improvement, cannot stand up to rapid boiling. My point is that The Cook’s Canon: 101 Classic Recipes in the end, an arbitrary exercise of long slow cookery has been prac- Everyone Should Know personal taste. ticed from earliest time by peoples by Raymond Sokolov In spite of the author’s caution- of all faiths, and owes nothing (New York, HarperCollins ary warning, some entries are sure whatsoever to customs in obser- Publishers, 2003) to raise eyebrows. Macaroni and vance of the Sabbath. cheese, meat loaf. Is this a joke? As to beans specifically, long REVIEW BY HELEN STUDLEY But then, again, who are we to tell? slow cooking is the only proper Macaroni and cheese achieved res- way of cooking dried beans. The OOKBOOK author, former taurant chic when executive chef indigenous peoples up Boston way Crestaurant critic of The New Doug Psaltis, of Alain Ducasse’s had surely been cooking their own York Times, one-time columnist on restaurant Mix in New York, put it dried beans slowly long before the America’s foodways for Natural on the menu. The meat loaf recipe, English showed up. Further those History magazine, and former editor Sokolov tells us, is from his editor, English colonists had ancestral of The Wall Street Journal’s “Leisure Susan Ruth Friedland, whom he recipes for long slow cooking of and Arts” page, Raymond Sokolov calls “the Lucullus of publishing.” dried beans, albeit a different vari- loves to play “enfant terrible.” As a On a personal note, I was de- ety. In a fifteenth century passionate scholar with a sense of lighted to find vitello tonnato and manuscript entitled Form of Cury, I humor, it is a role that suits him tripes à la mode de Caen among his find a recipe that instructs the well. Forestalling eyebrow raising “canonic” dishes. The veal-tuna reader: “…Take benes and dry hem protest from his readers, Sokolov combination is an ideal summer in a nost or in an ovene … & do admits that the 101 recipes worthy dish that seemingly went out of hem to seeth in gode broth, & ete of his culinary hall of fame style and deserves to be resur- hem with bacoun.” (In Curve on (arranged in alphbetical order), are Continued on page 4

3 Culinary Bookshelf French recipes dominate be- What Einstein Told His Cook from page 3 cause French cuisine has shaped by Robert L. Wolke rected; the erstwhile popular every other European and Ameri- (New York, W. W. Norton, 2002) French bistro item, tripe, however, can cuisine. Still there are plenty of strikes fear in the heart of today’s dishes from other European cul- REVIEW BY JEANNE LESEM faint-hearted diner. In his mayon- tures. To me, one of the most naise recipe, Sokolov states his case intriguing recipes is Maiale in Latte SCIENCE book that’s fun to regarding current “forbidden” or (Italian Pork Roast in Milk). Aread? Wolke’s book is just that, “foreboding” food. There are the recipes from but if you find puns unfunny, be “Some people won’t eat real more distant places with great cui- forewarned; the author likes them. mayonnaise anymore,” he writes, sines: China, Morocco, and India. “Beet me with a cane” introduces his “because they fear that the raw egg Given the author’s interest in the explanation of the differences be- yolks in it may be contaminated by eating habits of people in the tween beet and cane sugar. salmonella. For me, the tiny risk of Americas, there are many telling Among the many questions he death by mayo is no more frighten- entries. answers is, “Does it ever really get ing than the prospect that someday Comfort food, like bread pud- hot enough to fry an egg on the (as actually happened to a friend of ding and chocolate pudding, fried sidewalk?” his) I may walk out of the house rice and rice pudding are given “It’s unlikely. But scientific and be hit by a set of barbells fall- equal billing with suckling pig, opinion has never been known to ing from a window overhead.” persillé, quenelles de brochet discourage people from trying to Part of the book’s enjoyment with crayfish sauce. The latter is prove an age-old urban legend.” comes from the short essays that clearly meant as tribute to the While readers may enjoy precede the recipes. In his intro- great Henri Soulé who was the un- Wolke’s views on food preparation, duction to Peking