|
Culinary Historians of Boston
Newsletter Volume XXVII, Number 1
March, 2006
Book Review by Joe Carlin
Culinary Biographies: A Dictionary of the World’s Great Historic Chefs, Cookbook Authors and Collectors, Farmers, Gourmets, Home Economists, Nutritionists, Restaurateurs, Philosophers, Physicians, Scientists, Writers, and Others Who Influenced the Way We Eat Today. Alice Arndt (Editor) Houston, TX: Yes Press, Inc. 2006. 418 pages. www.culinarybiographies.com
At long last CHB member Alice Arndt’s Culinary Biographies will soon be out. I had the privilege of seeing an advance copy of this much-needed work. I wish I had thought of the idea first. I can sssure you that it is everything I hoped it would be and more. I looked through the long list of contributors and I think I recognized half the membership of the Culinary Historians of Boston.
The recipe for using this book is to open it to any page and begin nibbling. Like a kid with a box of candy, you won’t be able to put it down until you’ve had your fill. A biography of the familiar and the obvious are here such as Fannie Merritt Farmer, Hanna Glasse, Count Rumford and Alfred A. Knopf. But I did not expect to find Minekichi Akobori the Third (1886-1956), the founding father of modern Japanese home cookery or Bessie Baldwin of London who earned a seven-year prison term in Australia for striking her employer “with a rabbit pie, and then beating him about the head with the pie dish.” She was one of the first to record the food in Australia and her recipes pre-date the first Australian cookbook printed in 1864. I feel that my culinary knowledge is richer now that I have access to the lvies of culinarians who escaped my attention all these years.
I counted 190 biographies, most accompanied by a photograph or engraving of the individual and a bibliography of their most important works. When another culinarian is mentioned in an entry it is printed in bold face, serving as a clue to read the related entries. For example, Ellen H. Richards, who set up the New England Kitchen in Boston, was greatly influcenced by the inventor Count Rumford and the scientist Wilbur O. Atwater of the USDA Office of Experiment Stations. She in turn influenced Fannie Farmer, Mary Lincoln and Maria Parloa, three prominent cooking teachers of the time. Read all six and you will have a richer understanding of the nexus between the art of food and the science of nutrition at the end of the 19th century.
Each entry is authored by an authority on the individual. Andrew F. Smith wrote the entry on Cesar Ritz, Robert Roberts was penned by Elizabeth Riely, Irma S. Rombauer by Anne Mendelson, and Amelia Simmons by Karen Hess. Eighty-four other esteemed culinary historians profiled their favorite personalities. At the end of the book there is a categorical listing, matching culinarian with field of expertise, a geographical listing for each person and a chronological list of significant culinary texts and their authors beginning with the Babylonian cuneiform recipe collection from 1700 BC. This is followed by a general index.
Alice admits in the introduction that many culinarians did not make it into the book. For example, the ice-king Frederick Tudor, and cookbook collector and chef Louis Szathmary are missing. In addition, the memory and contributions of those who are still alive and the recently deceased, such as Edna Lewis who died February 13, 2006, need to be recognized. Alice invites your input on how to solve this problem.
This book will not sit unused on the shelf. It will be an indispensable research tool that will have an honored place next to your Oxford English Dictionary and your computer.
|
