Ma Gastronomie

If you tuned in to Charlie Rose last night you might have seen Rose's interview with Thomas Keller. While the conversation was hardly earth-shattering, Keller did mention Fernand Point as the one person, living or dead, that Keller would most want to share a meal with. Keller went on to mention that Point's Ma Gastronomie is a must-read for all his staff.

Fernand Point, former chef and owner of Lyon's famed Restaurant de la Pyramid (you can see the menu and interiors in Vincent Price's book), died in 1955. After his death, Point's wife kept Fernand's high standards in place and the restaurant continued to thrive. Ma Gastronomie was compiled by Madame Point from her late husband's notes and was published in 1969.

It's not the easiest book to get a hold of. Recently Charlie Trotter mentioned the book in a Wall Street Journal piece, and the book flew off the shelves of used book stores. Rest assured, a new edition will be published this year by Overlook Press. In the meantime, get inspired by Point's gastronomical genius at the Library! We have both the French and English versions in the stacks.

Fannie Farmer

Fannie Merritt Farmer, Boston Cooking School’s esteemed graduate, director, and the author of its best-selling cookbook, The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book, was born on this day in 1857.

Within just a few years of graduating from the Boston Cooking School, Farmer became its director and in that role she revised the school’s previous cookbook, Mrs. Lincoln's Boston Cook Book written by her former teacher Mary J. Lincoln in 1883. Farmer's The Boston Cooking- School Cook Book was published by Little Brown in 1896 and was an immediate hit. The book not only cemented Farmer’s reputation as a thorough and creative cook, but also forever labelled her as the “Mother of Level Measurements.” Farmer strongly believed that one could not produce consistent results with vague instructions and her book was the first to insist that measurements be leveled with a knife or spatula. Gone were instructions for heaping tablespoons or scant teaspoons. As Farmer writes “A cupful is measured level. A tablespoon is measured level. A teaspoon is measured level.”

Farmer eventually left the Boston Cooking School in 1902, yet she continued to lecture and write. Her Food and Cookery for the Sick and Convalescent in 1904 was a particularly personal cookbook for Farmer. When she was in high school Fannie was taken ill with a sickness (most likely polio) which not only kept her bedridden for months, but also ruled out any college prospects and left her with a permanent limp. Food and Cookery (the 1912 edition is available in the full-text via Google Books) promotes a healthy diet “from infancy to old age” with the emphasis on nutritional values and digestibility. One glance at the first few pages and one knows Farmer was serious about the subject. In addition to elaborate diagrams of the stomach and intestine, Farmer covers the chemical breakdowns of various foods and also includes tips on making food more palatable to the patient. Farmer wanted others to receive better treatment than she herself had received as a young woman.

Fannie Merritt Farmer died on January 15, 1915.

In addition to the 1896 edition, the Library has a number of facsimiles and later editions of the Boston Cooking-School Cookbook, as well as her later writings. We also have Marion Cunningham’s wonderful Fannie Farmer Cookbook.

Farmer’s contribution to American cooking cannot be underestimated. Her sophisticated recipes somewhat belie her scientific approach to cooking, which reminds me of my favorite Vermont “Farmer” Christopher Kimball who, to many people, has created something of his own Boston Cooking School via Cook’s Illustrated and America’s Test Kitchen. Something about Boston brings out the precise measurements in people.

For more information on Fannie Farmer, please consult the indispensable Perfection Salad by Laura Shapiro.

Oatmeal Muffins
(These muffins are a favorite of my colleague (and wonderful cook) Jessica Pigza.)
(Adapted from Marion Cunningham’s Fannie Farmer Cookbook)

1 ½ cups flour
2 T. sugar
4 t. baking powder
½ t. salt
½ cup milk
1 egg, well beaten
2 T. butter, melted
1 cup cooked oatmeal

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Butter the muffin pans. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. In a separate bowl stir the milk, egg, and butter into the oatmeal. Stir until well-blended. Combine the two mixture and mix well. Spoon each muffin cup two-thirds full of batter. Bake for about 20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out dry when inserted in center.

