texasmesquite

TICKET TO DINING: Walter Staib’s new ‘City Tavern Cookbook’ offers
insights into the birthplace of American cuisine

Published: Wednesday, July 1, 2009
By Frank D. Quattrone
Source: Montgomerynews.com


City Tavern’s Executive Chef Walter Staib, a resident of Bryn Mawr, stands behind some of the 18th-century culinary creations from his new cookbook, “The City Tavern Cookbook: Recipes from the Birthplace of American Cuisine.” Photo by William Deering.


By Frank D. Quattrone
Ticket Editor

He’s enamored of Thomas Jefferson — which is not hard to understand, considering his role (along with Benjamin Franklin) as one of America’s first Renaissance men. Jefferson’s name keeps surfacing as you listen to Chef Walter Staib wax poetic on the range of Jefferson’s efforts on behalf of the new nation.

In fact, the chef’s latest cookbook — “The City Tavern Cookbook: Recipes from the Birthplace of American Cuisine” (co-authored by Chef Staib’s excellent assistant, Paul Bauer) — is dedicated to America’s third president: “I dedicate this book to Thomas Jefferson, our nation’s first true gastronome and, in my opinion, the greatest contributor to early American culture.”
Written as a companion piece to Chef Staib’s upcoming 26-part CN8 TV series “A Taste of History,” the stunning Running Press volume ($35, hardcover) is both a sumptuous guide to 18th-century American cooking and an updating of the chef’s first two cookbooks — “City Tavern Cookbook” (Running Press, 1999), now in its 11th or 12th printing, and “City Tavern Baking & Dessert Cookbook”(Running Press, 2003).

“The book, since you ask, is not a replacement of the first two books,” the chef explained, “but it’s more comprehensive. There were some screw-ups in the first book, for example, like the use of Cornish hens. Well, after the exhaustive research Paul Bauer did — he diligently checked out every source — we discovered that the hen is a hybrid that came about in the 1950s. So the new book addresses that.”

Lavishly illustrated in full color, the cookbook is, as Chef Staib accurately explains, “just good reading. It’s not just a cookbook; it’s also a history of one of the most exciting times in our culture. Just ask David McCullough, the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, who wrote the Foreword. David would come here to City Tavern and I didn’t know it at the time.

“He loved the whole level of sophistication of the food here. I’ve met with him several times since. He also wrote the Foreword to my baking and dessert cookbook.” Moreover, the historian and the chef served as consultants to the acclaimed HBO series “John Adams.”

An expert on 18th-century cuisine, Chef Staib has also participated in documentaries for The History Channel and A&E. And as a respected and longtime expert in the hospitality industry — he began peeling garlic and doing odd jobs (at the age of 4) at his uncle’s restaurant in his hometown of Pforzheim, Germany — the award-winning chef is also the Culinary Ambassador to Philadelphia and to Pennsylvania has directed the openings of more than 450 restaurants around the world.

City Tavern, arguably, is his proudest.

His reputation is such that, not only did he film the pilot episode of “A Taste of History” at Philadelphia’s Historic RittenhouseTown, but he also filmed a segment at Monticello, the grand estate Jefferson built for himself in Charlottesville, Va.

Partly in tribute to the chef’s admiration for the mastermind behind the Declaration of Independence, but more so because of his insistence on historical authenticity, the directors of Monticello permitted him to film an episode of the series in Jefferson’s open fireplace, using only 18th-century tools. Chef Staib said that the only modern tools he used were the knives.

Visitors to the painstakingly accurate re-creation of the original City Tavern, where the first Independence Day celebration took place July 4, 1777, can sample an ale that Jefferson himself made, as well as his Sweet Potato & Pecan Biscuits, part of the tasty bread basket placed at every table.

But along with recipes for West Indies Pepperpot Soup, Venison Stew, Veal Fricassée with Oysters, Benjamin Franklin’s Beer Recipe and Martha Washington’s Chocolate Mousse Cake, readers will discover a fascinating history of the culinary culture of the time (including Philadelphia’s pivotal place in that culture) as well as background on the importance of City Tavern during the early days of the republic and beyond.

“Philadelphia was at the northern end of the Southern Trade Route,” said Chef Staib, “so it always had the best food available in the colonies — much more so than Boston or New York, which received food from the Northern Trade Route.

“In Philadelphia, not far from the original City Tavern, you could find shops offering the most sophisticated food of the time, including coffee, chocolate, ice cream, pastry and more — plus, the Delaware was filled with fresh salmon, oysters and other fine seafood.

“The fact is that food was the center of any event,” he continued. “There would be three or four courses, but many dishes in each, served buffet style. In fact, the book grew partly out of people asking me what Washington, Lafayette and Franklin would eat when they came to City Tavern. We knew Jefferson’s preferences. And we knew that the food of the 18th-century had to be ‘dental-friendly.’

“We know that Franklin ate tofu when he was the ambassador to France and also recommended Baron von Steuben’s services to assist our troops at Valley Forge.” We also know that the Founding Fathers discussed their travails with the mother country and charted much of the course of the Revolution while sitting at City Tavern over great food and ale.

In fact, when Philadelphia was the nation’s capital from 1790 to 1800, visiting dignitaries would often be housed at City Tavern, as there wasn’t sufficient room in the State House.

The cookbook was a project that was two years in the making, with Bauer doing much of the research and legwork and transcribing the chef’s recipes, “Chef’s Notes” and the like. “He was the policeman,” laughed the chef. “He kept things in line and on time. And eventually we tried all the recipes here at the restaurant with my chef de cuisine and tried to keep it as consumer-friendly as possible.”

Chef Staib said, “I want this book to encourage readers to time-travel, in a sense, by preparing these authentic recipes themselves. This is a book that invites them to step into City Tavern, both with its incredible collection of authentic recipes and with its evocative depiction of the passion and upheaval of the Revolutionary era.”

Stay tuned also for the opening of “A Taste of History.” I was fortunate enough to see the chef’s copy of the pilot episode, in which he prepares a wonderful meal of turkey stew, fried oysters and root vegetables inspired by Martha Washington, a fine cook in her time — or in any other, according to the chef.

The program, set in Historic RittenhouseTown and at Valley Forge National Historical Park, makes clear Chef Staib’s contention that 18th-century American cuisine “was equal to or better than any major ethnic cuisine today.”

At City Tavern, that cuisine is available all year round. And with the publication of the chef’s new cookbook, it is accessible to any reader with a sense of adventure and a passion for great food.

City Tavern

138 S. Second St.

Philadelphia, PA 19106

215-413-1443