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"Foodservice organizations in operation in the United States today have become an accepted way of life, and we tend to regard them
as relatively recent innovations. However, they have their roots in the habits and customs that characterize our
civilization and predate the Middle Ages. Certain phases of foodservice operations reach a well-organized from as early as
feudal times...Religious orders and royal households were among the earliest practitioners of quantity food production...Records
show that the food preparation carried out by the abbey brethren reached a much higher standard than food served in the inns
at that time...The royal household, with its hundreds of retainers, and the households of nobles, often numbering as many as 150
to 250 persons, also necessitated an efficient foodservice...In providing for the various needs, strict cost accounting was
necessary, and here, perhaps, marks the beginning of the present-day scientific foodservice cost accounting..."
---West and Wood's Introduction to Foodservice, June Payne-Palacio & Monica Theis, editors [Prentice-Hall:Upper Saddle River NJ] 9th edition, 2001
(p. 5-6)
While public eateries existed in Ancient Rome, restaurants (we know them today), are generally credited to 18th century France. The genesis is quite interesting and not at all what most people expect. Did you know the word restaurant is derived from the French word restaurer which means to restore? The first French restaurants [pre-revolution] were not fancy gourmet establishments run by ex-aristocratic chefs. They were highly regulated establishments that sold restaurants (meat based consommes intended to "restore" a person's strength) to people who were not feeling well. Cook-caterers (traiteurs) also served hungry patrons. The history of these two professions is historically connected and often difficult to distinguish.
According to the current edition of Larousse Gastronomque (p. 194-5), the first cafes (generally defined as places selling drinks and snacks) was established in Constantinople in 1550. It was a coffee house, hence the word "cafe." Cafes were places educated people went to share ideas and new discoveries. Patrons spent several hours in these establishements in one "sitting." This trend caught on in Europe on the 17th century. When cafes opened in France they also sold brandy, sweetened wines and liqueurs in addition to coffee. The first modern-type cafe was the Cafe Procope which opened in 1696.
he French Revolution launched the modern the restaurant industry. It relaxed the legal rights of guilds that [since the Middle Ages] were licensed by the king to control specific foods [eg. the Patissiers, Rotisseurs, Charcutiers] and created a hungry, middle-class customer base who relished the ideals of egalitarianism (as in, anyone who could pay the price could get the same meal). Entrepreneurial French chefs were quick to capitalize on this market. Menus, offering dishes individually portioned, priced and prepared to order, were introduced to the public for the first time.
Who started the first restaurant?
There are (at least) three theories:
1. Boulanger, 1765
"In about 1765, a Parisian 'bouillon seller' named Boulanger wrote on his sign: 'Boulanger sells
restoratives
fit for the gods'...This was the first restaurant in the modern sense of the term."
---Larousse Gastronomiqe, completely revised and updated [Clarkson Potter:New York]
1999 (p.
978)
2. Mathurin Roze de Chantoiseau in Paris, 1766
"According to Spang, the forgotten inventor was Mathurin Roze de Chantoiseau, a figure so
perfectly emblematic of his
time that he almost seems like an invention himself. The son of a landowner and merchant, Roze
moved to Paris in the
early 1760s and began floating a variety of schemes he believed would enrich him and his country
at the same
time."
http://dir.salon.com/books/review/2000/03/24/spang/index.html
3. Beauvilliers, 1782
"However, the first Parisian restaurant worthy of the name was the one founded by Beauvilliers in
1782 in
the Rue de Richelieu, called the Grande Taverne de Londres. He introduced the novelty of listing
the dishes
available on a menu and serving them at small individual tables during fixed hours."
---Larousse Gastronomique, (p. 978)
About restaurants
"...France was the birthplace of what we now call the restaurant...this happened toward the end of
the eighteenth century. With the exception of inns, which were primarily for travelers, and street
kitchens...where in Europe at that time could one purchase a meal outside the home? Essentially
in places where alcoholic begerages were sold, placesewquipped to serve simple, inexepensive
dishes either cooked on the premises or ordered from a nearby inn or food shop, along with wine,
beer, and spirits, which constituted the bulk of their business. Such tavern-restaurants existed not
only in France but also in other countries. In Germany, Austria, and Alsace, Brauereien and
Weinstuben served delicatessen, sauerkraut, and cheese, for example; in Spain bodegas served
tapas. Greek taverns served various foods with olive oil..where meals were exempt from taxes,
served a variety of fortifying dishes such as stews, meat with sauce, and organ meats...All of these
places...were apt to serve plain and simple fare rather than more elaborate culinary creations...For
a genuine meal one had to look either to a good inn or go to a rotisseur or traiteur (caterer, from
the Italian trattorie). In France, these two guilds, together with the charcutiers, had been granted a
monopoly on all cooked meat other than pates...Only common people actually ate in the traiteur's
shop, perhaps seated at a table reserved for guests in some establishments. Even a moderately
well-to-do person would have preferred to order food delivered to a private home or a room at an
inn or hotel or an elegant salon rented for the occasion...In 1765 a man by the mame of Boulanger, also known as
"Champ d'Oiseaux" or "Chantoiseau," opened a shop near the Louvre...There he sold what e called restaurants or
bouillons restaurants--that is, meat-based consommes intended to "restore" a person's strength. Ever since the late
Middle Ages the word restaurant had been used to describe any of a variety of rich bouillons made with
chicken, beef, roots or one sort or antoher, onions, herbs, and, according to some recipes, spices, crystallized sugar,
toasted bread, barley, butter, and even exotic ingredients..."
---"The Rise of the Restaurant," Food: a Culinary History, Jean-Louis Flandrin & Massimo
Montanari [Columbia University Press:New York] 1999(p. 471-480)
"Restaurant...The word appeared in the 16th century and meant at first a food which "restores"
(from restaurer, to restore), and was used more specifically for a rich, highly flavoured soup
thought capable of restoring lost strength...Until the late 18th century, the only places for ordinary
people to eat out were inns and taverns. In about 1765, a Parisian "boullion-seller" named
Boulanger wrote on his sign: Boulanger sells restoratives "fit for the gods"...This was the first
restaurant in the modern sense of the term. Boulanger was followed by Roze and Pontaille, who
in 1766 opened a maison de sante (house of health). However, the first Parisian restaurant worthy
of the name was the one founded by Beauvilliers in 1782...called the Grand Taverne de Londres.
He introduced the novelty of listing the dishes available on a menu and served them at small
individual tables during fixed hours. One beneficial effect of the Revolution was that the abolition
of the guilds and their privileges made it easier to open a restaurant. The rest to take advantage of
the situation were the cooks and servants from the great houses, whose aristocratic owners had
fled. Moreover, the arrival in Paris of numerous provincials who had no family in the capital
created a pool of faithful customers, augmented by the journalists and businessmen. The general
feeling of well-being under the Directory, following such a chaotic period, coupled with the
chance of enjoying the delights of the table hitherto reserved for the rich, created an atmosphere
in which restaurants became an established institution."
---Larousse Gastronomique, completely revised and updated edition [Clarkson
Potter:New York] 2001 (p. 978)
"The Restaurant Revolution
An eye-witness, Grimod de La Reyniere advances three reasons why restaurants emerged in
France with the French Revolution: the rage for English fashions, including the taking of meals in
taverns; the influx of large numbers of revolutionary deputies from the provinces; and cooks
seeking re-employment after the break-up of the aristocratic households....We need to remember
that the near universal way to serve meals until this time [1825] was to place the pot of pots on
the table for all to share. The grander the meal, the more dishes. In fancy dining, the artistic
creation was at the table...Hotels served limited ranges at fixed time...The caterers (traiteurs) did
not provide portions, but whole courses'--an entire joint, say--and anyone who whished to
entertain a few friends must order them well in advance'. With the restaurant, artistic creation
became the individual plate. In one blow, high quqlity became publicly available; even more
significantly, cooking/sharing was individualized...Restaurants hastened the emergence of the
sovereign consumer. At the table of a first-class
restauranteur, any person could dine as well as a prince..."
---A History of Cooks and Cooking, Michael Symons [Universtiy of Illinois Press:Urbana
IL] 1998 (p. 289-293)
[NOTE: this book contains much more information than can be paraphrased here. Ask your
librarian to help you find a copy]
"Restaurant. According to contemporary dictionaries, a restaurant is simply an eating place, an
establishment where meals are served to customers. By this definition, restaurants--by whatever
name they have been given--are almost as old as civilization. The ruins of Pompeii contain the
remnants of a tavern which provided foods and wines to passers-by...the prime function to these
early eating places' was to cater to the needs of people away from home who, unless they had
brought their own food and cooks with them, were obliged to take whatever was available--or go
hungry. From the second half of the 17th century there were cafes, public places where people
could meet and talk, eat and drink....In England there were also taverns which, catering to a
socially superior clientele, employed well-known cooks and offered an extensive choice of dishes.
The restaurant, as it was conceived in Paris towards the end of the 18th century, had a
different vocation. Its principal advantage was that it offered diners a choice: according to
Brillat-Savarin [he was lawyer and gourmand who wrote the Physiology of Taste], restaurants
allowed people to eat when they wanted, what they wanted, and how much they wanted, knowing
in advance how much this would cost. The top restaurants of the day boasted a vast menu, with a
choice of 12 soups, 65 entrees...and 50 desserts. Prior to this, French catering was highly
regulated and shared between various corporations [guilds]...The regulations surrounding these
trades gave each one certain privileges. The rotisseur, for example, roasted meat but was not
allowed to bake dishes in the oven, nor to make ragouts'[stews]...By 1771 the world
restauranteur' was defined...as someone who has the art of preparing true broths, known as
restaurants', and the right to sell all kinds of custards, dishes of rice, vermicelli and macaroni, egg
dishes, boiled capons, preserved and stewed fruit and other delicious and health-giving
foods...The word restaurant', used to describe an eating house, first appeared in a decree of
1786...Restaurants were...an important consequence of the Revolution and concurred with its
aims in promoting egality around the table. Eating was no longer the privilege of the wealthy who
could afford to maintain a cook and a well-supplied kitchen."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p.
660)
On Restauranteurs, The Physiology of Taste, Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin (c. 1828)
About restaurants in early America
Colonial taverns and inns sold food, but they were not generally
known for their cuisine. Nor was the food offered on menus. The French restaurant concept was introduced to the newly
established USA in the very last years of the 18th century. Food historians place the genesis of grand city
restaurants, often based in fine hotels, to the first quarter of the 19th century.
