Reproduction of the original. The publishing house Megali specialises in reproducing historical works in large print to make reading easier for people with impaired vision.

The recipes that are contained in this 1908 cookbook by Miss Parloa were, for the most part, created specifically for this work.

“[A] first ever history of the nation’s foundational ‘culinarians’—the chefs, caterers, and restauranteurs who made cooking an art.” —Marcie Cohen Ferris, author of The Edible South In this encyclopedic history of the rise of professional cooking in America, the 175 biographies include the legendary Julien, founder in 1793 of America’s first restaurant, Boston’s Restorator; and Louis Diat and Oscar of the Waldorf, the men most responsible for keeping the ideal of fine dining alive between the World Wars. Though many of the gastronomic pioneers gathered here are less well known, their diverse influence on American dining should not be overlooked—plus, their stories are truly entertaining. We meet an African American oyster dealer who became the Congressional caterer, and, thus, a powerful broker of political patronage; a French chef who was a culinary savant of vegetables and drove the rise of California cuisine in the 1870s; and a rotund Philadelphia confectioner who prevailed in a culinary contest with a rival in New York by staging what many believed to be the greatest American meal of the nineteenth century. He later grew wealthy selling ice cream to the masses. Shields also introduces us to a French chef who brought haute cuisine to wealthy prospectors and a black restaurateur who hosted a reconciliation dinner for black and white citizens at the close of the Civil War in Charleston. Altogether, The Culinarians is a delightful compendium of charcuterie-makers, pastry-pipers, caterers, railroad chefs, and cooking school matrons—not to mention drunks, temperance converts, and gangsters—who all had a hand in creating the first age of American fine dining and its legacy of conviviality and innovation that continues today.

Throughout its history, Connecticut frequently led all states in the average number of U. S. patents awarded per person. The list of products invented there is stunning--from the lollipop, cupcake and Frisbee, to the dirigible, helicopter and submarine. The workplace improved with tape measures, portable typewriters, postage meters and elevators. American consumers benefited from sewing machines, diapers, ironing boards, vacuum cleaners, can openers, lawn mowers, and flat-bottomed paper bags. Pioneering surgeon William Beaumont and Nobel Prize winner Dr. Barbara McClintock both hail from the Nutmeg State. Join local author Peter Hubbard as he reveals Connecticut's role in the invention of the Hubble Space Telescope, vaccines, the Internet, and much more.