duck, Sokolov disputed apostle of refined taste. and may even be tempted to follow pays tribute to his Lithuanian-born The Cook’s Canon, informed by a recipe, finding a specific one isn’t aunt Tzipi who found refuge from history and a people’s culture, gives easy. There’s no recipe index and Nazi persecution in Shanghai us the love letters of a man who no indication in the general index where a “notorious rake” intro- enjoys eating and invites us to whether the listing is for a recipe duced her to Peking Duck. In the share his passion. or not. This factor has discouraged communal kitchen of a slovenly There is one thing about the me from trying any of them; some, hut, between opium pipes and love book, however, that bothered me: like one for champagne jelly, are in making, he boiled the duck atop a its cover. The colors are loud and my view a waste of a good and ex- charcoal fire and then dipped it in garish and out-of-tune with the pensive beverage, better to drink honey. “He wore no shirt, and I nature of the book. Maybe it was than to jell, especially since the didn’t like it that the women could designed to address a generation raspberries called for are apt to see him half naked, even though I unfamiliar with Raymond overwhelm the champagne flavor. was sure most of them had seen Sokolov’s contribution to the culi- Anyway, it’s a good read. more of him at other times.” nary world. In that case, I Browsing through the book withdraw my objection and simply Jeanne Lesem, a freelance journalist before buying it, the following say: “Get the book. You’ll enjoy it.” and author, was the first food editor of footnote to moules marinière had United Press International. Her most me sold: “Belgium brings out the Helen Studley, formerly co-owner of recent cookbook, Preserving in worst in the French. If you think the restaurant La Colombe d’Or, au- Today’s Kitchen, won a James Beard Frenchmen are anti-American, you thor of The Chicken For Every Foundation Award when first should hear them sneer at their Occasion Cookbook and Life of a published as Preserving Today. Francophone neighbors.” But all Restaurant: Tales and Recipes from joking aside, the recipe is clearly La Colombe d’Or, is a freelance food stated and foolproof. and travel writer.

4 fertile, but the oysters themselves were large: often over a foot long PROGRAM SUMMARIES and quite broad. With these copi- ous winter oysters and spring salmon runs, the Lenape had “a WHAT’S COOKING IN Linda Pelaccio, chair of CHNY’s permanent cushion against MESOPOTAMIA? program committee, formerly a pro- seasonal food shortages” before A History of Iraqi Cuisine ducer at the Food Network, is a food plants ripened. writer and culinary media coach. The Lenape were primarily Presented by Nawal Nasrallah hunter-gatherers, organized into social units of a few dozens or up The cuisine of Iraq has evolved NEW YORK’S FIRST to several hundreds. Labor was over several thousands of years. As REGIONAL CUISINE generally divided along gender the crossroad of many eastern and lines. Men hunted animals such as western cultures the cuisine has a Presented by Anne Mendelson deer, black bear, raccoon, lynx, and distinctive character that testifies the highly prized wild turkey that to the diversity of its roots. Nawal How does one begin to investigate early colonists complained was too Nasrallah, who lived in Iraq until a cuisine of a culture that had no fat. Water birds abounded and the 1990, is the author of Delights from written language and has left no list reads like a late medieval cook- the Garden of Eden: A Cookbook and obvious impression on our current book: terns, swans, bitterns, and History of the Iraqi Cuisine foodways? If you are scholarly plover, added to the very American (Bloomington, In., 1st Books Anne Mendelson and your topic is canvas-backed duck and passenger Library, 2003). the cuisine of the Lenape, you im- pigeon, insured a regular avian In her presentation she high- merse yourself in the topographical food supply, especially during the lighted the cuisine’s origins in history of the region, open your migrating season when the sky civilizations that can be traced eyes to the dizzying variety of wild could be darkened for hours while back more than three