"The French Revolution encouraged the growth of restaurants by abolishing the monopolistic
cooks' guilds and by forcing the aristocrats' former chefs to find new, proletarian uses for their
talents...Travelers to France excitedly brought the news of these Parisian restaurants to an
American public that already enjoyed a spiritual kinship with France ever since that country allied
itself with our own Revolution. French culture had already had a considerable effect on our
own...This affinity for French cooking convinced a former cook to the archbishop of Bordeaux to
open his own French-style eating house in Boston in 1794. His name was Jean Baptiste Gilbert
Payplat, and he called his establishment by his nickname, "Jullien's Restarator," where he became
known as the "Prince of Soups," echoing the original meaning of the word "retaurant."...But the
growth of the concept of freestanding restaurants depended ultimately upon a large enough
number of people willing to accept it and pay for it. In 1800 the total population of New York,
Philadelphia, Boston, Baltimore, and Charleston combined was only 200,000, but soon it began to
soar. New York grew fastest--160,000 inhabitants by 1825...By 1805 New York had four
coffeehouses, four oyster houses, four tea gardens, two victualing houses, and a cookshop, as
well as forty-two combination boardinghouses and taverns and these increased rapidly for absorb
the new prosperity...The food available in these new eating houses--which went in and out of
business at an amazing rate of failure--continued to be for the most part coarse, heavy, and of
mediocre or poor quality. Game was plentiful, including venison, pigeon, racoon, and elk. Turtle
was considered a delicacy...Fresh meat went bad quickly, so many workers slaughtered the pigs
that freely roamed the streets consuming refuse, and Broadway was lined with vendors selling
roast pork. Others hawked oysters, fast becoming a passion with Americans...Once the food was
set on the table, the customers tore into it with what one observer called "inconceivable rapidity,"
and other defined as a technique of "gobble, gulp and go." This was pretty much the standard
procedure in most eating houses and taverns. Even in the grand, new, modern hotels like New
York City's Hotel (1794), a service philosophy of "come-and-get-it" was accepted as normal, and
communal dining rooms serving up fixed meals at set hours were till the rule, although the
spendiferous Tremont House in Boston, which opened in 1828, inaugurated "French Service" in
its two-hundred-seat dining room, where guests might dine at individual tables and use th new
four-tined fork. By the 1830s the "American Plan," by which travelers were forced to pay for
room and board whether they ate a meal or not, was becoming standard in the hotel industry. In
lesser hotels and taverns, it was not so much a question of "come-and-get-it" as it was
"try-to-to-eat-it."
---America Eats Out, John Mariani [William Morrow:New York] 1991 (p. 25-7)
See also: Fast food
ABOUT CATERING
"Restauranteurs vs Traiteurs
"When he went to Paris in the early eighteenth century, Joachim Nemeitz quickly discovered what
was wrong with the French capital: the food...Forced to eat at an innkeeper's or traiteur's
(cook-caterer's) table d'hote, the simple visitor to Paris would soon discover that he "does not fare
well
at all, either because the meat is not properly cooked, or because they serve the same thing every
day and rarely offer any variety."...Throughout the eigheenth century, many a traveler would have
cause for similar complaints...food served by French innkeepers and cook-caterers, though
inexpensive, would further ruin...health...For centuries before the first restaurants opened their
doors, travelers and Parisians without their own kitchens had depended upon the inns, cookshops,
and wineshops...Early eighteenth-century Paris was, in fact, home to thousands of retail food and
drink merchants, all organized by monarchial decrees into twenty-five different guilds. As defined
in their statutes, the retail food trades were characterized by extreme divisiveness and
exaggerateed compartmentalism...Master cook-caterers held the right to serve full meals to large
parties...The cook-caterers (traiteurs), it is said, quickly brought legal charges against one
particularly aggrandizing restauranteur named Boulanger who dared to sell a dish (sheeps' feet in
white sauce) that was not a restaurant but a ragout (anything composed of several different
ingredients and cooked in sauce). After a series of appeals, we are told, the courts eventually
decided in favor of the cook-caterers, and restricted the "restauranteurs" to selling bouillons...The
retail food trades were notoriously difficult to delimit, The futility of enforcing divisions among
the food trades derived in part form the combinative nature of the work itself...Already in 1704,
almost three-quarters of the master traiteurs were also cabaret-keepers; in 1748 the traiteurs'
guild noted that "most of our masters" also have the privileges of pastrycooks or
roast-meat-sellers...A 1760 decision of Parlement instructed that, in order to prevent monopolies,
the Paris
caterers should henceforth elect their four "syndics in charge"...The combination of titles, while
fairly common in all the retail food trades, was particularly prevalent among the traiteurs. It is
evident that the cook-caterers of Paris had long had their fingers in numerous pies, and that by far
the majority of them would have been well within their legal rights had they run businesses that
sold a variety of foods and a wide range of potables. Such an accumulation of tasks was easily
possible, but it did not distinguise the first restauranteurs from the established cook-caterers.
Indeed, many of the first restauranterus were also master traiteurs with close business ties to many
of the other established Paris food and drink trades."
---The Invention of the Restaurant: Paris and Modern Gastronomic Culture, Rebecca L. Spang
[Harvard University Press:Cambridge MA] 2000 (p. 7-11)
African American caterers
"The African Amercian caterers in particular were comparatively well-to-do; they employed other members of their community,
met with prominent white families, and were social leaders and noted abolitionists...Philadelphia caterers developed
reputations for particular dishes, such as terrapin stew and chicken croquettes, which were seen as African American specialties
and prestigious foods on the tables of socially prominent white families...African Americans continued to dominate the catering
business in northeastern cities into the 1890s...African American caterers also held positions of respect in southern cities
throughout the era of segregation."
Selected notes from late 19th century primary sources
"Ten per cent of the colored people are skilled laborers--cigarmakers, barbers, tailors and dressmakers, builders, stationary engineers, &c. Five and one-half per
cent are in business enterprises of various sorts. The negroes have something over a million and a half dollars invested in samll business enterprises, chiefly real
estate, the catering business, undertaking, drug stores, hotes and restaurants, express teaming &c. In the sixty-nine leading establishments $800,000 is invested--
$13,000 in sums from $500 to $1,000 and $200,000 in sums from $1,000 to $25,000. Forty-four of the sixty-nine businesses were stablished since 1885, and
seventeen others since the war...Five leading caterers have $30,000 [invested]..."
"It seemed natural at this time that this leading class of upper servants would step into the economic life of the nation from this vantage ground and play a leading
role. This they did in several instances: the most conspicuous being the barber, the caterer, and the steward...he held his own in the semi-servile work...until he met
the charge of color discrimination from his own folk and the strong competition of Germans and Italians...the caterer was displaced by the palatial hotel in which he
could gained foothold."
"The Italian, Sicilian, Greek, foreign to America's language and instutituions, occupy quite every industry that was confessedly the negro's forty years ago...Think of
our city's most famous catereres of forty or fifty years ago. They were the Downings, Mars, Watson, Vandyke, Ten Eyck, Day, Green, and others, all colored.
Their names were as familiar and as representative in high class work as are Delmonico and Sherry today. Who have succeeded to the business that theses colored
caterers had on those days? With one exception, Italians."
"William Walker, a colored caterer, living at 439 West Thirty-ninth Street, with his wife, went into the restaurant of John Stark, at 436 and 438 Ninth Avenue for
supper serveral weeks ago. Walker alleged that the proprietor snatched the bill of fare from his wife's hand, and told both that he would not serve them because of
theri color. Walker was corroborated by his wife in his testimony that Restaurant Keeper Stark said he would no serve them because of their color. Mr. Stark
denied the statements of Mr. and Mrs. Walker, and said that when they entered his restaurant he was closing up one of the rooms, which he usually does every
night. When the plaintiffs entered he requested them to take a seat in the other part of the restaurant, which was to remain open all night. He said that the plaintiff
became very indignant, and ordered his wife to sit down in the room they were in..."
Early American women caterers
The American Historical Newspaper and ProQuest Historic Newspaper databases are excellent sources for find 18th-20th century
ads and business listings. Ask your librarian how to access.
Restaurant menus, as we know them today, are a relatively new phenomenon. Food historians tell
us they were a "byproduct" of the French Revolution. About
restaurants. In the 20th century children's menus take their place at the table.
"From the early 1770s, at the latest, the use in restaurants of a printed menu, or carte, that
allowed each customer to choose his or her own restoratives marked another distinctive
innovation in service. Before the emergence of the restaurant, a menu had always been a list of all
those foods to be served during a particular meal (as at a banquet today). Cookbooks
recommended them and chefs in wealthy households composed them, but all the items on the
menu were brought to the table in the course of the meal. A table d'hote had no menu; the eaters
(whoever in the course of the meal might be) and the food (whatever it might be) arrived at the
same moment. The restaurant's role as a place for the exhibition and treatment of individual
weaknesses, however, necessitated a new sense of the menu: the creation of a list of available
items from which each consumer made personal choices at the most convenient moment. In the
restaurant, the vagaries of each customer-patient's malady demanded different dietary treatments;
no two souls or nervous systems were "sensitive" in the same way. When ordering from a
restaurant menu, the patron therefore made a highly individualistic statement, differentiating
him-or herself (and his or her bodily complaint) from the other eaters and their conditions. By the
mere
presence of a menu, the restaurant's style of service demanded a degree of self-definition, and
awareness and cultivation of personal tastes, uncalled for by the inn or cookshop...Restaurants
had printed menus because they offered their customers a choice of unseen dishes...While a
restaurant's fare might not be uniform...its monetary transactions were...the printed menu allowed
restaurant patrons to calculate costs "before spending a penny." There in print, set and fixed
before his or her very eyes, the restaurant customer saw prices and dish names, concoctions and
costs. No longer required to share each of the dishes brought to a table d'hote, but permitted to
concentrate on the ones he or she explicitily requested, the restaurant patrons could make
preference as much a matter of finance as of taste...In a restaurant, the ostentations potlatch of
baroque expenditure was replaced by the equally conspicuous and significant economy of
rationalized calculation."
How the term " menu " derived ?
About children's menus
"Featured by the Frisco is a children's menu card printed in color with pictures of farm and train scenes. One page is black and
white which can be colored with crayons provided by the steward."
"Parents may share portions with younger members of the family; half portions at half prices are served to children. Simple and
wholesome food is always a concern when the youngsters go on a trip, and the demand for it is met on many trains by
children's menus. The cards, with pictures of nursery-tale characters divert the young patron while the waiter fetches the well
cooked cereal of poached eggs and milk toast."
"When children rode the train, special efforts were made to add to their dining pleasure. It might begin with the steward, cookie
jar in hand, passing through the train handing out complimentary between-meal snacks. When he seated children in the dining car,
he might hand each one a peppermint stick. The colorful children's menu, sometimes with a happy story or interesting facts included,
often named the meal as to enhance the fantasy children exprienece when traveling by train. So chicken soup, a broiled lamb
chop, mashed potatoes, carrot sticks adn ice cream became the "Engineer's Special Dinner." Children's mealtime favorites included
spaghetti, a broiled hamburger with French Fried potatoes, and French toast...Every effort was made to ensure that all children
ate and enjoyed their meals, and that memories of the experience lingered with them. They were, after all, the next generation
of riders."
---Dining by Rail, James D. Porterfield [St. Martin's Griffin:New York] 1993 (p. 311)
Children's menus proliferated in the booming years after World War II. They continued the tradition of entertainment
set by the railroads. Family friendly suburban restaurants (Howard Johnson's, for example) were well known for their creative
children's menus in alternative formats.
Online documents from the University of Washington contain three examples of children's menus. The earliest is dated 1950. Note states
menus bgan to be popular in the 1950s.
Mr. Joseph Horn and Mr. Frank Hardart launched their restaurant empire in 1888 in a tiny 15
stool
lunchroom in central Philadelphia with $1,000 borrowed from a family member and a recipe for
coffee. The restaurant was successful and before long the Horn and Hardart Baking Company
operated several lunchrooms throughout Philly. In 1900 Mr. Hardart traveled to Berlin and visited
the Quisiana Company Automat, a "waiterless restaurant." He was soon convinced the automat
represented the food service wave of the future. It was simple, efficient and sanitary. Mr. Hardart
ordered automat machinery for his company. In 1902, the very first Horn & Hardart automat
opened at 1818 Chestnut St, Philadelphia. In 1912 the first H & H opened in New York City,
right in the middle of Times Square. It was an immediate success.
