The Elegant Table
Although French food had long enjoyed a reputation as one of the world’s most elegant cuisines, a taste for French cooking had never entered the American mainstream. On the contrary, many Americans harbored native suspicions of anything fancy or pretentious, and their deeply ingrained thrift and practicality often provoked hostility toward perceived foreign "foppery."
French cuisine did not catch the imagination of a large number of Americans until the end of the 19th century. By 1880, however, American tastes were becoming more sophisticated. A rapidly expanding economy and a growing wealthy class fueled the desire for a new elegance in food, fashion and design. In urban centers, especially, Americans turned to France for inspiration.
French Dishes for American Tables
This translation of a French cookbook was aimed specifically at American audiences, with the goal of making the unfamiliar methods of French cooking accessible to a wider population. The translator, Mrs. Sherman, remarks in the preface that the simplicity of her language will place French terms "within the comprehension of all classes."
Oscar of the Waldorf
Oscar Tschirky (1866-1943), known throughout the world as Oscar of the Waldorf, worked as maitre d'hotel of the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City from 1893 to 1943.
While at the Waldorf, he began a lifelong hobby of collecting menus, some of which were from functions he himself arranged at the hotel. Upon his death, Oscar Tschirky’s menu collection, papers, and personal memorabilia were donated to Cornell University. The Library of Cornell’s School of Hotel Administration continues to add to the collection, which today numbers more than 10,000 menus from across the country and the world.
Oscar Tschirky’s menu collection provides a fascinating window on America’s dining habits from the 1850s to the present.
The Well-Appointed Table
Urbain Dubois (1818-1901) was a celebrated chef who cooked for the Rothschild family and for prince Orloff of Russia, among others. He produced eight cookbooks, many of which were translated into English and sold in America and England.
The French menus and table settings reproduced in this English translation of Urbain’s work gave ambitious hostesses a chance to mimic the elegant manners and cuisine of France.
Entertaining
After the turn of the 20th century, a growing number of books offered advice on how to entertain and impress guests.