thousand plant life still found in the Hudson a flock of birds passed overhead. years before Christianity. The River Valley, and critically pore Women gathered wild plants and Sumerians, Babylonians, and over Eurocentric 17th-century shellfish, the things that “stood Assyrians, collectively referred to descriptions that can be found to still.” Fruits and nuts were essen- as ancient Mesopotamians, document the dying culinary cul- tial paths in Lenape foodways, achieved a cultural sophistication ture. Anne shared the fruits of her including starchy chestnuts, sadly which extended to their cuisine. labors with a packed house at the destroyed by blight in the early 20th Theirs was the first documented Mount Vernon Hotel Museum on century, black walnuts, butternuts, “cookbook” with recipes inscribed November 19, 2003. beechnuts, hazelnuts, and acorns. on clay tablets ca.1700 BCE. (Yale The unique geography of the Wild fruits included the fat straw- Babylonian Collection) Hudson River Valley—the Hudson berries that contrasted with the The complex spice combina- River is a glacially created fjord in skinny fraises de bois known to the tions that flavor many of the dishes which salt waters travel up some Europeans, certain grapes, cran- come from spices traded on the 150 miles to mingle with fresh— berries and blueberries, Silk Road, such as cardamom, creates a striking series of persimmons, bitter cherries, cumin, anise, mustard, and cassia, a ecosystems that were home to prickly pear, and certain brambles. cinnamon type spice. Methods of dense schools of fish such as shad, Jerusalem artichokes, American farming, cooking, and preserving bass, sturgeon and salmon. The wild ginger, and wild greens foods as well as some of the recipes retreating glaciers also created the rounded out the gatherers’ larder. are still employed in today’s soci- wetlands surrounding Hackensack Although based on a mobile, ety. Dishes we enjoy today like which, nourished by the tides, were hunting-gathering model, the hummus, lamb stew, and flatbread the largest spawning ground for Lenape practiced a kind of proto- are basically unchanged from shellfish on the East Coast. Not agriculture: controlled fires ancient times. —LINDA PELACCIO only were the grounds large and Continued on page 6

5 Culinary Bookshelf that bacterial action would start to onto a freshly pressed damask from page 5 set in. The Lenape also employed tablecloth. A luminous fish glis- burned forests to open areas that different fats from nuts and ani- tens on a pewter platter. A fly were invaded by favored wild mals, each of which was unrefined closely examines a peach. Image plants. Significantly, they also had and added its distinctive flavor. Af- succeeds luscious image on the three domesticated plants that ter colonization, the Lenape screen in front of us. Are we in a were not indigenous to the region: acquired the European taste for History of Art 101 class? Almost. maize (in this case the hard, salt and the newly introduced We are in a December slide Northern Flint variety), beans, and sugar, alcohol, and wheat. lecture given by Peter G. Rose in squash. Maize in particular is a Unlike Mesoamerican which she tells the CHNY mem- difficult plant to grow and requires foodways that fused with European bers and friends that still-life and constant human intervention, as cookery to define modern Mexican genre paintings of the 17th- the plant cannot pollinate itself. and Latin American cookery, century Dutch masters and the How the Lenape learned to grow Lenape cuisine is, at best, a pal- writings of the descendants of these plants and how committed impsest underlying Hudson River Dutch colonists in America help us they were to the more fixed agri- foodways. Colonists adapted in- to learn what foods the Dutch culture required by maize remains gredients that were easily settlers of New York, New Jersey, a mystery. domesticated, but no interest was Delaware and parts of Pennsyl- Lenape foodways began to shown in the wild crops and tradi- vania and Connecticut consumed change during the 16th century, tions of the Lenape. As the and how they prepared them. post “Contact,” as scholars like to Europeans divvied up land and in- Mrs. Rose is the author of sev- call it, when