Horn and Hardart restaurants were especially popular during the Depression years and WWII
because they served inexpensive yet tasty selections. Meals were planned by award-winning chefs
and recipes were stored in a safe. Quality control was tantamount to the operation. Every day the
founders and top executives met at what they called the *Sample Table,* to ensure their recipes
were followed to their satisfaction. Consider this review:
The original H & H automat closed in 1968. The last automat (200 E 42nd St., NYC) closed
its doors April 10, 1991. A portion of Mr. Hardart's original imported automat machines from
Chestnut St. are currently housed in the National Museum of American History (Palm Court), Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC. You can also see some
original equipment in the Motown Cafe, 104 West 57th St., NYC (a former H & H location).
If you would like to read more automat history ask your librarian to
help you find these:
How do I find authentic Horn & Hardart recipes?
"In the heyday of Automats, recipes were stowed in a safe, and they told not only how to make
the food but where to position it on the plate." This might explain why there are
only a few H & H attributed recipes printed in books and circulating on the Internet. Are they
authentic? Maybe. We are still researching the topic. According to an article printed in the
Philadelphia Inquirer [August 8, 1994, section D, p. 1: Horn & Hardart foods are back],
"Entrepreneurs Aaron J. Katz and Albert A. Mazzone have recreated recipes from the old Horn &
Hardart restaurants..." This article does not indicate whether these recreations were made from
original recipes or the product of a good chef's professional approximation. Here are the recipes
commonly attributed to Horn & Hardart:
Food historians tell us food served in coffee houses was generally a prix fix affair with a set menu established daily by the proprietor. Similar to the bills of fare
served at contemporary taverns, inns, and boarding houses. The primary purpose of coffee houses was intellecutal stimulation, sharing news, conducting business
transactions and fostering social comraderie. Food was served, but it wasn't featured. Some American coffee houses (Fraunces Tavern & Tontine Coffee House in New
York City, City Tavern in Philadelphia, for example) also proffered finer dining options. Sadly, these early bills of fare have not been preserved. What we know about the foods
served in these establishments is gleaned from primary sources: inventories, ledgers, letters, and journals.
A short course in the genesis of European coffee houses:
"Once the Ethiopians discovered coffee it was only a matter of time until the drink spread through trade with the Arabs across the narrow band of the Red Sea...
While coffee was first considdred a medicine or religious aid, it soom slipped into everyday use. Wealthy people had a coffee room in their homes, reserved only for
ceremonial imbibing. For those who did not have such private largesse, coffe houses, known as kaveh kanes, sprang up. By the end of the fifteenth century, Muslim
pilgrims had introduced coffee throughout the Islamic world in Persia, Egypt, Turkey, and North Africa, making it a lucrative trade item. As the
drink gained in popularity throughout the sixteenth century, it also gained its reputation as a troublemaking brew. Various rules decided that people were having too much fun
in the coffee houses...Why did coffee drinking persist in the face of persecution in these early Aralb societies? The addititive nature of caffeine provides one answer...
yet there is more to it. Coffee provided an intellectual stimulant, a pleasant way to feel increased energy without any apparent ill effects...In 1616 the Dutch, who dominated the
world's shipping trade, managed to transport a [coffee] tree to Holland from Arden...At first Europeans didn't know what to make of the strange new brew. In 1610 traveling
British poet Sir George Sandys noted that the Turks sat "chatting most of the day" over their coffee, which he described as "blacke as soote, and tasting not much
unlike it."...Europeans eventually took to coffee with a passions...In the first half of the seventeeth century, coffee was still and exotic beverage, and like other such rare
substances as sugar, cocoa, and tea, initailly was used primariy as an expensive medicine by the upper classes. Over the next fifty years...Euroepans were to discover the social
as well as the medicinal benefits. By th 1650s coffee was sold on Italian streets by aquadedratajho, or lemonade vendors, who dispensed coffee, chocolate, and liquor as
as well. Venice's first coffeehosue opened in 1683...Surprisingly...the French lagged behind the Italisans and British in adopting the coffeehouse...It wasn't until 1689 when
Francois Procope, and Italian immighrant, opened his Cafe de Procope directly opposite the Comedie Francaises, that the famous French coffeehouse took root...The
French historian Michelet described the advent of coffee as "the auspicious revolution of the times, the great envent which created new customs, and even
modified human temperament."...The coffeehouses of continental Europe were egalitarian meeting places where..."men and women could, without impropriety, consort
as they had never done before. They could meet in public places and talk."...Coffee arrived in Vienna a bit later than in France...Coffee and coffeehouses reached Germany in
the 1670s. By 1721 there were coffeehouses in most major German cities...Coffee and coffee houses took London by storm. By 1700 there were more than two
thousand London coffeehouses, occupying more premises and paying more rent than any other trade. They came to be known as penny universities, because for that price
one could purchase a cup of coffee and sit for yours listening to extraordinary conversations...Each coffeehouse specialized in a differetn type of clientele. On one,
physicians could be consulted. Otehr served Protestants, Puritans, Catholics, Jews, literati, mercahnts, traders, fops, Whigs, Torries, army officers, actors, lawyers, clergy,
or wits....Not that most coffeehouses were universially uplifting places; rather, they were chaotic, smelly, wildly energetic, and capitalistic."
"The first British coffee house was opened in Oxford in 1650 by Jacob, a Turkish Jew. Two years later, Pasqua Rosee, who was either Armenian or Greek, opened one
in London. Coffee has been seen as a subversive substance at various points in its history. At one time, Islam perceived the convivality it fostered as a threat to
religious life; the mosques were empty, the coffee houses full."
About coffee houses in colonial America
"New York coffee houses in the eighteenth century followed the European mould as centres of business and politics but failed to emulate their literary cast...Coffee
houses frequently doubled as court house and council chambers...and during the Revolution were a vital nexus for spreading the news. The Exchange Coffee House
was opened in the 1730s and became an unofficial auction house and commodity exchange. It moved several times and was soon ecliped by the Merchants' at the
corner of the present Wall and Water Streets...During the war of Independence the Merchants' was effectively the seat of the revolutionary government...When the
British occupied the city, it became the loyalist centre of trading and news..."
"Toward the end of the seventeenth cnetury the fashion for coffee and chocolate houses of the kind then the rage in London (which had two thousand of them by
1698) hit American shores as a diversion from the more ruffian taverns. In 1670 Dorothy Jones of Boston announced she would be serving coffee and chocolate
in her new establishment, and the idea caught on fast. In the same year the New York Merchants' Coffee House opened, later earning the reputation as being
"birthplace of the American Union." Coffeehouses were considered somewaht more civilized than taverns for gentlemen to meet it, although alcohol and food
were served in both. In the next century coffee houses grew into lavish establishments, like New York's Tontine Coffee House, which was built in 1794 on the
corner of Wall and Water Streets. It housed the stock exchange and insurance offices...the Tontine had...a tearoom, a dining room, mahogany furniture, and
crystal chandeliers, all of which drew a rising middle class whose expectations of comfort were increasingly a matter of competition among tavernkeepers...New
York's Tontine eventually offered at least a dozen dishes a day."
Recommended reading: Rum, Punch & Revolution: Taverngoing & Public Life in Eighteenth-Century Philadelphia/Peter Thompson
Chefs, as we know them today, evolved from several distinguished lines of professions engaged in
cooking-for-hire. Antonin Careme is generally credited for elevating this profession to modern status
and establising the chef's uniform.
"Chef. A person who prepares food as an occupation in a restaurant, private house
or hotel...Chefs have occupied an important role in society from the 5th century
BC onwards and in the Middle Ages, with the creation of guilds, they constituted
a hierarchical community. In France, in the reign of Henri IV, the guilds split up
into several separate branches: rotisseurs were responsible for la grosse viande
(the main cuts of meat), patissiers dealt with poultry, pies and tarts, and
vinaigriers made the sauces. The traiteurs (caterers) included the master chefs, the
cooks and the porte-chapes (the chape was a convex cover to keep dishes hot), and
they had the privilege of organizing weddings and feasts, collations and various
meals at home. These chefs cuisiniers (head cooks), as they were now called,
served a period of apprenticeship, at the end of which they had to create a
masterpiece of meat or fish. High-ranking chefs were revered, and some of them,
like Taillevent, were raised to the nobility. The most famous of all was
undoubtedly Careme. Under the Ancien Regime, a distinction was made between
the officier de cuisine, who was the actual cook, and the officier de bouche, who
was in fact the butler...From the 19th century onwards, chefs wore a large white
hat to distinguish them from their assistants...It seems that the hat first made its
appearance in the 1820s."
"Chef is a French word, which has entered other languages, denoting a
professional cook. It is a contraction of the phrase chef de cuisine hence originally
a description of rank as much as, if not more, than, occupation...Although there
had obviously always been cooks in charge of other cooks--there is the 15th-century description of the chief cook whos job was tasting and testing, not
cooking--the phrase itself did not appear before the beginning of the 19th century,
passing quickly from France to England and other countries...Before that chefs
were called cooks, sometimes qualified as man-cooks, master-cooks, cook-maids,
professed cooks, principal cooks, or even (in the case of La Chapelle on the title-page of The Modern Cook, 1733) chief cook'. In particularly grand and
conservative establishments in France before the Revolution, the head cook might
be called ecuyer de cuisine, supported by ranks of specialists such as rotisseurs,
patissiers, and so forth, as well as a body of cuisiniers...The adoption of a new
professional description must surely reflect a change in cooks'
circumstances...Into this vacuum floated the possibility of a new breed of cook:
the artist-cook, described with eloquence and conviction by the most influential
practitioner and writer of the decades, Antonin Careme, who both orchestrated
developments in contemporary haute cuisine and acted as role model to many
aspiring cooks...Careme offered an intellectual platform for cooks to redefine their
professional status, while the way in which high cookery was developing towards
stratified working methods to achieve complex culinary ends gave practical
reasons for at least some cooks to rise to the top of the heap...In his own writings,
Careme refers to the rank of chef de cuisine..It was the invation of territory
hitherto occupied by the steward of the household (in England) that gave the cook
new status...when the cook began to compose his own menus as well as design his
own pieces montees and supervise the order of service, it was a defininate
extension of his duties into the realm of steward, and would be utter conquest
when the clerk of the kitchen and provision of all supplies became subject to the
chef as well. The job definitions of the British cook and author Charles Elme
Francatelli (1805-76), a student of Careme's, indicate the shifts in function. At the
outset of his career he was the chef de cuisine...In its passage into other languages,
particularly English, the word chef has come to stand alone, and describe function
more than status...Victor Hugo, discussing Careme's patronage of the arts during
his time with James de Rothschild, calls him cuisiner...never chef; the French
trade association was one of cuisiniers, not chefs...It was in fact the organizational
reforms by Escoffier's generation that caused the extension of the term chef' to a
wider body of workers....Chefs were invariably male, largely because a large
restaurant kitchen was a man's world. Women who worked commercially
remained cook, cuisiners, or "meres" such as Mere Poulard of omelette fame.
Since technology and social progress have allowed the entry of more women into
the once all-male brigades, so they have also been given the same titles."
Who was Antonin Careme?
"Careme, Marie-Antoine( known as Antonin) French chef and pastrycook (born Paris,
1783; died Paris, 1833). Born into a large and very poor family, the young Careme was
put out on the street at the age of ten, to be taked in by the owner of low-class restarurant
at the Maine gate; where he learned the rudiments of cookery. At 16, he became an
apprentice to Bailly of the Rue Vivienne, one of the best pastrycooks in Paris. Amazed by
Careme's abilities and willingness to learn, Bailly encouraged him, in particular by allowing
him to study in the print-room of the National Library. Here Careme copied architectural
drawings, on which he based his patisserie creations; these were greatly admired by
Baily's customers, including the First Consul himself. Careme met Jean Avice, an
excellent practitioner of cuisine, who also advised and encouraged him. Then the young
man's talents became noticed by Tallyrand, who was a customer at Bailly's and he
offered to take Careme into his service.
