Jane and Michael Stern just posted their very kind New York Times review of the book on their excellent blog roadfooddigest.com, along with a great picture of the kinds of double rainbows that draw all of us to the Southwest–which is where my wife and I first discovered Fred. Check it out.
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My friends at the Daily Beast asked me to do a foodie piece about Fred as the original Ray Kroc. You can read it here.
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One of my most delicious jobs in researching Appetite for America was finding archival Fred Harvey recipes. The book features over 50 of these in an appendix, most never-before-published, and here are two to start with–both from El Tovar in 1930. The recipes are in the formats (and spellings) Harvey chefs used: just paragraphs, with no separate ingredient listings.
FLANNEL CAKES
Combine one pound flour, one quart water and one small yeast cake. Set to
raise and work in three beaten eggs, one ounce melted butter, a pinch of salt
and two ounces of maple syrup. Let raise again and cook very thin, flannel- like pancakes on hot griddle iron.
BULL FROGS SAUTÉ PROVENCAL
Remove skin, dismember bull frog, cut into desired pieces, season with salt and pepper, dip in flour and sauté in butter and one crushed garlic kernel, a few minced shallots, one chopped onion and three sliced fresh mushrooms. Add a few fresh tomatoes, peeled and diced. Let simmer until frog legs are tender, season with salt and pepper and finish sauce with chopped parsley and olives. Serve in chafing dish.
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