Culinarians - Lives and Careers from the First Age of American Fine Dining

John Dabney (1821-1900) was a slave-born culinarian who built an enterprising catering business in Virginia. He is just one of 175 influential cooks and restaurateurs profiled by David S. Shields in The Culinarians, an encyclopedic history of the rise of professional cooking in America from the early republic to Prohibition. The book includes biographies of legendary chefs such as Julien, founder of Boston's Restorator, and Louis Diat and Oscar of the Waldorf, who kept fine dining alive between the World Wars.

\n Format: Hardback
\n Length: 560 pages
\n Publication date: 08 December 2017
\n Publisher: The University of Chicago Press
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John Dabney (1821-1900) was a remarkable culinarian who presided over Virginia's great political barbecues for the last half of the nineteenth century. He taught the young Prince of Wales to crave mint juleps in 1859, catered to Virginia's mountain spas, and fed two generations of Richmond epicures with terrapin and turkey. Despite being born a slave, Dabney built an enterprising catering business.

David S. Shields' The Culinarians is an encyclopedic history of the rise of professional cooking in America from the early republic to Prohibition. It profiles 175 influential cooks and restaurateurs, including the legendary Julien, founder of Boston's Restorator, and Louis Diat and Oscar of the Waldorf, who were responsible for keeping the ideal of fine dining alive between the World Wars.

While many of the gastronomic pioneers gathered here are less well known, their diverse influence on American dining should not be overlooked. Shields' concise biographies provide a fascinating glimpse into their lives and careers.

One such pioneer is an African American oyster dealer who became the Congressional caterer and a powerful broker of political patronage. Another is a French chef who was a culinary savant of vegetables and drove the rise of California cuisine in the 1870s. A rotund Philadelphia confectioner prevailed in a culinary contest with a rival in New York by staging what many believed to be the greatest American meal of the nineteenth century. He later grew wealthy selling ice cream to the masses.

Shields also introduces us to a French chef who brought haute cuisine to wealthy prospectors, a black restaurateur who hosted a reconciliation dinner for black and white citizens at the close of the Civil War in Charleston, and a Chinese chef who was a pioneer in the fusion of Chinese and American cuisine.

The stories of these gastronomic pioneers are truly entertaining and showcase the rich and diverse history of professional cooking in America. The book is a must-read for anyone interested in food, history, and culture.

\n Weight: 1228g\n
Dimension: 192 x 263 x 40 (mm)\n
ISBN-13: 9780226406893\n \n