Careme's genius. For 12 years Careme managed the Tallyrand kitchens. The culinary
and artistic talents of his chef enabled Tallyrand to wield gastronomy effectively as a
diplomatic tool. Careme also served the Prince Regent of England, the future King
George IV, and was then sent to the court of Tsar Alexander I; he was responsible for
introducing some classic Russian dishes into French cuisine, including borsch and
koulibiac. Careme numbered among the other employers the Viennese Court, the British
Embassy, Princess Bagration and Lord Steward. He spent his last years with Baron de
Rothschild and died at 50, burnt out by the flame of his genius and the charcoal of the
roasting-spit' (Laurent Tailhad), but having realized his dream: To publish a complete
book on the state of my profession in our times.'
The works written by Careme include Le Patissier pittoresque (1815), Le Maitre d'hotel
francais (1822), Le Patissiere royal parisien (1825), and, abovea ll, L'Art de la cuisine au
XIXe siecle (1833). This last work was published in five volumes; the last two were written
by his follower, Plumery...
Careme's contribution. A theoretician as well as a practitioner, a tireless worker as well
as an artistic genius., Careme nonetheless had a keen sense of fashionable and
entertaining. He understood that the new aristocracy, born under the Consulat, needed
luxury and ceremony. So he prepared both spectacular and refined recipes, including
chartreuses, desserts on pedastals, elaborate garnishes and embellishments, new
decorative trimmings and novel assemblies. A recognized founder of French grand
cuisine, Careme placed it at the forefront of national prestige. His work as theoretician,
sauce chef, pastrycook, designer and creator of recipes raised him to the pinnacle of his
profession...Careme was proud of his unique art: sensitive to decoration and struck on
elegance, he always has a sense of posterity. He wanted to create a school of cookery
that would gather together the most famous chefs, in order to set the standard for beauty
in classical and modern cookery, and attest to the distant future that the French chefs of
the 19th century were the most famous in the world'...Careme was also concerned with
details of equipment. He redesigned certain kitchen utensils, changed the shape of
saucepans to pour sugar, designed moulds and even concerned himbself with details of
clothing, such as the shape of the hat."
Recommended reading: Cooking for Kings: The Life of Antonin Careme, the First Celebrity Chef/Ian
Kelly
Why (in history) were most chefs men?
Who was the first recorded chef in the world?
Food historians generally credit Apicius (4th century?), a Roman cook, for
recording (writing) the first cookbook. There is much discussion regarding the
both the author and the cookbook. You will find a brief discussion in Alan
Davidson's Oxford Companion to Food (p. 24). In a broad interpretation of the
term chef' Apicius might be the answer you are looking for. Certainly, recipes
were recorded long before Apicius
Recommended reading
ABOUT CHEF'S UNIFORMS
About the toque
"Unlike Talleyrand or the Prince Regent...Lord Stewart met his celebrity chef in the
kitchens--Careme's domain. Ad here, in 1821, he first noticed a difference in his chef's
appearance. Antonin had take to wearing a raised hat, a sort of toque, in contract to the
white nightcaps usually worn in kitchens in those days. When Stewart, in his halting
French, asked why, Antonin said he felt a chef should not dress as for a sickbed--perhaps
after the unfortunate demise of La Grande Bagration who never recovered from the
almost total inactivity' that overcame her on her diet of pure Careme. Antonin's insistence
on stiffening his white hat was imitated first by the chefs of Vienna, then Paris, and then
everywhere. Antonin later published an illustration of the cap, stiffened with a round of
cardboard and later still he even suggested--in an early example of celebrity-chef product
endorsement--the best place to buy one: the bonnetier M. Pannier, on the boulevard de la
Madeleine in Paris."
About the coat
"Almost as distinguising as the toque blanche is the veste blanche, or double-breasted
white jacket. Its military style is no accident of fashion. The earliest chefs were servants of
kings and could very possibly have been called upon to serve on the battlefield as well as
the dining hall. Much less has been written about the chef's coat than about the toque.
Most references suggest that white was chosen to emphasize good sanitation. Jackets
ranged from long-sleeved coats fashioned after papal dress to costumes derived form
rural dress, which included a jacket covered by a long apron and worn with a knotted
kerchief around the neck. The jacket protected the chef from the heat, as it still does
today. The coat has other advantages, as well. A split at the cuff seam allows the cuffs to
be turned back, giving the chef a neat an professional appearance that would be lost
through rolled-up sleeves; at the same time it ensure protection to the forearms and wrists
in the event of a splatter or spill. The double-breasted design offers a quick fix for hiding
soiled areas, since the panels can easily be reversed to regain a crisp, white, professional
appearance."
Chef's Pants and Apron
"The history of the chef's checkered pants is the most difficult to document. Most sources assume that this fabric was chosen
to couflage spills. While bakers wore white, chefs turned to either regular black-and-white checks or a houndstooth pattern,
with the exact color and pattern varying from place to place. Some believe that the houndstooth check originated in the costume
of the English master huntsman. Designed with built-in safety featues, chef's pants sometimes have snaps instead fo a zipper
so that they can literally be torn away to prevent bodily burns in the event of an accidental spill. The pant legs are
straight, not cuffed or rolled, so that liquids cannot be trapped at the ankle. The very first chef's uniform was no more than
an apron worn to protect clothing from inevitable splashes and spills. The messier the work, the longer the apron. Butchers
wore long aprons; skilled artisans and craftsmen wore theirs shorter."
"Until the late nineteenth century, delicatessens were primarily run by Germans and Alsatians in
this country. The word itself derives from German and means delicacies, but is used not only to
describe a shop, but also is the word for the products sold in a shop. Eventually Jews, too, went
into the business...Delis were especially attractive for the observant as the stores were open on
Sundays, selling canned and packaged goods, often duplicating the services of grocery stores.
More than anything else the delicatessen became the "Jewish eating experience" in this country.
A deli was a little restaurant with a counter, a few stools and smoked beef, pastrami, frankfurters,
potato knishes, rye bread, club bread, mustard, and pickles," recalled Norman Podhoretz, editor
of Commentary Magazine, who grew up in Brownsville, Brooklyn...As Jews became more affluent,
two distinct types of delicatessens emerged. "An offshoot of the kosher restaurant is the kosher
delicatassen and lunchroom"...The other type of delicatessen that emerged as Jews became
assimilated and moved uptown or to Brooklyn or suburbia was the carry-out, or "kosher style" deli.
It looked and smelled like a kosher delicatessen, but coffee was served with cream. The
overstuffed pastrami and corned beef sandwiches were served followed by a piece of New York
cheesecake...The quintessential Jewish "kosher style" delicatessen today is the Carnegie on Fifty-fifth
and Seventh Avenue in New York."
"Delicatessen. A grocery store that usually sells cooked meats, prepared food, and delicacies.
The word is from the German Delikatess, "delicacy." In the 1880s it referred to preserved foods.
During the period of post-Civil War emigration to America, many Jews set up butcher shops called
schlact stores, but as more foods were added to the shelves, the term "delicatessen shop,"
"delicatessen store," and "delicatessen" became common, though some preferred the non-German term "appetizing store." Later on "delicatessen" was shorened to "deli" or "delly," which
sometimes also referes to the foods sold in such an establishment.
New York City is still the hub for deli culture and sets the standards for those elsewhere.
Delicatessens specialize in serving pastrami, potato salad, pickles, rye bread, liverwurst, and
many other items enjoyed by the Jews of eastern cities. To call such a store a "Jewish
delicatessen" is, therefore, something of a redundancy, and many delicatessens maintain Kosher
regulations. But today many other ethnic groups run their own delis, as in "Italian deli" or "Latin-American deli."
"Jewish immigrants did not at first open restaurants, but they took the concept of the schlact, or
grocery, store to far more delectable and diverse levels than Americans had ever before
experienced. And, in most cases, one could eat on the premises. The word delicatessen comes
from the German word, delikatesse, for delicacy, although many New York Jews preferred the
non-German word "appetizing." The deli counter's display of breads, smoked salmon, dried fish,
noodle pudding, cured meats, pickles, and oddities like cream soda and celery tonic represented
American bounty in its most voluptuous and self-indulgent form, and the experience of going to a
deli--"Jewish deli" would have been a redundancy--became the stuff comedy and heatburn were
made of. Americans took to the overstuffed sandwiches and fried potatoes with the same relish
they would to ham-and-cheese sandwiches and French fries, and "deli counters" became as
much a fixture in American supermarkets as a butcher or dairy case...Most delis were in the Jewish
neighborhoods of East Coast cities, epecially New York, where delis dimpled the streets of
Brooklyn, the Bronx, East Harlem, and the Lower East Side, although some of the most famous--Reuben's, the Stage Deli, and the Carnegie Deli--were uptown attractions, as much for their
celebrity clientele as for their food...The less stringent deli owners became about keeping kosher,
the more appeal they had to Gentiles, and non-kosher customers."
Delicatessen, definition circa 1911
Recommended reading:
While most Americans think of fast food in terms of modern chain restaurants, food historians like
to remind us the first "fast food" restaurants were thermopolium, operated by Ancient Romans.
Throughout history most cultures and cuisines developed shortcut options to traditional dining
customs. The concept of modern fast food was a byproduct of the industrial revolution. People on
the go (or working) required fast, economical and portable foods. Street vendors, fair fare, lunch
wagons, diners, roadside eateries, drive-ins, ice cream stands, noodle parlors and sushi bars cater
to this market. Each in its own place and time. According to John Mariani, American food
historian, the phrase "fast food" was first coined by George G. Foster in 1848. It did not become
popular, however, until the 1960s when chain restaurants proliferated.
The types of items consumed "on the street" are generally determined by the tradtional foods of
the country/region. Which foods are most popular? That depends upon the time and place. In the
places where many cultures and cuisine combine, the confluence of street food is a reflection of
the inhabitants. Food carts were often used by peddlers to sell inexpensive homemade and
manufactured goods. Ice cream and candy were often sold in this fashion. Early carts where
powered by people (pushed, pulled), animals (goats, horses), wheels (bicycles, tricycles) and
motors (cars, trucks).
This is how one food historian sums up the topic:
ANCIENT ROMAN TAVERNS
"Rome had countless bars, restaurants and inns...Tabernae, taverns, were found chiefly near the
bathhouses, but also near temples, libraries and other public buildings. There were several
different kinds. Engravings show that they all had an L- or horseshoe-shaped bar made of stone
and cement. In comparison with a modern bar, it was low-just over a metre height. Four or five
clay pots were permanently bricked into the bar, sometimes with a mortar. This meant that they
were well insulated so food and drink could be kept warm or cold in them for a long time. Near
the bar stood a small bronze oven, usually portable, in which water was kept at a boiling point.
The larger taverns had a separate kitchen and a cellar. If the space was large enough, low tables
and stools were arranged close to the bar; otherwise customers had to stand...Food in the taverns
was less spectacular than in wealthy houses, but the proprietors prepared it freshly. Typical dishes
would have included the popular puls (a porridge or rissoto) and dishes with beans, peas or lentils.