Europeans explored troduced the concept of private eral books about Dutch foodways, the New World and traded with property, the Lenape, who had tra- including Matters of Taste: Food and the indigenes, but before coloniza- ditionally depended on moving Drink in 17th-Century Dutch Art tion had begun. The Lenape, a among local ecosystems, lost the and Life (Syracuse University Press, pre-metal culture, was fascinated ability to exploit the environment 2002), a book which accompanied by the metal and glass beads ex- and with it, their cuisine. an exhibition of Dutch paintings in plorers brought to barter for the —CATHY K. KAUFMAN Albany in the fall of 2002 celebrat- luxurious pelts demanded by Eu- ing the 350th anniversary of the rope. Once Contact began, the Cathy K. Kaufman is chair of the founding of Beverwijck, the Dutch Lenape focused efforts on amass- Culinary Historians of New York. She settlement that became present- ing furs for trade. is a professional chef and culinary day Albany. The slides she showed Pre-Contact, the Lenape had historian and is on the faculty of The us were of paintings in the exhibit. Stone Age cooking techniques: Institute of Culinary Education (for- We learned that the Dutch without metal, frying and sautéing merly Peter Kump’s) where she teaches brought with them to the New were impossible, as clay vessels classes in historical and French cook- World seeds and root stocks, cannot withstand the high tem- ery. She is also an Associate Editor for implements to cook with, and peratures those techniques require. The Oxford Encyclopedia of Food tableware. They introduced do- Yet Stone Age does not mean un- and Drink to be published by Oxford nuts, coleslaw, sweet , sophisticated: the Lenape could University Press later this year. , and cookies to America. boil, roast over open fires, bake in They had cows but used their milk, embers, smoke, sun and wind-dry, not for drinking, but for making and pit-cook, a hybrid of baking ART IN FOOD cheese. Their main drink was beer, and steaming. From colonists’ de- AND FOOD IN ART for adult and child alike. They sold scriptions, the Lenape palate was rusks in lots of 100, 50, 25. Also different from the European. The Presented by Peter G. Rose wishing to sell them in half lots, 13 Lenape did not add salt to their became half of 25 originating the foods and had a taste for a certain The curl of a half-peeled lemon term “baker’s dozen.” pungency achieved by drying droops over a table’s edge. Light is Mrs. Rose provided many of ungutted creatures without salt, so refracted through a glass of wine the foods she was to discuss as we

6 arrived for the meeting. Ginger one in 1620 in which inventor and resulted in the 1870’s in the begin- , anise cookies, candied (Jor- engineer Cornelis Drebbel used nings of refrigeration as we know it dan) , candied cinnamon, snow, salt, nitre, water, and fans to today. Shachtman concluded his candied quince, Gouda, Edam, and cool a portion of Westminster Ab- talk with Clarence Birdseye’s dis- cumin cheeses, rye, pumpernickel, bey enough to make the king of covery in the early 1920s of quick and sweet white bread, butter were England shiver. In the 1660s a sci- frozen food that left individual accompanied by her own raspberry entist, Robert Boyle, promulgated cells unbroken and hence palatable brandy. —JOHN JENKINS a theory that linked volume, tem- and not mushy, when thawed. By perature, and pressure, a theory the 1940s there was a refrigerator that would lead to critical discover- in every modern home. ABSOLUTE ZERO: AND THE ies 200 years later. —JOHN JENKINS CONQUEST OF THE COLD Shachtman’s talk roamed from John Jenkins has recently returned the ice palaces in St. Petersburg in from an extensive tour of Spain in- Presented by Tom Shachtman the mid-eighteenth century to the cluding two weeks in Northern Spain ice houses of the nineteenth cen- with Penelope Casas. He is recently re- On a frigid January evening the tury. He took us through a maze tired from the Food Network. CHNY gathering was, appropri- of inventors whose efforts finally ately enough, at ICE (Institute for Culinary Education) to hear Tom Shachtman, author of Absolute Zero: And the Conquest of Cold (NY, MEMBER PROFILE Mariner Books, 