CHoWLine - Back Issues

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May 2003

May Meeting Program:"Reading Community Cookbooks: Recipes, History, Values, and More"

Anne Bower is the author of Epistolary Responses, editor of Recipes for Reading: Community Cookbooks, Stories, Histories, and concept editor of the reprint edition of the 1958 Historical Cookbook of the American Negro. She teaches composition and American literature at Ohio State and American Literature at Ohio State University - Marion.

Future Meetings

Usually the second Sunday of the month, but the dates are still being worked out with Geroge Washington University. The first meetings of the 2003-2004 year may be on September 14 and October 12.

Report: April 13 Meeting

The report of the Nominating Committee presented the following slate for the election:

President - Claudia Kousoulas
Vice President - Dianne Hennessy King
Secretary - Francine Berkowitz
Treasurer - Laura Gilliam
Director - Kari Barrett
Director - Katherine Livingston
Director - Kay Shaw Nelson

Biographical information on the nominees appears at the end of this issue with an absentee ballot for those who can't attend the meeting.

Strawberries were the subject of the program and also were made into delectable refreshments: Sally Epskamp brought a strawberry tart, Claire Cassidy provided strawberry mousse and a strawberry cobbler, Sophie Frederickson's madeleines and Lori Trolan's strawberries with balsamic vinegar completed the assortment of treats.

Jack and Debbie Warner brought an ample supply of fresh dulse (seaweed) and invited CHoW members to take some home in the plastic bags also provided.

Susan McCreary spoke to us about the history and use of strawberries. Since she was not able to provide the text of her talk, if you have any questions you would like to ask her, she can be contacted at P.O. Box 3, North, VA 23128, or berrybooks@villagepop.com.

News of Our Members

Joel Denker's new book, The World on a Plate, will be published by Westview Press in mid-June and will be available in bookstores and through Amazon.com. It tells the story of immigrants and American food, from the Greeks and Italians to the Chinese and Latinos. It portrays a range of intriguing food merchants, including: the Colombosians, an Armenian family that began making Colombo yogurt on their Massachsetts farm in the 1930s; Jeno Paulucci, the Minnesota-born son of Italian immigrants, who founded Chun King, the Chinese food company; and Isaac Breakstone, the Russian Jewish immigrant who popularized sour cream and cream cheese.

Kay Shaw Nelson's article, "Washington's Women Chefs," appeared in the April 2003 issue of Washington Woman. Among the many women mentioned are CHoW members Colleeen Patton and Lisa Cherkasky.

News From Other Organizations

Tuesday, May 13, at 6:30 pm. The Instituto Italiano di Cultura (2025 M St. NW, Ste. 610) is sponsoring an evening of food talk (and tasting) with Chef Carmine Marzano of Luigino restaurant. It will be the first of a series of meetings dedicated to celebrated chefs of the Washington area. Registration fee. RSVP by May 12: 202 223-1128.

August 1-3, 2003: "Taste of Appalachia: Asheville and Environs," the third Southern Foodways Alliance Field Trip, hosted by the Biltmore Estate. Other sponsors are Lodge Manufacturing (cast-iron cookware), the North Carolina Sweet Potato Commission, and White Lily flour. For information on registration: Manda Palomares at sfa2003@biltmore.com; 828 231-9092. Early registration recommended.

Sunday, August 3: "The Story of Ice Cream & Ices" will be presented at Green Spring Gardens Manor House, 4603 Green Spring Rd., Alexandria, VA 22312. Registration fee in advance. Call: 703 941-7987; www.greenspring.org.

August 23-24: "If You Can't Stand The Heat, Get Out of the Kitchen!" a day of performances and readings (stories, poems, soliloquies, or songs) about the food industry and East Village counter-culture, will be hosted by the NYFood Museum, with the help of the New York Center for Urban Folk Culture. To participate: send a very brief outline of your piece, plus contact information and length of performance to nyfoodmuse@aol.com. The deadline for submissions is May 12, 2003.

Help Wanted

Gina Jenkins has received the following message from J. G. Bowman ( jg3@37.com):
"In the Les Dames Culinary Collection at Eckles Library, there is a paper by Barbara Carson entitled "Ambitious Appetites: Dining, Behavior, and Patterns of Consumption in Federal Washington," contributed by Rodris Roth [of the Culinary Historians of Washington]. I am researching the Federal Period, Federal Era, or whatever name you prefer.
After the Revolutionary War, the Fedearl Age found American intellectuals, orators, philosophers, artists, musicians, and architects consciously working to construct a distinctly American high culture that would rival and perhaps supercede that of Europe. There was Federal architecture, Federal Style furniture, gardens, art, clothing fashions, and even music.
Was there a Federal style of gastronoy, cuisine, cooking, food, or recipes?"