From the time of Emperor Vespasian these were the only dishes dishes taverns were permitted to
serve. Claudius and some other emperors had prohibited the sale of boiled meat, and any tavern
foolish enough to offer it was closed down. Thus to circumvent the law, meat was usually boiled
on the street...We can conclude form this that boiled meat was popular. Frescoes, ancient graffiti
and other sources suggest that roasted meat was also served, such as ham and pig's head, with
eel, olives, figs, possibly sausage, fishballs, meatballs, salads, poultry, marinated vegetables,
cheese, eggs, omelettes and all manner of light snacks (think of Italian antipasto and Spanish
tapas)...Fornax means oven', and this restaurant was a sort of pizzeria."
"The more convival side of Rome's night-life is represented by the taverns and hot food stalls.
These were more than a nocturnal luxury: they were also a daily necessity in a crowded city many
of whose poorer inhabitants could not possibly have risked lighting a cooking fire in their
tenements...The noise and aroma of Rome's street food began before sunrise...and continued
throughout the day...Everybody ate street food, even emperors. It was slightly less respectible to
eat in the pervigiles popinae ever-open cookshops'...The bars and taverns in and around the great
Baths were the nearest thing that Rome had to restaurants. In some you could choose wither to sit
or to recline; and in some you could spend serious money...while the snacks available in others
would be converted into a full meal only by a miser...In some you could demand a certain level
and variety of cuisine for which the ordinary cookshops had no time at all..."
ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND
19TH CENTURY FRENCH BISTROS
"Bistro, a term which dates back only to the late 19th century in French and to the early 20th
century in English, is elastic in its meaning but always refers to an establishment where one can
have something to eat, as well as drinks. Such an establishment would normally be small, and its
menu would be likely to include simple dishes, perhaps of rustic character and not expensive. If it
is correct that the word comes from a Russian one meaning "quick!", this would fit in with the
general idea that one can eat quickly at a bistro. However, the concept of simple inexpensive food
served in a French atmosphere has wide appeal, and as a result the use of the term, whether as a
description of eating places of of food, had, towards the end of the 20th century, begun to be
annexed by more pretentious premises."
"Bistro. A bar or small restaurant, also known as a bistrot. The origin of this familiar word is
obscure. It first appeared in the French language in 1884, and perhaps comes from the Russian
word bistro (quick), which the Cossacks used to get quick service at a bar during the Russian
occupation of Paris in 1815. There also appears to be a relationship with the word bistreau, which
in the dialects of western France describes a cow-herd and, by extension, a jolly fellow--an apt
description of an innkeeper. The most likely origin is doubtless and abbreviation of the word
bistrouille. Modern French bistros are of modest appearance and frequently offer local dishes,
cold meats and cheese with their wine."
"1815. Russian soldiers bivouac in the Place de la Concorde and under the trees of the Tuileries
and the Champs-Elysees at Paris following the Battle of Waterloo...and by some accounts they
introduce the word "bistro" for cafe by ordering waiters to bring orders "bystro, bystro" (quickly,
quickly). French cafe owners cover their counters with zinc to protect them from fist marks and
wine stains (the word "zinc" will become a generic for cafe.).
According to the current edition of Larousse Gastronomique (p. 194-5), the first cafes (defined
generally as places selling drinks and snacks) was established in Constantinople in 1550. It was a
coffee house, hence the word "cafe." Cafes were places educated people went to share ideas and
new discoveries. Patrons spent several hours in these establishments in one "sitting." This trend
caught on in Europe on the 17th century. When cafes opened in France they also sold brandy,
sweetened wines and liqueurs in addition to coffee. The first modern-type cafe was the Cafe
Procope which opened in 1696.
About restaurants
19th CENTURY ENGLISH FISH & CHIPS
"Fried fish, sold in pieces, cold, must have been established as a standard street food in London by
the 1840s or earlier...At that time the fish was sold with a chunk of bread...Chips had an earlier
history, probably from the late 18th century...The marriage of fish and chips, wherever it was
comsummated, gained popularity swiftly and spread...The number of fish and chip establishments
grew steadily until the Second World War."
History of Fish
and Chips restaurant industry/National Federation of Fish Friers
A SURVEY OF AMERICAN FAST FOOD DINING OPTIONS
[1872]
[1876]
[1900]
[1902]
[1905]
[1916]
[1921]
[1921]
"The drive-in idea came about because its creator, J.G. Kirby, a Dallas tobacco and candy
wholesaler, had come to the conclusion that "People with cars are so lazy they don't want to get
out of them to eat." With the help of Dr. Reuben Wright Jackson, Kirby designed and opened a
drive-in pork barbecue eatery he called the Pig Stand in September 1921 on the
Dallas-Fort-Worth Highway. Within a decade Kirby and his franchises had Pig Stands all over the
Midwest as far away as New York and California...The drive-in was a direct expression of the
appetite of an automobile-obsessed culture for basic food and social interaction."
[1926]
[1953]
RECOMMENDED READING:
See also: take out foods.
From the beginning of time, there were travelers. Eventually, these travelers got hungry and had to eat. Enter on-site
foodservice. Ancient Roman soldiers, Medieval crusaders, Renaissance explorers, colonial traders, and 19th century
railroad passengers were fed by enterprising mobile entrepreneurs who capitalized on captive markets. Inflight catering descends from this tradition.
Like passenger railroads and cruise lines, the first commercial airlines catered specifically to wealthier classes. These
customers demanded the finest service and were willing to pay the price. En-route meals served two purposes:
stay the hunger and pass the time. Railroad moguls starting thinking about passenger food from the
beginning. So did the airline companies. As techology advanced, so did the catering possibilities. Inflight catering presented
a unique set of challenges for the cooks and crew serving the food. In the early years, on-site kitchen full-service facilities were not possible,
as they had been on railroads.
Which airline was the first to offer inflight catering? Both United and American claim this distinction.
"The first airlines were created after World War I by former military pilots. Their purpose was mail deliversy, not passenger
transport. Passengers were gradually included on flights...Since passengers were considered an necessary evil by the pilots who ran
...the airlines, no thought was given to any foodservice for them, although the pilots and other members of the crew might sometiems share
a box lunch sandwich or a thermos of coffee with them. It was not until 1936, with the development of the DC-3, that the first
airplane galley was introduced by American Airlines. That galley was quite primitive by modern standards as there was no
electical power available for heating foods or beverages, and all hot foods and liquids were boarded at ready-to-serve temperatures
and held in hot thermoses. Three years later, the Boeing 307 Stratoliner, the first aircraft with a pressurized cabin that
permitted commercial flights above the weather, was developed with a galley no more advanced than that of the DC-3. Primitive
though it was, the DC-3...revolutionized air travel in the Untied States, and it was in this plane that routine, planned
passenger foodservice became the standard for the industry...Also in the 1930s, Pan American Airways developed extensive
galleys on their flying boats. The clippers that were used for overseas flights. Although there was no electric power available
for these gallesy for either heating or cooling food products, the last of these famous aircraft, the Boeing 314, had food-heating
capability from a glycol circulating system which piped glycol from the galley to one of the plane's four engines. The engine
heated the glycol, which, in turn, heated water in the galley...from the very first, these flying clippers had the capability
of making fresh coffee on board...There was no refrigeration system on board these flying clippers, and weight limitations precluded
boarding more than the minimum amount of ice that was needed for bar service requirements. However, because of the poor
reliability of the glycol heating system, cold meals or cold buffets were served on these flights whenever climatic conditions
allowed. Except in places such as wake Island, wehre there were no ammenities available and Pan American had had to establish
and staff kitchens, food for the clipper flights was procured from high-quality local hotels or restaurants. The finest foods
were procured as Pan American was competing with the elegant steamships of the day for their passengers. However, canned foods,'
such as ham, potatoes, peas, and so on were always carried on board for emergency purposes and for second meals that were required
on long flights...By the mid-1930s, airlines were beginning to realize the importance of inflight foodservices and were
becoming concerned about both the quality of the food products available and the high prices charged by the airport
terminal restaurants wehre they usually bought their food supplies. United Airlines...was the first airline to recognize the
marketing potential of inflight foodservice as the competition of airlines increased...[a consultant] developed United's
answer to the problem--build its own flight kitchens at airports where its flights landed. The first experimental kitchen
was completed in Oakland, California in December 1934. Operating its own kitchen was so successful for United...United eventually
built a chain of twenty kitchens throughout the United States..."
Jet travel & frozen foods
"Then, around 1945, Pan
American worked together with Clarence Birdseye and Maxson Company to create the
convection oven, which would allow frozen foods to be heated on board the aircraft.
Maxson called the first convection oven it designed the Whirlwind Oven: it had a heating
element in the fort of a fan and held six meals. Soon afterward, the microwave oven was
developed; it has since become the industry standard in aircraft food service preparation.
The first meal trays were served on pillows on passengers' laps, until trays have been
developed with lids that would serve to elevate the food in front of the passengers.
Finally, foldout service trays were installed in the seat backs. The three-course meal that
has become the standard for airplane food trays grew out of the creation by United
Airlines in 1937 of the first functional airplane kitchen, conceived in an effort to improve
the quality of food offered during flight...The first successful frozen three-course meal
fitting the tray's specifications--consisting of meat, potatoes, and vegetables--was
marketed by the Maxson Company; the meals were sold to Pan American Airways in
1946."
"The development of jet aircraft in the 1950s began a new era in inflight foodservice. not only were the galleys in the
aircraft newly designed, but changes were required in the inflight kitchens...The end result was a near doubling in
size of inflight kitchens...In the early 1950s, hot food packaging was changed from the thermoses...to heated ovens...
Throughout this period, Pan American Airways continued its development of elegant service for its transoceanic flights. An innovation
developed by Bert Snowden was the precooked frozen entree, the forerunner of today's pop-out meals. Its development of the
convection oven in 1945 (termed the Maxson Oven...) led to Pan American's increased usage of these frozen meals...
The new precooked frozen entree was flexible item that could be used in any system. In addition to being heated on board planes
equipped with the new convection oven, it could also be thawed, heated on the ground, and boarded as a hot casserole meal...
the precooked frozen entree was very controversial. Many chefs felt that it posed a threat to their security. Also...
many of the early products that appeared on the market were of inferior quality and gave the system a bad reputation...These concersn
with meal quality caused Pan American to seriously consider eliminating this frozen meal concept in 1948. However, to revert to
locally prepared meals at that time would have meant the development of flight kitchens in such areas as Damascus, Suyria; New
Delhi and Calcutta, Inda; Bangkok, Thailand; and Johannesburg, South Africa. At the same time, they were in need of new
aircracraft to expand their fleet; so funding and development of inflight kitchens in these rather remote areas was not
economically feasible....the problem was not the system, but the quality of food products being prepared for the system...[Kenneth
Parratt] installed equipment such as high-velocity blast freezers and low-temperature storage freezers...Products produced in this
faciltiy were shipped around the world to the Pan American commissaries...TWA was also producing frozen entrees at its
flight kitchens at Orly Field in Paris and at Laguardia Airport in New York City...The 1950s was also the era for the
development of many standardized products suitable for use in inflight foodservices...The boarding of glass carbonated
beverages bottles had been a major problem...The new cans were not only lighter and disposable, but their flexibility helped
alleviate the explosion problem...The advent of the 707 jet aircracraft brought fine restaurant dining to first-class passengers
in the late 1960s. Efforts were made to adapt menus from well-known fine dining establishments to airline sevice...Pan
American['s]...partner was Maximes of Paris."
"As the twentieth century progressed, two elements affected the continuing
developement of airplane food: America became more tolerant of a diversity of eating
habits, and a greater diversity of people began using airplanes as a means of travel. To
respond to these trends, that responded to religious, ethnic, or health requirements with
respect to food."
