A Delicious Find From 1958!

Get ready for some cultural shocks... Richie has been excavating in the several boxes of books in our garage and he's come up with a dandy.  It's called "The Art of French Cooking" by Fernande Garvin.

The first thing you will read on opening this book is a letter from S. Mark Taper, President of American Savings and Loan Association.  "We'd like to take this opportunity to personally thank you for visiting one of our 54 branches to pick up this cook book."  Back then, businesses offered incentives to physically come on down!

The dedication could be considered rather risque for a Savings and Loan - "To Jan, my husband, because there are no men like the ones his mother used to make."

In her introduction, she expresses her amusement by visitors to Frace who tell her that they've seen the natives enjoying course after course at the table with wines and a reviving shot of brandy at the end and yet, most of the women are slender, not fat.  Apparently back then visitors were not as observant.  A French woman may eat as little as three bites per course and they can nurse a glass of wine like the cheapest miser ever known to man.  You can eat anything you want to eat if you don't overdo it.

Garvin instructs us further:  "There is enough -- and much more digestible fat in fresh butter, cheese, milk and cream to make cooking fat quite unnecessary in a normal diet.  Shortening (!) allowed in the finished dish is responsible for most of bad cooking and overweight."

"And, of course, in France, milk is for infants and a glass of milk with the meal is inconceivable."  Zing!

She scolds the reader, "One of the first signs of a marriage going to the rocks is the wife's lack of interest in the preparation and serving of the meal.  'It's good enough for him' is implied in a neglectful approach to cooking."

Glorifying the little woman as chef, she states, "As for the cook herself, she, like the rest of the family, enjoys a delicious meal -- and her ego is supported by pride in her achievement and self-esteem for her generosity in devoting time, effort and talent to the family's happiness."

I would imagine that former feminists are now Googling "Fernande Garvin" in quite some fury.  Give her hell, ladies!