2001), talk about the history of refrigeration. Food and drink, happily, was on hand to NACH WAXMAN warm our bodies before his talk be- gan. Some food represented the By Kara Newman pre-refrigeration era: smoked salmon and air-dried bresaola, and NACH WAXMAN is the others represented those available owner of Kitchen Arts & since the coming of refrigeration: Letters. Conceived as a frozen grapes, shrimp cocktail on place to enlighten food ice, and ice-box cake. Pindar- professionals—and not just Johannisberg Riesling washed it all those people who ply their down. Also, open-faced cucumber trade in kitchens—it is a sandwiches were there with a small but lushly stocked twinkle to represent “cool as a …”. store that specializes in Warmed and refreshed, we sat books on every aspect of down to hear our speaker define food and wine. Today absolute zero as a temperature three-quarters of the store’s hundreds of degrees below the business is firmly bonded temperature at which water to the food industry, freezes. To give us an idea of how whether chefs or food cold that is, he said the tempera- writers; students of food ture in outer space is about two history, and the related degrees above absolute zero and, fields of social history and anthro- An entire wall devoted to culi- despite their efforts, today’s scien- pology, or collectors of antique nary history and social sciences tists continue to be unable to cooking equipment. Food, as it reflects the increased number of achieve absolute zero. relates to industry or agriculture, is books published to meet a growing He went on to describe early not beyond the store’s reach, nor demand both from academia as attempts at refrigeration, notably are books in foreign languages. Continued on page 8

7 Nach Waxman thought.” Waxman and his staff Kitchen Arts & Letters from page 7 encourage customers to choose 1435 Lexington Ave. at 93rd St. well as hands-on cooks who want books that will give them the back- New York, NY 10128 to research the past in hopes of re- ground knowledge and instincts to Phone: 212-876-5550 discovering an old technique or make them better cooks. As he ex- Fax: 212-876-3584. ingredient that may have fallen out plains, “If you know what I call the E-mail: [email protected] of favor. ‘cultural and historical’ background Perhaps surprisingly for some- of a dish, you’ll make it better.” Kara Newman, secretary of the Cu- one running a store devoted to titles Kitchen Arts & Letters does linary Historians of New York, is a focused on food, Waxman has never not have a website. Having experi- freelance editor and writer, currently worked in the food service industry. mented with one, Waxman prefers working for egullet.com, an interna- After 18 years as an editor for a ma- the customer to contact the store tional website devoted to food. jor publishing house, he opted to directly. “We encourage people to open a bookstore. Having always ask questions,” he explains. “Our wanted to run a store with a par- major commodity is conversation.” ticular specialty, the concept of Kitchen Arts & Letters allowed him the opportunity to indulge his long-time interests in food and anthropology. The business of locating well- MEMBER NEWS researched books is Waxman’s particular passion and, having dis- Lisa DeLange graduated with an its program of culinary walking covered that that there is a buyer MLS (Library Science) from tours to meet increased demand. for even the most obscure book, he Queens College this winter. She See Regional Calendar, page 9. has grown to be uncommonly also received an MA in Food His- daring in his buying. Ideas are tory in Spring 2000. Her website Saveur magazine has named triggered by publications from all is up and running Marion Nestle as its “nutritionist over the world that he and his staff (www.LisaSez.com) with a link of- with a backbone” in the magazine’s read, by customers returning from fering information on sustainable best “100 Special Issue.” (January- foreign travels with names of agriculture. February, 2004). In April, Marion books not available in the United will be a keynote speaker at a States, and from the pressure Betty Fussell’s book My Kitchen University of New Hampshire exerted on him by researchers who Wars is being