Early inflight catering companies
"Marriott was one of the earliest inflight caterers as a result of innovative actions by William Kahrl, the manager of a new
Marriott Hot Shoppe across the road from Washington's Hoover Airport (now Washington National Airport) in the late 1930s. In late 1937, at
th request of one of his customers who was the manager of American Airlines' operations there at that time, Kahrl started
putting coffee and sweet rolls on American flights coming from the West Coast...The airline furnished the thermoses; the Hot Shoppe
furnished the food and paper supplies; everything as loaded on a flat pushcart and pushed across Route 1 from the Hott Shoppe to the
airport in the very early morning hours and loaded onto the airplane...Dobbs' entry into the inflight foodservice field was
in response to James K. Dobbs' concern with the poor-quality food that he received on flights as he traveled around the country
checking on his Toddle House operations. He enjoyed quality food, and felt that airline passengers were entitled to the best
food possible...His work was instrumental in the airlines' transistion from seving only cold box lunches to serving hot,
restaurant-style meals...Mr. Dobbs' concept was to service the airlines through the terminal restaurants. He also had a theory
that there should be a recipe for everything, and he demanded that all the products in all these restaurants be prepared
by approved recipes. Thus, Dobbs was able to provide consistent food products from one airport to the next."
[1936] United Airlines opens the first flight kitchen.
Need more information? We suggest:
The earliest trains did not have dining facilities on board. Customers brought their own food or purchased before
boarding from local vendors. Before long, trackside
eateries dotted the country. Fred Harvey's Harvey Houses
played a key role in feeding America's rail passengers. Indeed, some folks view his establishments as the
first American "fast food" resaurants. Passengers only had a half hour or so at each stop! On-board dining was considered from the start of the industry. It took
time, however, to create a workable system capable of producing acceptable (delicious??!) results.
In the beginning...
"Eatinghouses quickly sprang up at [railroad] junction points, and as traffic increased, dining stations or refreshement
saloons...were established by the railroads themselves at the towns along the line. A few were excellent and their meals became
famous, but most of them were second rate, and in a number the food was inedible. The railroads made constant efforts to improve
the poor ones, but many of them were let as concessions, and the roads had little control over them...All through trains were delayed
as much as an hour a day to allow time for meals to be eaten, which took from ten to twenty minutes for each meal. In that
limited time there was a wild scramble among the passengers to get down at least part of a meal before the train pulled out.
In winter or in stormy wather many people were reluctant to leave the train, and the old and inform were barred from eating in such
places at any time. The meals were spaced to suit the schedule, and the passengers might get all three meals within a few
hours on one section of the road and fast for long period between meals on another. If the train was delayed, they would be without
food for hours except for such provender as the news butcher brought round. Each eating place usually had its specialty, which
was served every day. After the telepgraph came into use, it was the custom of the conductor to go through the train some time
before it was due at a dining station and ask all passengers who intended to eat there to signify the fact. He would then telegraph
ahead, so that the proper number of meals could be prepared."
"Even in the United States the railroads had avoided looking for ways to better the lot of the hungry passenger. American
railroad managers thought of themselves as people movers, not caterers...The first coaches looked for all the world like
stagecoaches mounted on flanged wheels...The old coaching inn idea of meal stops continued to dominate, although complaints
about the food and service...flitted through newspaper and magazine accounts of adventuresome trips on the new but
perilous mode of transporation. Ocean liners, river steamers, and canal boats were suggested as role models for food service...
and a rail car built in 1835 for the Phildelphia and Columbia Railroad boasted what must have been a food service counter at one end,
an innovation that withered as railroad executives concentrated their efforts on haulage to the exclusion of forage. In the
early 1860s, cars that were used to provide meals were nothing more than temporary expedients...Some coaches were only half-gutted and fitted
out with counters thus surveying as forerunners to the coffee shop/coach cars on the "milk stop" runs...As a result, little thought
as given to dining comfort or variety, and only patrons who could not wait for an end to their journeys, or who did not expect
anything better, patronized them."
Self-contained dining cars made sense on many levels. They eliminated need for stops (faster transport), attracted wealthier
clientele (who demanded creature comforts while traveling) and inspired forward-thinking entrepreneurs (George Pullman, for one).
"Dining cars had been proposed as early as 1838 and therafter, and in 1863 two restaurant cars were put into service on the Philadelphia,
Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad and operated for several years. These were ordinary day coaches with cross partitions at their
centers. Half of the car was used for a smoker, and in the other half, from the seats being removed, an eating bar, with a
steam box, was installed. The food was cooked at the terminals and carried in the steam box, and the bar was probably
patronized by men only. It was not until 1867 when the first diner was put into service. In that year George. M. Pullman
introduced his first co-called hotel car on the Great Western railroad of Canada. This was a sleeper with a small kitchen in one e3nd,
and the meals were served on tables that were set up, when needed, between the seats. There was an ample supply of elegant crockery
and table linen, and the passengers were given their choice of a number of dishes prepared by a professional cook. These
comforts...were reserved for the occupants of the car. The advantage of allowing the other passengers to eat aboard were
apparent to everyone, and in 1868 Pullman placed the first dining car open to all passengers in service on the Chicago & Alton."
"...the idea of eating on the train was introduced, however haltingly, almost immediately after the first trains started running...The absence of any cooking faciltiies
indicates the cars were catered at terminals...The first account of a meal served on a train appeared in the Baltimore American of Saturday, November 5, 1842.
The article described the run of a special train on Novemer 3 which carried the President and Directors of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, "and a few gentlemen
invited to accompany them," over the 178-mile mainline out of Baltimore to celebrate and show off the completing of the new fifty-five-mile stretch connecting
Hancock with Cumberland, Maryland. "As it was not designed to stop on up the road, an elegant cold collation was prepared in one of the cars, fitted up for the
purpose, under the direction of Mr. Barnum of City Hotel, whose skill in such matters is too well known to need commendation. The attention of the company was
equally divided between the excellence of the fare and the novelty of thirty or forty gentlemen comfortably enjoying a collation while traveling at the rapid rate of
twenty-five or thirty miles per hour." Called "refectory cars," these B & O creations and their imitators on other railroads served on similar occasions for nearly
twenty years, the pace of dining innovation apparently at rest. But even this earliest account includes the mention of three elements that were to characterize
dining-car service for the next 125 years. The food, even in the remote and primitive "wild regions of the Allegheny hills," was termed "elegant." The creative source
of the food was the menu of an already-famous hotel, a practice many in railroad management realized established instant credibiltiy among those who requested
first-class intercity trains for their dining-car service. And a renowned chef oversaw the operation...It wasn't until the Civil War period that food was systematically
prepared and served on trains. Then, boxcars containing straw mats and hammocks were used to carry wounded troops from the battlefield to treatment facilties
in the North and East. At first, food was prepared on primitive stoves in the individual boxcars. But by 1863 full realized hospital trains were in operation and
included a kitchen car containing a range, cupboards and sink, a food storage compartment, and a dining area with a long table and benches. Food could be eaten
there or delivered to the soldiers lying in converted boxcars and coaches on either end. The first dining cars to be called such and to be part of the established
make-up of a scheduled train also appeared in war, in 1862 on the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad. H.F. Kenney, general superintendent of the
PW&B described these two cars as remodeled day coaches, each fifty feet in length and each fitted "with a partition running through the center, crosswize, one
end being for smokers, and the other as an eating bar, fitted with steam box and other fixtures usually found in a first-class restaurant...The diner of 1862 was a
baggage car, retired from heaavy work on account of long service in the transportation of trunks, and bare as to the interior excerpt that it was furnished in the
middle with an oblong counter around the four sides of which the patrons ate while seated on high stools...From the insides of the oblong viands were served by
colored waiters in white jackets. If memory does not betray me, the bill of fare of the diner on the Washington Express consisted chiefly of oyster stew, pie, crullers,
and coffee...The first primitive dining cars continued in operation for just three years, with no public note on the cause of their demise...In 1867 a revolutionary turn
in the way people ate while riding the train occurred. George Pullman introduced his "hotel car." Named President, it was the first railroad car designed and built for
the purpose of preparing and serving meals on board and en route, and awakened travelers and railroadmen alike to the full potential of eating on the train."
Selected primary accounts of early American railroad dining experiences
[1840]
[1854]
There is some controversy regarding the *invention* of the salad bar.
According to the New York Times, the modern salad bar (as we know it in the United
States) first emerged in the late 1960s:
"Salad bars first appeared in the late 1960's in midprice restaurants like Steak and Brew, featuring
bon fide salad fixings to keep customers busy and happy until the real food came. Lettuce
Entertain You Enterprises, a group of 35 restuarants in Chicago and other cities with everything
from retro diners to elegant hotel dining rooms, got its start--and its peculiar name--with a salad
bar. The company's founder and president, Rich Melman, began his career in 1971 in Chicago
with R. J. Grunts, a place that featured an all-you-can-eat salad bar with more than 40
items--huge in its day. Even in the early years, there were people who looked no firther than the
salad bar
for dinner...Not long after they opened, the Steak and Brew restaurants, which offered the salad
bar free with the steak, found it necessary to set a price for a meal consisting of items only from
the salad bar. The sideshow had become the main event. It was a cheap meal..."
Modern food historians readily credit Rich Melman with introducing the salad bar, citing RJ
Grunt's opening in June 10, 1971 as the *birth date* for this dining phenomenon. Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises is still
a viable operation. You might want to contact Mr. Melman and
interview him.
BUT THEN THERE'S THIS:
Many sources give credit for the first salad bar to RJ Grunts, a Chicago singles bar and restaurant
that began featuring a salad bar in 1971. That claim is trumped by a place called Chuck's Steak
House, which advertises that it had the first salad bar in its Waikiki, Hawaii, location in 1959, the
same year Hawaii achieved statehood. Chuck's opened a branch in Los Angeles in 1961, which
also gives it a claim to having the first salad bar in the mainland U.S.
So where does Springfield fit into this?
The Cliffs was operated from the late 1940s to the early 1960s by Sam and Viola Cliff, both dead
now for more than a quarter of a century. Maybe Sam and Viola had something else in mind
when they coined the term "salad bar", something different from the modern meaning of the term,
but it's hard to imagine what, especially with the word "buffet" used in the phone directory listing.
So maybe it's time to set the record books straight, tell RJ Grunts and Chuck's Steak House to
forsake their claims and recognize The Cliffs, and the Cliffs, for the culinary innovators they
were."
History of Chuck's Steak House
According to the food historians, steak houses originated in New York City. Why? New Yorkers
could afford to spend the most money and demanded the best cuts of beef.
"Americans had developed a great appetite for beef by the turn of the century, and after Detroit
meat-packer G. H. Hammond brought out the refrigerated railway car in 1871, chilled carcasses
became readily available in the East, though fresh beef was still not common in the outer reaches
of the western frontier. Still, by the 1880s beef was being shipped even to England, and
"steakhouses" were among the most popular restaurants in large American cities."
"True, the Old Homestead in Manhattan opened in 1868, Keens Chop House in 1885, Brooklyn's
Gage & Tollner debuted in 1879, and Peter Luger in 1887, but those revered establishments drew
more on English and German models. Luger still features only one cut of steak--the sliced
porterhouse, a term derived from English taverns serving porter beer and popularized about 1814
as a steak in America by porterhouse proprietor Martin Morrison in New York.
