Wanna Learn History? Read A Cookbook!

Wanna Learn History? Read A Cookbook!

BOSTON (Wireless Flash) – If you want to learn something about history, pick up a cookbook. That’s the research method preferred by Barbara Haber, author of the new book From Hardtack to Home Fries: An Uncommon History of American Cooks and Meals (Free Press). A cookbook helped Haber solve a culinary mystery that has puzzled foodies for years: Why the food served at the White House under Franklin D. Roosevelt was so bad. FDR’s cook, Henrietta Nesbitt, was notorious for serving bland, repetitive meals that featured cheap cuts of meat and slimy salads. Although the cook’s memoirs defended the dishes as Depression-era frugalities, the historian says Nesbitt’s own cookbook proves that wasn’t entirely true – the recipes stunk. Haber’s conclusion? The Roosevelts stuck with the bad cook because the First Lady felt comfortable with her style.

Tue 04-09-02