presented with a live symposium on “Eating as a Moral insist that “there must be some- musical format written by Melissa Act,” with a presentation titled thing” on this or that subject. Sweeney and starring Dorothy “Food Politics and Public Health: Waxman finds a challenging Lyman at the 78th Street Theatre The Paradox of Plenty.” Helen part of his job is to get people “not Lab. The show opened on March Brody will be appearing on a panel to paint by numbers,” as he de- 14th and tickets may be purchased at the same symposium on the sub- scribes cooking strictly by the through Smarttix.com. ject of “Civic Agriculture: recipe. He asserts that the great Relocalizing the Food System.” chefs who come in to his store are With a newborn (Daniel) and a looking for recipe concepts and in- seven year old (Mikol) Alexandra Meryl Rosofsky’s next Food & gredient ideas, not recipes and so Leaf continues to teach and con- Wine Tour in Tuscany will take should the home cook. “Since tribute stories to the Philadelphia place from June 19–26. It will be Fannie Farmer, there has been an Daily News food section. co-hosted by master chef and increasing dependency on precise Lucca native Gianluca Pardini. recipes. We are crippling ourselves Gary Goldberg, Executive Direc- The trip will feature hands-on by denying our taste buds—do it as tor, reports that the New School, cooking classes at the centuries-old you like it—give the recipe some Culinary Arts has greatly expanded Villa Volpi in the countryside of

8 Lucca; excursions to Pisa, Viareggio, and the seaside villages of the Cinque Terre; and visits to REGIONAL CALENDAR wineries and olive groves in Chi- anti and Colle Verde, where the group will meet with the propri- EXHIBITIONS severely inclement weather. Class etors of centuries-old family-run sizes are limited. For additional Montclair (NJ) Historical Society estates and taste their award-win- information and reservations, ning wines and prized Lucchese February 1 through June 20 including directions to tour sites, olive oils. The trip will conclude COOKBOOKS FROM MONTCLAIR call (212) 255-4141. in the very special town of Siena An exhibit of “receipt books,” Sat., April 3. The International and its surrounding countryside. 18th- and 19th-century cookbooks Culinary Delights of Manhattan’s For more information, please con- from the historical society’s collec- 9th Avenue Addie Tomei tact Meryl at [email protected].” tions, and 20th-century cookbooks gathered from local Montclair Sun., April 4. The Japanese Culi- On May 23, Andrew Smith will people and organizations. Crane nary Delights of Mitsuwa Market discuss how Americans have made House Museum. Pat Kinney foods from other areas around the Sat., April 17. The Italian Culinary globe truly “American” at the May 21 through June 20 Delights of Bensonhurst Linda Crane House Museum of the APRON STRINGS: TIES TO THE PAST Romanelli-Leahy Montclair Historical Society. Using aprons dated from the late 1800s through the present, the ex- Sun., April 18. The Russian Culi- The Overlook Press, NY, has hibition chronicles changing nary Delights of Brighton Beach, recently reprinted Lynn Visson’s attitudes towards women and do- Annie Hauck-Lawson book The Russian Heritage Cookbook mestic work. It also surveys the Sat., April 24. Insider’s Guide to in a revised and updated version. wide range of design and craft the Culinary Delights of SoHo The book uncovers the foods techniques apron makers have used Philip Bradford brought to this country by Russian to express themselves. For émigrés before or during the 1917 example, the post-war 1940s and Sun., April 25. The Soulful Culi- revolution. 