The New York steakhouse--a term still used outside New York to draw customers in the same
way ads proclaim "London pub" or "Parisian bistro"--developed along lines drawn at Palm (1926)
and Gallagher's (1927), both of which originated as speakeasies during the Noble Experiment of
Prohibition. Palm was run by two Italians, John Ganzi and Pio Bozzi, on Second Avenue. (The
name was supposed to be "Parma," after the owners' hometown, but a city bureaucrat spelled it
wrong on an official document, and so "Palm" it remained.) Gallagher's, on 52nd Street off
Broadway, was named after former Ziegfeld-girl-turned-speakeasy-owner, Helen Gallagher. Both
places democratically served a little beer, a little hooch and a little beefsteak to everyone from
New York's politicians and journalists to Caf‚ Society, who sometimes got their pictures or
caricatures put up on the walls. Such places had a swagger, a very masculine feel to them and a
perception of exclusivity that made everyone want to go there.
After Prohibition ended in 1933, Palm, Gallagher's, Jack Lyons, Manny Wolf, Cavanaugh's,
Christ Cella and Farrish's flourished. New York steakhouses got the best meat because they paid
the most and charged the highest prices. The menu, rarely varied, became a formula for success:
prime beef, lamb chops, lobsters, fried potatoes and cheesecake were pretty much the whole
shebang. Wine lists were unknown until the 1980s, when Sparks and Smith & Wollensky invested
heavily in wine cellars..."
"Steak, rather than hamburger or the hot dog, is probably the most typical American food. Steak
(from Old Norse steik, stick) has meant a strip of meat or fish cooked on a stick over a fire since
the 15th century. From the earliest colonial times until the 1860s what you and I call a steak was
called a beef steak, to distinguish it from the often more common venison steaks, buffalo
steaks....By the 1760s some colonial inns and eating establishments were billing themselves as
beef steak houses. Then around 1866 the first Texas longhorns reached New York via the
Chisolm Trail and the railroads and soon the backyard cows, pigs, and chickens, and the wild deer
and the buffalo, had a competitor--beef raised solely for eating. Thus the modern steak and the
cowboy were born together, and since the mid 1860s steak has meant beefsteak. By the end of the
1860s the beef steak house was simply called a steak house...Popular taste...demanded a thick
sirloin, broiled over charcoal if possible. Thus in the late 1940s and 50s restaurants often
advertised the mouth-watering charcoal-broiled steaks."
"In the Sixties, American liked to eat steak when they went out to dinner, and they liked the
exotic allure of Japanese restaurants. Enter the Japanese steak house. There were several different
"brands" of steak house, both here and in Japan, but the best known of them all was Benihana. In
1964, the first Benihana of Tokyo restaurant in the United States opened in New York..."
If you need additional details...
Ask your librarian how to access EBCSO and other magazine/business/newspaper databases.
These will provide the latest details on the steak house restaurant industry. You can use the
Library of Congress Catalog to identify books written on
specific
restaurants. Your local public librarian can arrange to borrow them for you. The National Cattelmen's Beef Association provides the latest
industry data on prices and consumption.
If you need additional historic information on specific NYC steak houses you can contact these
places:
The evolution of modern American take out (& take home foods is a
fascinating
convergence of social history and packaging technology. A survey of articles in New York Times
Historic
confirms the 1950s as the "start date" for modern take-home meals in the United States. This also
coincides with the explosion of family restaurants, mainstream "ethnic" and backyard barbeques.
Why?
Returning WWII GI's settled their families in the suburbs. And then came television.
"The term "take-out" describes both a style of eating and a growing list of prepared foods that
consumers
purchase from a restaurant or food stand and eat in another location. Delivery format, packaging,
and types
of food vary greatly, ranging from hamburgers to expensive gourmet fare, but all may be
categorized as
takeout because of this off-premise consumption. In the United States, take-out food is often
viewed as
synonymous with fast food...The concept of take-out food and the pracatice of buying prepared
foods for
consumption elsewhere date to early civilization. Roadside stands and food stalls in busy urban
markets
were commonplace in ancient Greece and Rome...Almost every culture in every era has had its
version of
take-out foods...Urban industrial workers in nineteeth-century America further popularized
take-out foods.
Food vendors sold various sausages and stews from carts outside factory gates, catering to
workers with
little time or money...In many urban areas, ethnic Italian and Chinese restaurants competed with
early
hamburger outlets for take-out customers. Small storefront pizzerias and "chow chow houses"
sold
inexpensive pizzas and Americanized Chinese foods on a primarily take-out basis. Using broad,
While competing in the marketplace, cooks have, since ancient times, formed guilds. A little
booklet of Notes on the History of the Company of the Mistery of Cooks of London,
published by the Cooks' Company perhaps in the early 1960s, dates the Fraternity's formation to
1311-12. The trades regulated themselves and were regulated in terms of fair trading and health,
were taxed and given some protection by the City and crown. That is, they operated as a
profession, with its mutual promotion and restrictive trade practices--limiting entry through (often
exploited) apprenticeships, sharing tricks of the trade, and fixing prices...The guild of
cook-caterers, the cuisiniers, paralleled the hierarchy in the court kitchens...Do not forget we are
talking about public cooks: cuisiniers are not to be confused with queues, master cooks employed
in noble households and convents. Furthermore, the guild of cuisiners was forever splitting and
being challenged by new specializations...The tradesmen sold goods to be carried away, but a
further offshoot of the cuisiners was the traiteurs--eating-house keepers or caterers. They were
popular with the modest people, for they sold small quantities at low prices. From statutes in
1559, they specialized in weddings and banquets, held on their own premises or elsewhere...When
Antoine Beauvilliers opened the first great restaurant, La Grande Taverne de Londres--in 1782,
according to Brillat-Savarin, and in 1786 according to others--a new trade, deriving partly from
English taverns, had broken from the the traiteurs...The caterers had an exclusive right to sell
cooked meat dishes, but limited themselves to selling whole cuts of meat, not an individual
helping. That monopoly was contested in 1765 by Boulanger, a seller of bouillons. While the
traiteurs claimed the exclusive right to sell ragout, stock fell outside their monopoly and was sold
under the name restaurant, in the sense of restorative'."
---A History of Cooks and Cooking, Michael Symons [University of Illinois Press:Urbana
IL] 1998 (p. 315-8)
[NOTE: This book contains far more information than can be paraphrased here. Please ask your
librarian to help you obtain a copy.]
Historic newspapers and scholarly articles provide but brief glimpses into the catering businesses run by blacks in the late 19th century. They do confirm your observation regarding being edged out by new immigrant arrivals. W.E.B. Dubois observed and studied this trend.
For a comprehensive study of this topic we recommend the resources held by the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture/NYPL
---Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, Andrew F. Smith editor [Oxford University Press:New York] 2004, Volume 1(p. 24-25)
---"The Black North: A Social Study, New York City," W.E. Barghardt DuBois Atlanta University, New York Times, November 17, 1901 (p. SM10)
---"The Economic Future of the Negro," W. E. B. Dubois, Publications of the American Economic Association 3rd Series, Vol. 7, No. 1 (Feb., 1906),
pp. 219-242
---"The Economic Future of the Negro. The Factor of White Competition ," Alfred Holt Stone , Publications of the American Economic Association
3rd Series, Vol. 7, No. 1 (Feb., 1906), pp. 243-294
---"Sued Under the Malby Act," New York Times, October 4, 1895 (p. 14)
[In 18th century America some] "women in the food workplace were caterers or confectioners of a sort. They sometimes ran small shops
that specialized in their own preserves, candies, or baked delicacies. They were more likely to be situated in towns in which people
followed fashion and made their purchases with cash (rather than bartering)...Some women baked to order and undertook simple
catering from their homes. Their advertisements appeared regularly in eighteenth-century newspapers."
------Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, (p. 554-555)
---The Invention of the Restaurant: Paris and Modern Gastronomic Culture, Rebecca L.
Spang [Harvard University Press:Cambridge MA] 2000 (p. 76-8)
[NOTE: This book contains far more information about the origin and history of the menu than
can be paraphrased here. If you need more details please ask your librarian to help you find a
copy.]
Word derivations/origins/first use can be found in large, unabridged dictionaries. The Larousse
de la
Langue Francaise [Librarie Larousse:Paris] 1979 (p. 1140) confirms the word "menu" has
Latin roots.
The term has been used in the French language since the 1080. The word "menu" as it relates to
food
dates in French print to 1718. The Oxford English Dictionary (2nd edition) confirms the
English word
"menu" was borrowed from the French. The French borrowed it from the Latin word "minutus,"
meaning
detailed list. According to the OED, the first instance of the word "menu," as it relates to food, in
English
dates to 1837. There are other meanings of this word which pre- and post-date the food
relationship.
The earliest references we find in print to children's menus (developed specifically for children, not a separate list of
choices printed on the adult menu) are from the late 1930s. These were developed by railroad companies in order to entertain
their youngest customers (thus appeasing their ticket-paying parents).
---"Rail Notes: Ferry's End," Ward Allen Howe, New York Times, February 27, 1938 (p. 167)
---"Art of Dining Adjusted to Speed," New York Times, May 22, 1938 (p. 128)
Howard Johnson's (& other menus) circa 1960s & 1970s.
Description: Rhodes Mezzanine Tea Room, Children's Menu Date: ca. 1950 Notes: Rhodes Mezzanine Tea Room was located in Rhodes Department Store, 2nd Avenue in downtown Seattle.
The Children's Menu is die-cut and illustrated in the shape of a circus wagon with a lion inside. The menu features items for children grouped together under such names as "The Farmer in the Dell" and "Jack Frost" (Egg Salad Sandwich with Malted Milk). Each meal has an illustration of the particular story for which it is named. For the "tiny tots" they have a selection of Gerber's baby foods. Children's menus were a trend started during the baby boom of the late 1940s and lasting into the 1960s, and the Rhodes Mezzanine was a popular place for ladies and their children during lunch. While there one could request one's favorite tune to be played live on the pipe organ that resided on Rhodes' Mezzanine.
Descrption: Frederick & Nelson, Paul Bunyan Tiny Tots Menu Date: ca. 1965 Notes: Frederick & Nelson (Department Store), 5th Avenue & Pine Streets.
Illustrated Paul Bunyan Tiny Tots' menu, includes theme meals, illustrated with clowns, giraffe, Paul Bunyan. Paul Bunyan was also the theme of the soda fountain restaurant on the basement level. Menu has promotion of Frederick & Nelson children's departments and activities for children on back.
Description: Ivar's Indian Salmon House Children's Menu Date: ca. 1965 Notes: Ivar's Indian Salmon House, 401 Northlake Way.
Mask die-cut and illustrated with a design of a male Indian's head. There are eye holes, a cut out for a nose, and rubberbands for fastening the mask around the ears. This child's menu is from the early days of this restaurant, which later changed its name to Ivar's Salmon House (and still exists today). Adult menus (and the restaurant itself) are decorated authentic Northwest Indian designs. Child's menu items are on the back, which is illustrated with totem poles and wetlands.
"Nickels in slots at Horn & Hardart Automats, which once upon a time yielded only buns, bean
pots, fish cakes, coffee, and such, can nowadays be played cafeteria-wise. Handful of nickels will
load your tray with quite a meal, hot and well prepared. Of the 40 automats, I think you'd
particularly like the ones at 545 Fifth Avenue (corner of 45th), and 106 West 50th (new
Rockefeller Center), and 104 West 57th."
After the war, the popularity of automat dining slowly began to fade.
Renewed prosperity sent many middle Americans in search of more expensive (or surburban
family-oriented) dining facilties. The company's committment to high quality food at low cost
became an economic drain. Eventually, Horn & Hardart filed for Bankruptcy.
