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[Culinary Biographies] |
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March 21, 2006 By PEGGY GRODINSKY Who introduced French cooking to American homemakers? If you guessed Julia Child, you're wrong. It was Dione Lucas (1909-1971), whom Child called "the Mother of French Cooking in America.'' Here's a tougher one. What 15th-century cook considered small birds, parboiled and roasted with juniper sauce, just the thing to serve visiting Frisians and Slavs? That would be Johann von Bockenheim, cook to Pope Martin V. I uncovered these facts and a treasure trove of other fascinating information in Culinary Biographies, out this month from Houston-area food historian Alice Arndt. The 420-page reference work is aimed at libraries and cooking schools, but also ordinary readers. "There is nothing like it,'' said Andrew F. Smith, author of more than a dozen culinary histories and one of Arndt's roughly 90 contributors. "I think it's going to be a huge contribution." For the culinarily curious, dipping into this book is exhilarating. Nearly every page offers an engrossing snapshot of, as the subtitle puts it, "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." The biographies roam widely in time and place, from Karim Makhmudov (1926-1993), who "significantly shaped the culinary culture and national identity of Uzbekistan" and Agnes Bertha Marshall (1855-1905), who "apparently originated the edible ice-cream cone," to Josephine Cochrane (1838-1913), who invented the dishwasher. The device was not universally applauded: "The idea of saving women labor earned the scorn of male clergy, who believed kitchen work the God-assigned task of females." A five-year effort The soft-spoken, cerebral Arndt conceived of the book, wrote 20 entries, solicited another 170 from a virtual who's who of international culinary historians and biographers and edited the volume, an effort that has taken her five years. "I wrote this book because we need it," the Richmond resident said. "I would read about some of these people and think, 'Who was that?' and then go and look it up in a biographical dictionary — and they aren't in there. Or if they are, there is 8-point type, three lines, and they are talking about some other aspect of their career." Until recently, the odds of finding the words "food" and "scholarship" in the same sentence were about the same as enjoying asparagus with ice cream. But in the last several decades, food studies departments have popped up at universities across America, food scholars have launched journals, and "serious" writers, anthropologists and historians, Arndt among them, have turned their attention to food. "Food impacts everybody, every day," she said. "It's the essential. You get up in the morning, you've got to make sure you know how you are going to eat. It's much more important than wars and kings and presidents." Resources scarce But while interest in food scholarship has grown, resources remain spotty. "I think enviously of the classicists and historians," Arndt said. "The classics have been a staple of Western education since the early 19th century, if not before. You weren't anybody if you didn't know the Greeks and the Romans and the caesars and the generals. With that, they collected a lot of aids for scholarship, things like biographical dictionaries and collections of (text) fragments in Greek. They have all these tools . . . and we need some." Arndt's previous book, Seasoning Savvy (Haworth Press, $64.95), published in 1999, was also a reference work, on herbs, spices and other flavorings. A former mathematician, she likes order. Math, she says, "taught me to be a good scholar. You understand what fact is." In the 1970s, Arndt was a university math teacher who followed her husband to postings in Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Germany and the Netherlands. Overseas she lost her career and found a new one. Forbidden from teaching in some of those countries, she was drawn to food, "the key to getting to know the culture." She embarked on a largely self-generated program of reading, research, travel, study and writing. When she returned to the States, Arndt enrolled in classes on culinary history at Harvard and studied cooking in New York City. She began to write and lecture about food. Publisher Alfred A. Knopf, described in Arndt's book as "a gourmand and wine aficionado," published books about food and wine at a time when few others would take that risk. "With its publication of Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Knopf not only set the standard for American cookbooks but established its culinary authors as catalysts in what would become a renaissance of cooking in the United States." (The Knopf archive, by the way, is at the University of Texas at Austin.) Colleagues added names to the list, arguing persuasively for Mike "Mahmood" Butt, who introduced Indian food to Ireland, and the Russian author Nikolai Gogol, whose work "frequently depicts eating as both an art and obsession." Soon the list grew unwieldy, and Arndt had to sharpen her editor's pencil. Chef Boyardee — a real person, Italian-born Hector Boiardi! — was axed, as was Duncan Hines, a restaurant critic and guidebook writer whose name has become synonymous with cake mixes. Arndt regrets the latter omission; she was unable to find a suitable biographer for Hines. In other such cases, she wrote the entries herself. Anybody still stirring the pot, so to speak, was automatically ruled out. Death is a standard prerequisite for admission to biographical dictionaries (Julia Child, who