1950s, stand out as the heyday of nary Flavors of Central Harlem, Accompanying the recipes are the apron, when commercial and Myra Alperson introductions providing the history intricately hand-decorated aprons Sat., May 1. The Old-World Ital- of this cuisine previously only flourished as symbols of family and ian Culinary Delights of Arthur found in the memories of the cooks motherhood. The exhibit is orga- Avenue, Myra Alperson and on scraps of paper. nized into thematic groups addressing design, historical con- Sat., May 1. The Middle Eastern A new edition of William Woys text, use, and cultural message. Culinary Delights of Atlantic Weaver’s A Quaker Woman’s Cook- Text and photo panels provide gen- Avenue, Candace P. Damon book, which is an edited edition of eral background for each theme. Sun., May 2. The International Elizabeth Ellicott Lea’s Domestic Culinary Delights of Sunnyside Cookery, has been released by Myra Alperson Stackpole Books. Will served as the WALKING TOURS associate editor and art editor of Sat., May 8. The Indian Culinary New School Culinary Arts the Encyclopedia of Food and Culture Delights of Jackson Heights, (Charles Scribner’s Sons Library of Walking tours explore the cultural Geetika Khanna Daily Life) which recently won the diversity of New York City’s ethnic Sun., May 16. The Vibrant Culi- prestigious Dartmouth Medal for neighborhoods through their cui- nary Flavors of East Harlem, Myra Outstanding Reference by the sine. Each tour ends with a full Alperson American Library Association. lunch included in the $65 tuition. Tours are canceled only in case of Continued on page 10

9 Regional Calendar St. Honoré from page 9 from page 1 up with their own interpretations. Sat, May 22. The Portuguese Culi- In the 1873 Le Livre de Patisserie, nary Delights of Newark, Daniel Jules Gouffé suggested a number C. Rosati of interesting variations: coffee or chocolate with pastry cream; PROGRAMS Bavarian cream with apricot, pine- apple, strawberry or raspberry; and Montclair Historical Society for an orange filling, glazed orange quarters replaced the cream puffs. Visit www.montclairhistorical.org Then, towards the end of the Signature swirls using a St. Honoré for extensive program information 19th-century, pâtissiers who made pastry tip. through December. the Saint-Honoré during the warm summer months discovered to and very fresh cream and vanilla their horror that customers were beans.” Judith Krall-Russo, food falling ill with food poisoning. Eric Bedoucha, executive pastry historian and tea specialist will Emile Duval and Emile Darenne, chef at Bayard’s restaurant and present programs in New Jersey. authors of Traite de Pâtisserie Financier Pâtisserie in lower Man- Moderne c. 1910, devoted three hattan, equally conscious of his Sat., April 17. History of English pages to a discussion of the prob- ingredients, also uses the pastry Te a lem, citing chemists and cream and whipped cream combi- Tues., April 20. Tea from Many bacteriologists who concluded that nation in lovely little individual Lands, A Short History uncooked egg whites were the cul- Saint-Honorés that are studded Sun., April 25. Tea from Many prit. Their rule was to use only with berries and topped with more Lands, A Short History pasteurized egg whites, making whipped cream. For the large cakes, Sun., May 2. The Working Class sure that they were thoroughly in- Bedoucha pipes the whipped cream Supper—High Tea corporated into the pastry cream. using the traditional Saint-Honoré Tues., May 11. Woman and Tea in The authors also suggested several tip with a cut out “V” shape. the Victorian Era other summertime options that Some contemporary pastry Sun., May 16. Tea-Time for Kids have become standard: incorporat- chefs have completely dispensed Tues., May 18. The Jersey Tomato ing a cooked Italian into with the pastry cream and devised Thurs., June 24. Blueberries—New a pastry cream or Bavarian cream delicious whipped cream fillings. Jersey’s Wonder Fruit with gelatin or going back to the Chef/owner Michel Roux of The Sun., August 1. Women and Tea in original whipped cream. Lacam Waterside Inn near London, recalls the Victorian Era wrote that it would take two pages that “since my youth I have always Sun., August 15. Victorian Summer to describe all of the different regarded a Saint-Honoré as the ul- Beverages kinds of creams and fillings for a timate gastronomic and visually Call (732) 985-2486 or E-mail: Saint-Honoré! appealing dessert,” one that he [email protected] for additional François Payard of New York’s now deftly decorates with alternat- information. Payard Pâtisserie and Bistro recalls ing bands of piped vanilla and that his grandfather prepared the chocolate whipped cream. The traditional Chiboust filling, but acclaimed Parisian pâtissier Pierre with today’ stringent health regula- Hermé makes his Saint-Honoré tions and because the gâteau has to with a layer of poached pears cov- sit in a shop all day, Payard uses ered by a cloud of chocolate pasteurized eggs for a bavarois and whipped cream. whipped cream filling. “Everything As to the traditional Chiboust is about the quality of the ingredi- pastry cream with beaten egg ents,” he says, “I use good Kirsch whites, now seldom used for a