---Knife and Fork in New York, Lawton Mackall [Doubleday:Garden City] 1949 (p. 146)
The Automat, Lorraine B. Diehl and Marianne Hardart [Clarkson Potter:New York]
2002
If you are conducting extensive historic research check the New York Times Index. This
provides
citations to articles which provide details on real estate deals, new restauants, financial data,
employee benefits and noteworthy incidents such as: "Police fail to quell roast beef dispute,"
NYT August 10, 1936, p.32:5 (three women resort to fisticuffs over a particular slice of meat
in H & H restaurant). If you need additional details, contact the New York Public & Philadelphia
Free Libraries.
"Age of the Automat," Restaurants & Institutions, October 1, 1996 p.57 (4 pps)
"Echoes of the Automat," Supermarket Business, December 1994, p.91 (4 pps)
"History of the Automat," Smithsonian Magazine, January 1986 p.50 (10 pps)
"Last Automat Closes," New York Times, April 11, 1991, p.B1
"Meet Me at the Automat," Smithsonian magazine, August 2001
Evidence suggests that the original recipes used by H & H were closely guarded secrets:
---Last Automat shuts its many little doors
forever," Chicago Tribune, April 12, 1991 (p.2).
---Uncommon Grounds: The History of Coffee and How it Transformed our World, Mark Pendergrast [Basic Books:New YOrk] 1999 (p. 6-13)
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 2nd edition 2006 (p. 201)
---Coffee: A Dark History, Antony Wild [W.W. Norton:New York] 2005 (p. 135-6)
---America Eats Out, John Mariani [William Morrow:New York] 1991 (p. 18-19)
---Larousse Gastronomique, Completely Revised and Updated [Clarkson
Potter:New York] 2001 (p. 264-5)
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford]
1999 (p. 158-162)
[NOTE: This book has far more information than can be paraphrased here. See
also the entry for "Cook." Ask your librarian to help you find a copy.]
Careme was one of the most famous culinary figures of the 19th century. He is credited for several significant
professional reforms and elevating the profession of chef to the status we know today.
---Larousse Gastronomique, completely revised and updated edition [Clarkson Potter:New
York] 2001 (p. 220-1)
Chefs were traditionally men for the same reasons as lawyers, doctors, professors, military
officers, clerics. In most cultures, professional positions of power were restricted to free
males. Only recently have women begun to break these ranks.
Interesting question. The food history books do not offer a simple answer. Instead,
they describe the history and evolution of the profession we now call chef'. In
sum, people have been cooking grand meals for others for thousands of years.
They were not called chefs, however. The culinary profession was stratified by
guilds during the Middle Ages. Some of these guilds (think labor unions) had the
word "chef" in the title. "Chef cuisiner," or head cook was one of these. Many
significant professional reforms were made in the early 19th century, including the
eventual elevation of chef cuisiner (chief cook) to one in charge of all aspects of
kitchen management. Many of the most famous "chefs" (as we think of them
today) were not called such during their own times.
---traces the evolution of the culinary profession from ancient times to present
---focus on classic French cuisine
The history and evolution of chef's uniforms (including checked pants) is very interesting. If you need a quick summary, these sites are excellent:
[NOTE: In the fashion world, the "classic" check design is known as houndstooth.]
---Cooking for Kings: The Life of the First Celebrity Chef, Ian Kelly [Walker &
Company:New York] 2003 (p. 188-9)
---"The Chef's Uniform," Gastronomica, Winter 2001, Vol. 1, No. 1 (p. 90)
[NOTE: This article contains far more information on traditional chef wear than
can be paraphrased here. Your librarian will be happy to help you find a copy!]
---"Chef's Uniform," (p. 90)
---Jewish Cooking in America, Joan Nathan [Knopf:New York] 1994 (p. 184-6)
---Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink, John F. Mariani {Lebhar-Friedman:New York] 1999
(p. 110)
---America Eats Out, John Mariani [William Morrow:New York] 1991(p. 74-6)
ABOUT STREET FOOD (general)
The history of mobile street vending (in the broadest sense) can be traced to military field mess
units. The idea of cooking and serving food from portable canteens evolved over time. Ancient
Romans hawked "street foods" in marketplaces and sold them in sporting venues. Medieval street
foods were sold at fairs, tournaments, and other large gatherings. Today, we sometimes call this
"fast food."
"Street food in a given place, is often far more interesting than restaurant food. Generally
speaking, wherever it is found it will be likely to represent well-established local traditions; and in
some places a tour of hawkers' stalls may be the quickest and most agreeable method of getting
the feel of local foods. Among the factors which seem to determine how numerous and diverse
street foods are in this or that country, one is clearly climate--a temperate or warm climate makes
these operations much easier and also produces a larger number of passers-by who are not intent
on getting to somewhere out of the cold. Another factor is the degree of economic development.
Broadly speaking, developed countries have fewer street foods. However, there are many
exceptions or anomalies...there are indeed few generalizations which can be safely made on the
subject. Nor is there much literature available for study...A list of the most famous and
widespread street foods would certainly include ice cream, doughnut, hamburger, and hot
dog."
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p.
758)
---Around the Roman Table, Patrick Faas [Palgrave MacMillan:New York] 2003 (p. 41-2)
---Empire of Pleasures: Luxury and Indulgence in the Roman World, Andrew Dalby
[Routledge:London] 2000 (p. 218-220)
[NOTE: some of the foods referenced in this sections include: sausages, hot chickpea soup,
lettuce, eggs, chub mackerel, beetroot, gourds, radishes, black pudding, white bread, salad
(dressed with oil), mustard, ham, grilled fish, venison, wild boar, chicken, hare, cabbage, boiled
meat, turtle-doves, pheasant, honey, fatted goose, pickles, yogurt, halva, and wine. Water was for
washing, not drinking.]
In Shakespeare's day, street/fast foods were sold to playgoers. About these foods
According to the food historians, bistros are offshoots of cafes. The menu is generally the same.
The difference? Bistros are quick service; cafes are more leisurely establishments.
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p.
77-8)
---Larousse Gastronomique, completely revised and updated [Clarkson Potter:New York]
2001 (p. 116)
[NOTE: The first edition of LG (1938) does not contain a separate entry for this word.]
---The Food Chronology, James Trager [Henry Holt:New York] 1995 (p. 205)
---Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p.
301,303)
Night lunch wagons (Providence,
RI) inspire the first diners.
Some food historians believe Harvey Houses were
the first fast food chains in the United States. These were the brainchild of Englishman Fred
Harvey, who began positioning his eateries along key points of Santa Fe Railroad in 1879. These
restaurants were known for extremely high quality food served in record time. An entire trainload
of people needed to be served in 20 minutes or less. The menu was varied and food was served
quickly.
Louis' Lunch (New Haven, CT) is said to have sold
the first hamburger on a bun.
Horn & Hardart's first automat opens in Philadelphia, PA
Gennaro Lombardi opens the first
pizzeria in the United States, New York City.
Nathan's
Famous Hot Dogs, Coney Island NY
White Castle (Witchita, KS)
hamburger stands serve standard "fast food" fare at cheap prices. Food and buildings were
uniform throughout the chain.
According to the food historians, The
Pig Stand (Dallas, TX) was the first drive-in restaurant chain. It also offered the very first
drive-thu window, 1931 in California (Pig Stand Number 21).
---America Eats Out, John F. Mariani [William Morrow:New York] 1991 (p.122)
Taylor's Maid-Rite debuts in Iowa
McDonald's first store with the classic golden arches opened in Phoeniz, Arizona in May
1953 with this menu.
Ray Krock joined the company in 1955 and opened his first restaurant one year later.
---Inflight Catering Management, Audrey C. McCool [John Wiley & Sons:New York] 1995 (p. 17-22)
---Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, Andrew F. Smith editor [Oxford
University Press:New York] 2004, Volume 1 (p. 28-9)
---Inflight Catering Management (p. 32-37)
---Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America (p. 29)
---Inflight Catering Management (p. 26-27)
[1945] TWA meals
Current & historic meals
What about Airline Chicken??!
---The Railroad Passenger Car, August Mencken [Johns Hopkins Press:Baltimore MD] 2000 (p. 26-27)
---Dining Car Line to the Pacific, William A. McKenzie [Minnestoa Historical Society Press:St. Paul MN] 1990 (p. 25-25)
---The Railroad Passenger Car, (p. 28-29)
---Dining by Rail: The History and the Recipes of America's Golden Age of Railroad Cuisine, James D. Porterfield [St. Martin's Griffin:New York] 1993 (p. 29-38)
[NOTE: This is the one of the best books on American railroad fare. It also includes sample popular [though undated] recipes for the major railroad lines.]
"Of all traveling, I think that by railroad the most fatiguing...your only consolation is the speed with which you are passing
over the ground...At eery fifteen miles of the railroads there are refreshment-rooms. The cars stop, all the doors are thrown
open, and out rush all, the passengers are like boys out of school, and crowd round the tables to solace themselves with pies,
patties, cakes, hard-boiled eggs, hams, custards and a variety of railroad luxuries too numerous to mention. The bell rings for
departure, in they all hurry with their hands and mouths full, and off they go again until the next stopping-place induces
them to relieve the monotony of the journey by masticating without being hungry."
---The Railroad Passenger Car, [quoted from A Diary in America, Captian Frederic Marryat (Philadelphia, 1849), pp. 9-10]
"The process of watering the passengers, as it is called, is another feature peculiar to American railway traveling. A man or boy,
often a Negro, carrying a tin can and tumblers in a frame passes frequently through the cars dispensing iced water to the
numerous applicants for that indispensible refreshment during an American Summer, which is provided at the expense of the
railway company."
---The Railroad Passenger Car, [quoted from A Vacation Tour in the United States and Canada, Charles Richard Weld
(London, 1855), p. 222,225,247)]
Sample historic American menus
Recommended reading & selected recipes:
---"Spiced-up salad bars, at $5.95 a pound," Florence Fabricant, New York Times,
September 21,
1994, p. C1
"As it turns out, there are a number of competing claims as to who came up with the first salad
bar and when they did it. The Merriam Webster Collegiate Dictionary, 10th edition, said the term
originated in about 1973, and refers to it as "a self-service counter (as in a restaurant) featuring an
array of salad makings and dressings." The folks at Merriam Webster's may have been taking there
cue from the Wendy's chain of fast food restaurants, which began featuring salad bars in the early
1970s. But even Wendy's doesn't claim to have developed the first salad bar, just the first one in a
fast food chain.
That's where it gets interesting, because there is evidence that a Springfield restaurant called The
Cliffs, at 1577 W. Wabash Ave., may have had a salad bar up and running as much as a decade
before even Chuck's Steak House in Waikiki thought of the idea. The evidence includes a 1950
postcard put out by the restaurant that advertised it as the "originators of the famous salad bar,"
and a 1951 Yellow Pages listing that said the same thing, this time referring to the "salad bar
buffet."
---"Birth of the salad bar; Local restaurant owners may have invented the common buffet,"
The
State Journal-Register (Springfield, IL), December 28, 2001, Magazine section (p. 10A)
---American Encyclopedia of Food & Drink, John F. Mariani [Lebhar-Friedman:New
York] 1999 (p. 23)
---"Ready for Prime Time: A Good Steak is Hard to Find, John F. Mariani, Cigar
Aficionado [magazine], Winter 1993
[This article also outlines the history of steak in America. Ask your librarian can help you get a
copy of this article]
---Listening to America, Stuart Berg Flexner [Simon & Schuster:New York] 1982 (p.
488-9)
---Fashionable Food: Seven Decades of Food Fads, Sylvia Lovegren [MacMillan:New
York] 1995 (p. 289)
