In my career as a musical critic I have found that I could do much more
toward improving the artistic doings of singers and players by praising
their best things than by finding fault with their poorest.
In the culinary art, likewise, the reader will find that far better
results are reached by praising the cook for her successes than by
never speaking to her except to find fault. It makes her try to _earn
more praise_, not only in the making of that particular dish but in the
making of others.
Above all things, a mistress who expects artistic dishes from a
superior cook should never appear to be looking down on her.
This looking down business, perhaps more than anything else, stands in
the way of our getting good cooks.
At the same time, perhaps more than anything else, it shows what fools
these mortals be.
All over the country, but particularly in the West, I have found that
most families look down on other families. It is chiefly a question of
money. Those who have an income of $3,000 look down on those who have
only $1,000 or $1,500, while those who have $10,000 do all they can
to show their superiority to three-thousanders, only to be, in turn,
snubbed by those whose income is $20,000; and so on.
One day in a California village where I was spending the winter, I was
surprised at the rudeness of a storekeeper with whom I had had some
pleasant chats. He hardly answered my questions; in fact, he snubbed
me. I found out next day that he had just inherited a large fortune, a
piece of luck which he celebrated by promptly looking down on everybody
he knew.
As a rule, however, I regret to say, the women are more addicted than
the men to this preposterously silly habit of looking down on others.
Not to speak of its being extremely ill-mannered it is the most deadly
obstacle to the solution of the problem of domestic help.
We shall never have a sufficient supply of good helpers until
mistresses recognize the fact that cooking is a fine art, and that
those who practise it should be treated, not as servants, but as
practitioners of the most important profession in the world--a
profession which stands to the medical in the relation of prevention
to cure; and that prevention is better than cure we all know. It's
cheaper, too.
An old English writer has justly remarked that "the kitchen is the best
pharmacopœia."
F. W. Hackwood calls attention to the suggestive fact that all the best
old cookery books in the English language were written by medical men.
Sir Kenelm Digby and Dr. Mayerne in the seventeenth century, Dr. Mill
and Dr. Hunter in the eighteenth, and Dr. Kitchiner in the nineteenth
gave to the world "the best English cookery books of their respective
eras."
Queen Anne's physician, Dr. Lister, declared that "no man can be a good
physician who has not a competent knowledge of cookery."
That is the opinion prevalent among the best medical men of to-day, who
hold correct advice in regard to diet and the proper cooking of the
food recommended to be usually of more importance than drugs.
Many thousands of invalids have been killed by improper or badly cooked
food.
The foolish factory and shop girls who look down on kitchen work should
be reminded of the fact that none of the contributors to the pages of
the various women's journals are more honored than those who are famed
for their skill in cooking and giving others the benefit of their
experience. Some of these women, like Mrs. Rorer, Marion Harland, Mrs.
Lincoln, Christine Terhune Herrick, Janet MacKenzie Hill, Mary Ronald,
and Helen S. Wright, have won international repute.
It is a curious fact that whereas in Europe most of the cook books have
been written by men, in America the authors of such books are mostly
women. From American women, with their keen intelligence and good
taste, great things may be expected in the way of gastronomic progress.
After the appearance in the "Century Magazine" of my brief remarks on
the nobility of the art of cookery I heard of a wealthy young lady
(I hope and believe there were many others) who was impelled, after
reading them, to take up cooking and found it so fascinating that she
neglected all her other pet diversions. I know educated young ladies
who would rather cook than do anything else except, perhaps, go to the
theater; they find it "so entertaining and engrossing."
Many anecdotes might be related of women known to fame who love kitchen
work. To take only one case: Mrs. Champ Clark, who came so near being
first lady of the land, is a noted cook and domestic science expert.
One who knows her writes that "she does much of her own cooking,
especially when intimate friends dine with her and they rave over
her dishes. It has the good old Southern taste, and is minus the
fingle-fangle garnishments often employed to cover up inferiority.
Mrs. Clark's bread is a delight, and when she has the opportunity she
always bakes it herself. She took first prize in a bread-baking contest
once. She holds that such labor is not undignified for any of the first
ladies of the land. The word 'servant' has been much abused, its early
meaning 'to serve' being beautiful, and certainly there is nothing
better than to do something for somebody."
There are signs that the ladies of our time will take up the culinary
art as a fashionable cult, as did the ladies of the French aristocracy
in the seventeenth century.
Many American society women are expert cooks and delight in inventing
and concocting diverse dishes. One of the wealthiest women in the
world is Mrs. George J. Gould. In summer, in her Adirondack camp, she
spends much time in the kitchen helping to cook and to make preserves
and jams. She has, it is said, "a perfect genius for combining things
and creating new sensations of taste." Her children, boys as well as
girls, understand cooking in all its branches. Grace Aspinwall, in
the "National Food Magazine" (May, 1910) gives details regarding the
culinary doings of other society women--Mrs. Philip Lydig, Mrs. Joseph
Widener, Mrs. Norman de R. Whitehouse, Mrs. Oliver Harriman and Mrs. W.
K. Vanderbilt, Jr.
Mrs. Woodrow Wilson is also fond of cooking, and after her husband was
elected President of the United States the newspapers printed pictures
of her at work in the kitchen.