Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Spring 2009 - (Page 65) dwindling space on my bookshelves, books that are old standbys find themselves with strange new neighbors. I find Roy Guste’s The Restaurants of New Orleans next to Da Mathilde, a collection of Creole and African recipes from France and my 1931 first edition of Natalie V. Scott’s 200 Years of New Orleans Cooking sharing culinary secrets with its neighbors. On one side it there’s a copy of a Haitian cook book, Cuisine Sélectionée by Madame Herzulie MagloireProphète that comes complete with the dedication from Poppy Cannon to Helen McCully reminding her, “Most of the recipes are French, but there are a number that are truly Haitian.” The “truly” Haitian recipes referred to by Cannon have New Orleans resonance, like riz national — red beans and rice Haitian style; pain patate — the sweet potato bread that was sold on New Orleans streets in the 19th century; and mirlitons farcis — a stuffed mirliton that would be right at home on any NOLA table. On the other side, there’s The Marigold Cookbook: A Practical and Useful Collection of Southern Recipes by Mary H. Baldwin and Evelyn G. Hinds. The smiling head-scarf-wearing woman on the cover holds a platter of fried chicken; she’s clearly in the mammy genre, but a modernized one speaking to the books publication in 1938. The Creole Kitchen Cook Book from 1941 by New Orleanian Virginia M. Cooper perhaps speaks to the changing times when she writes in the introduction, “Negroes have served as cooks in the very best and the wealthiest homes, and are still serving in this capacity even though they are better educated and more enlightened than formerly.” Her book is illustrated with drawings of dishes and a special section of black-and-white Louisiana photographs. A much-thumbed first edition of Mary Land’s Louisiana Cookery partners her New Orleans Cuisine and reminds me of meeting her daughter and speaking at a symposium in her honor, while its bookshelf neighbor, Lena Richard’s New Orleans Cookery, reminds me how much I would have loved to meet the African-American author who was probably the first woman of color to have a cooking show on television. A fragile, foxed copy of the Ascension Parish Cook Book lists all of the members of the Girls’ Friendly Society and reminds that the Knights of Washington meet on the second and fourth Mondays of each month. It also has a great recipe for Creole spaghetti, a baked casserole a bit like lasagna. Cajun Cooking attracts with four-color photographs of dishes like smothered okra and corn maque choux. Others become elusive, losing themselves among the more than 1,500 cookbooks that inhabit my shelves only to resurface unexpectedly to rejoin the mix. Works by friends like Leah Chase, Rudy Lombard, Lolis Eric Elie, Pableaux Johnson, Judy Walker, Susan Spicer, John Besh, the entire Brennan family as well the bookshelf-busters published by John Folse. They tell tales of more contemporary times and move from bedside, to kitchen, to shelf as I read and cook and research from them. Others, I dig out seasonally and try to make room on my shelves for new ones. I’ve long since run out of bookshelves and the seven pillars of wisdom (as I call the piles on my bedroom floor) are getting out of hand. I keep praying for more wall space, chanting for someone to catalogue them all, and remember the story of the Collyer Brothers, who were crushed to death by an avalanche of their possessions, as a cautionary tale. But I still persevere, so look for me — I’ll be there at the first meeting of B.B.A. saying, “My name is Jessica and I’m a book-buying fool.” But I’ll also add under my breath, “and proud of it!” Jessica B. Harris, Ph.D., is the author of eight books documenting the foods and foodways of the African diaspora. cookbooks encapsulate moments in time like few other documents Spring 2009/LOUISIANA CULTURAL VISTAS 65
For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.