10 Saint-Honoré, it has blossomed as Meryle Evans is a food journalist and “Pastry Pantheon: A Collection of Es- a dessert on its own. About a year culinary historian who has written ex- sential Classics.” They can be found ago Jill Rose, then pastry chef at tensively about the world’s cuisines for on PastryScoop.com which was estab- New York’s La Caravelle, created a over twenty years. She was an editor of lished by The French Culinary passionfruit Chiboust that, says The American Heritage Cookbook, Institute to inform professionals and executive chef Troy Dupuy, “is so The Horizon Cookbook, and the non-professionals on the subjects of popular it always stays on the eighteen volume Southern Heritage pastry history, baking and dessert menu.” In this beautiful presenta- Cookbook Library. As a Contribut- trends, recipe how-to’s, and techniques. tion the passionfruit pastry cream ing Editor at Food Arts magazine, The site also offers relevant interviews is topped with a white chocolate Meryle has covered cooking and culture and career profiles and access is free. meringue, garnished with white from Australia to Chile, Turkey to chocolate shavings and papaya, and Tunisia for the past fourteen years. She served with a pink cactus pear re- also lectures on various aspects of culi- duction. While M. Chiboust (never nary history and was the curator of even identified by his first name) “The Confectioners Art,” an exhibit at remains a shadowy figure, he cer- the American Craft Museum. 434 Broadway, 7th Floor New York, NY 11215 tainly deserves a place of honor in The above article is one in a series 1-(888) A-PASTRY. the pastry pantheon. by CHNY member Evans called Contact: Judiaann Woo.

Membership Application (For current members, please write “Renewal” at the top)

At monthly meetings, the Culinary Historians of New York explore the historic, esoteric, and entertaining byways of food. These events are led by noted historians, authors, anthropologists, and food experts, many of whom are CHNY members. Membership benefits include advance notice of all events, a membership directory, and the CHNY Newsletter with culinary history articles, news of members, events, and book reviews. Individual – $40 per year Household – $60 per year Corporate – $125 per year Student/Senior – $20 per year Senior Household – $30 per year

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11 UPCOMING PROGRAMS IN THIS ISSUE

St. Honoré: Patron Saint Monday, April 26 “Ekiben: A Culinary Train Tour of Japan” of Bakers ...... 1 Elizabeth Andoh Railroads became an important part of Japanese life at the turn of the 20th Century giving rise to a new food phenomenon: Ekiben, the Bento From the Chair ...... 2 Box lunches sold at each train station. Elizabeth, a Tokyo resident and culinary historian, will discuss the variations in regional cuisines found in Letters ...... 3 these intriguingly elegant boxes. Culinary Bookshelf ...... 3 Tuesday, May 11 “New York City’s Greenmarkets: A History & Inside View” Today Greenmarket, a program of the Council on the Environment of New York City, has more than 30 market locations in the metropolitan Program Summaries ...... 5 area offering residents farm fresh local products. Join us for a panel dis- cussion on the history of markets in the city and how various groups are Member Profile ...... 7 joining efforts to educate consumers and promote regional farmers. Member News...... 8 Tuesday, September 21 Annual Meeting and Program “New Hampshire: A Study in Agricultural and Culinary Innovation” Regional Calendar ...... 9 Helen Brody Since Colonial days, this small, fiercely independent, granite-ridden, “live-free-or-die” state has quietly adapted to a changing world.

•CULINARY HISTORIANS OF NEW YORK• C/O Stacey D. Harwood 93 Perry St. #13 New York, NY 10014

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