Rice Griddle Cakes
(from Fannie Farmer’s Boston Cooking-School Cookbook)

2 ½ cups flour
½ cup cold cooked rice
1 T. baking powder
½ t. salt
¼ cup sugar
1 ½ cups milk
1 egg
2 T. melted butter

Mix and sift dry ingredients. Work in rice with tips of fingers; add egg well-beaten, milk, and butter. Drop by spoonfuls on a greased hot griddle; cook on one side. When puffed, full of bubbles, and cooked on edges, turn, and cook other side. Serve with butter and maple syrup.

Cocktails for Stormy Weather

If I wasn't at work today I'd be at home reading, cooking, or perhaps, possibly, drinking.

Mind you, I'm no lush. Far from it, in fact. I've even been called, yes, a teetotaler. But something about nasty weather, be it cold and rainy or hot and stifling, brings out the bartender in me.

At home I might just have a shot of horseradish vodka, but this most delicious libation deserves a writeup of its own - perhaps in April when we celebrate this bitter herb.

In the meantime I'll just have to be satisfied with something made up, or knowing me, from a book. On my desk I have the Savoy Cocktail Book and there are more than a few recipes in here that strike my fancy. How about the De Rigueur Cocktail with whisky and grapefruit, or the Devil's Cocktail with port and vermouth, or even the Orange Bloom cocktail?

And there is always the well-appointed new bar that recently opened in my neck of the woods called, appropriately enough, Weather Up. It's on Vanderbilt Avenue in Prospect Heights and although the prices might keep my visits to a minimum, their Brooklyn cocktail - served ice cold and packing a punch - is sure to pull me back in again. That is, of course, when the weather improves.

De Rigueur Cocktail (adapted from the Savoy Cocktail Book by Henry Craddock)
1/2 Whisky
1/4 Grapefruit juice
1/4 Honey
Cracked Ice.

Shake well and strain into a cocktail glass.

Devil's Cocktail
1/2 Port
1/2 French (Dry) Vermouth
2 dashes Lemon Juice (or perhaps orange or grapefruit bitters?)

Shake well and strain into a cocktail glass.

Orange Bloom Cocktail
1/4 Italian (Sweet) Vermouth
1/4 Cointreau
1/2 Dry Gin

Shake well and strain into a cocktail glass and add a cherry.

Vincent Price

There's no need to argue that Vincent Price was a fine thespian. I should say that his work in The Tomb of Legia ("I tried to kill a stray cat with a cabbage, and all but made love to the Lady Rowena....") and The Tingler speaks for itself. But many might not realize that Mr. Price was quite the gourmet and also wrote a few cookbooks. The Library has two of his culinary works in our collection, both of which he co-wrote with his wife Mary Price.

A Treasury of Great Recipes is not simply a recipe book, but a celebration of fine dining around the world, something the Price's - no doubt - were very familiar with. Restaurants throughout Europe, Mexico, and the United States are all represented, from Restaurant de la Pyramide in Vienne, France to Chavez Ravine in Los Angeles. The menus of these establishments are printed inside, along with lush color photographs of the dining rooms.

It's so nice (yet rare) to have photographs of restaurant interiors. It's one question I get asked frequently by scholars researching historical restaurants. Yet we sadly have very few restaurant photographs unless images of the interior are part of the menu (La Côte Basque for example), or are included in the Library's extensive postcard collection.




Also in the Price family oeuvre is a five-volume set celebrating our nation's culinary history. Called A National Treasury of Cookery, each volume celebrates a different historical movement of American history and food. From the recipes of Early America (pickled oysters and chicken pudding) to Victorian America (Bonne Femme Soup and Beef Roulade), these quick little volumes feature surprisingly appetizing recipes with beautiful prints and photographs. Any lingering bad memories of cooking in costume at Philipsburg Manor* in grade school have suddenly vanished with the Price's recipe for Roast Duck with Virginia Cornbread Stuffing.

Gâteau Grand Marnier
from Hostellerie de la Poste, Avallon FRANCE
(adapted from A Treasury of Great Recipes)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream one cup butter with one cup sugar until pale and fluffy.