died in 2004, was the last to make it into Culinary Biographies). But even those who consider themselves knowledgeable about food-world players may be surprised at how little they know of the culinary past or, for that matter, of other countries. Take away Food Network and glossy magazine-anointed celebrity chefs, and who is left? Unknown giants Which prompts the question, whom do we remember and why? Arndt, an enthusiastic cook and lecturer, sometimes trots out figures from her book and asks the audience to guess who they are. Try this one, an American from the very recent past: She was a culinary pioneer on radio and television and, for 22 years, wrote a syndicated newspaper column, always striving to keep up with changing times. She penned more than 50 cookbooks; her publisher boasted that a third of American households owned at least one. She died just 33 years ago. Who is she? Ida Bailey Allen. Never heard of her? I hadn't either. Asked why some people "fall out of history," as culinary historian and author Laura Shapiro phrases it, Arndt replied, "That's a hard question. In Ida's case, I think she did fall out of step at the end. But also, what I've concluded is, it doesn't matter how much they do when they are here. How famous they become is up to us. "That's our responsibility, to keep the memory of these people — of what they achieved and how it impacts us — to keep that fresh. And that's what this book is for." MME. JEHANE BENOÎT'S APPLE-CHEDDAR-CHEESE QUICK BREAD Adapted from Benoît's Enjoying the Art of Canadian Cooking. According to her entry in Culinary Biographies, "during her long eminent career," Benoît (1904-1987) "tirelessly promoted the culinary arts and passionately advocated good Canadian food." 1/2 cup butter, softened, plus additional to grease pan In a mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugar. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating after each. Add grated apples; mixture may look curdled. In another bowl, stir together remaining ingredients and gently add them to egg-butter mixture, using a wooden spoon to just combine. Mixture will be thick, like muffin batter. Spread in prepared loaf pan. Bake for about 50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in bread emerges clean. Let cool before slicing. Makes 1 loaf.
ALEXIS BENOÎT SOYER'S OMELETTE AUX FINES HERBES From The Gastronomic Regenerator: A Simplified and Entirely New System of Cookery Suited to the Incomes of All Classes. Culinary Biographies describes Alexis Benoît Soyer (1809-1858) as "one of the first great showman chefs." His accomplishments include helping organize soup kitchens in Dublin during the Irish Potato Famine and working with Florence Nightingale to feed wounded soldiers during the Crimean War. Soyer's original recipe is so charming that we reprint it here, followed by a contemporary update, in which the butter has been reduced, the demi-glace omitted (if you happen to have it on hand, by all means use it) and the language standardized. ORIGINAL VERSION "Break eight eggs in a stewpan, to which add a teaspoonful of very finely chopped eschalots, one of chopped parsley, half ditto of salt, a pinch of pepper, and three good tablespoonfuls of cream, beat them well together, then put two ounces of butter in an omelette pan, stand it over a sharp fire, and as soon as the butter is hot pour in the eggs, stir them round quickly with a spoon until delicately set, then shake the pan round, leave it a moment to colour the omelette, hold the pan in a slanting position, just tap it upon the stove to bring the omelette to a proper shape, and roll the flap over with a spoon, turn it upon your dish, glaze lightly, and serve with a quarter of a pint of good demi-glace round; omelettes must not be too much done, and must be served as soon as done." UPDATED VERSION 9 large eggs In a bowl, lightly beat eggs. Add shallots, parsley, salt, pepper and cream. Place 1 tablespoon butter in nonstick 5-inch skillet. Cook over medium-high heat until butter is melted and sizzling, then add one-third the egg mixture. After about a minute, turn heat down to medium-low. Continually lift edges of omelette to allow liquid egg underneath so that it, too, can set. When omelette is almost set, fold in half and ease onto a plate. Repeat 2 additional times with the remaining butter and egg mixture. Makes 3 servings.
THOMAS JEFFERSON'S CITRUS WINE JELLY Culinary Biographies describes Thomas Jefferson as "our most illustrious Epicure." According to Dining at Monticello (Thomas Jefferson Foundation, $35), Jefferson so prized wine jelly that he copied out the recipe himself. The same source notes that 15 bottles of Madeira appear on his 1769 wine inventory. An authentic recipe for wine jelly would start with homemade gelatin, which requires several days and four pounds of veal bones; it would also include the laborious step of clarifying the jelly with crushed egg whites. This simplified version comes from Richard Sax's Classic Home Desserts (Houghton Mifflin, $35). 2 envelopes (about 5 1/4 teaspoons) unflavored gelatin In a saucepan off the heat, sprinkle gelatin over 1 cup cold water. Let stand until softened, about 5 minutes. Stir over low heat until gelatin dissolves. Stir in sugar, wine and Madeira, and bring to a simmer, stirring to dissolve sugar. Transfer mixture to a bowl, and stir in the citrus juices; set aside to cool to lukewarm. Pour into old-fashioned jelly glasses or a 4- or 5-cup mold. Chill until set, at least 2 hours. If you use a mold, run a knife around the edge of mold, then invert onto serving plate. Makes 6 to 8 servings. |