If you are able to answer J. G. Bowman's question, please respond directly by email. That's the only address that is available.

Food in Museums

"Diners: Still Cookin' in the 21st Century," an exhibition on diners from the collection of Richard Gutman, opened at the Culinary Archives and Museum at Johnson and Wales University in Providence, Rhode Island, on April 5 and will be on view through June 2003. For information: contact Barbara Kuck at 401 598-2805; museum@jwu.edu.

Orts

If you have ever wondered about beets, the person to contact is the nation's pre-eminent beet expert, Irwin Goldman, an associate professor of horticulture at the University of Wisconsin - Madison. As part of his research, he grows, breeds, and studies beets. He's in the right place. No state cans more beets than Wisconsin.

The Book Forager

On April 23, eight CHoW members (Laura Gilliam, Jane Mengenhauser (who contributed more boxes of books), Shirley Cherkasky, Gina Jenkins, Katherine Livingston, Maro Nalabandian, Diane King, and Elaine Hawes) worked with Anna St. John and several members of Les Dames d'Escoffier to attach labels and tattle tapes to books in the Culinary Collection at Eckles Library. The collection, now numbering several thousand books, currently is in process of being reshelved by subject matter. Laura reports, "We hope to have another work party early this summer."

On The Reading Table

Gravy, newsletter of the Southern Foodways Alliance, Spring 2003, No. 10.
Food History News, Vol. XIV, No. III.
Newsletter, Culinary Historians of Boston, Vol. XXIII, No. 4, March 2003.
Meeting e-notice, Culinary History Enthusiasts of Wisconsin, May 2003.
Radcliffe Culinary Times, Vol. XIII, No. 1, Spring 2003.
Jane Mengenhauser's copy of The Ladies' Aid Manual: A Practical Work for Ladies' Aid Societies, published in                     Covington, Kentucky in 1911 by The Methodist Book Concern.

Nominees for the 2003-2004 Board of Directors

President - Claudia Kousoulas, an urban planner with Montgomery County, also works as a freelance food and feature writer. Her cookbook reviews appear in Cookbook Digest and at Books-for-Cooks.com. In an average year she reviews about sixty books and interviews authors and chefs. Her features have appeared in Washington Woman and Mothering.

Vice President - Dianne Hennessy King, a cultural anthropologist, is a teacher, lecturer, and chair of the Fairfax Nutrition Committee. She has produced television programs for the Fairfax County schools, including "Around the World Cooking with Dianne Hennessy King," and health and multicultural education programs. Formerly editor-in-chief at Pillsbury where she edited ten cookbooks, and writer and associate editor for Funk and Wagnalls Encyclopedia, she has served as a CHoW director and as president for the past two years.

Secretary - Francine Berkowitz is director of the Office of International Relations for the Smithsonian Insitution. She collects cookbooks and menus and has traveled extensively and photographed food markets on five continents. She has served CHoW as treasurer, as president and, for the past two years, as a director.

Treasurer - Laura Gilliam teaches recorder and flutes and, before retiring, was a librarian at the Library of Congress. She is an avid cookbook collector and her lifelong interest in foods has resulted in adventures such as helping to kill a rattlesnake in order to taste it [cooked], and growing corn smut to try one of Diana Kennedy's recipes.

Director - Kari Barrett addresses food policy issues in her work as a Senior Advisor in the Office of Legislation of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Her interests include foodways (particularly Southern foodways in the Tidewater region), food history, and food writing. She has worked in a number of restaurants and currently assists at L'Academie de Cuisine in Bethesda.

Director - Katherine Livingston was for many years the book review editor of Science magazine. With an academic background in philosophy, she combines a longtime interest in cooking with an interest in social history and the history of science. She has been an occasional contributor to CHoWLine and has served as CHoW treasurer for the past two years.

Director - Kay Shaw Nelson, a food and travel writer and author of 17 international cookbooks, is a culinary historian, columnist for The Scottish Banner, and a contributor to Washington Woman. Her articles have appeared in several national magazines and newspapers.

Web Sites

CHoW: www.chowdc.org

Food History News: www.foodhistorynews.com

Culinary Historians of Chicago: www.culinaryhistorians.org

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