What does it take to get a cup of coffee around here?

Every summer, the Johnson & Wales Admissions department hosts a Career Explorations program for high school sophomores and juniors. Essentially, students have the opportunity to spend time at Johnson & Wales immersed in what it would be like to live and go to school here in the field of choice.

Registration for the culinary program is held here at the museum, and it always packs the house! Today we got some great shots from inside the Ever Ready diner.

Hopefully these people aren't waiting to order breakfast, they'll be waiting a while...

"What a cowinkidink!" - Bugs Bunny

Some of you may know that we tweeted for the first time today.  Some of you may also know that we constantly field all sorts of requests from people who want to donate to the museum. Our most recent acquisition, a donation from a JWU staff member, is a collection of menus from restaurants in Rhode Island and Colorado. As we were going through the collection this morning, we came across this menu. Now if that isn't a coincidence, I don't know what is!

 

Upon some further research, it seems like Tweet's Balzano's Family Restaurant in Bristol, RI is a place of special significance for those who grew up in the Bristol area.

Follow culinarymuseum on Twitter!

Fruit Cakes: Not just for Christmas anymore (or at least they weren't in 1891)

In this, the season of weddings, what better recipe to share than one for wedding cake?
(And don't forget the Harries' Baking Powder! The advertisement for Harries' was found on the page facing recipe below).

Do any of you bakers out there have any idea how many people a recipe like this would feed?

Wedding Fruit Cake
Six pounds of raisins, six pounds of currants, one pound of chopped fine blanched almonds, three pounds of citron, orange and lemon peel, three pounds of dark-brown sugar, two and a quarter pounds of butter, three pounds of sifted flour, one and a half ounces of mace, three teaspoonfuls of rose water, three wine-glassfuls of brandy, three of wine, and thirty fresh eggs, beaten very light.  Mix these ingredients well together and take the cake to the bakery, making the engagement beforehand to have it baked.

-from Palatable Dishes: A Practical Guide to Good Living, arranged and compiled by Sarah J. Cutter, 1891.

culinary.org wins again!

As some of you may know, back in March the museum's website was awarded the Best in Class award for museum websites by the Interactive Media Awards. Well, we've done it again (thanks to the design team at (add)ventures, of course)!

Every year, the New England Museum Association hosts a Publication Award Competition for all member museums. Eligible categories include books, invitations, promotional materials and websites, to name a few. This year, our site won the Judges Choice award for museums with an operating budget of under $500,000. This year, there were 206 publications from 64 museums entered in sixteen different categories.

A huge thank you is also due to our staff for the hard work and many hours that were devoted to compiling visual and written content for the web, and for their collaboration with the (add)ventures team throughout the site's development process. We here at the museum look forward to a long partnership with (add)ventures as we continue to add new features and content to our website.

To see the complete list of winners, click here.

Cheers to all winners and competitors!

"Found in Collection"

As you can imagine, we here at the Culinary Arts Museum uncover all sorts of treasures, eccentricities and/or things that provoke the question "what is that?" on a daily basis. The latest is a Cunard Line menu from a Feb 7, 1967 cruise to the West Indies. On the right side of the menu is a category labeled "Farinaceous" (otherwise known as starches) - not something you see everyday. There is one menu item listed in this category: Delmonico Rarebits. For those of you who have not heard of the delicious, savory treat that is Welsh Rarebits, it is essentially toast topped with a cheese sauce made with ale (similar to fondue). Often times it is put under a broiler to create a fantastic cheesy crust over the top. There seems to be no recipe for "Delmonico Rarebits," so it is possible that the rarebits listed on this menu were made in the style of those at Delmonico's Restaurant. It is also possible that the chef used the term Delmonico to add credibility to the dish, because Delmonico's Restaurant - the country's first restaurant, which opened its doors in Manhattan in 1837 - was synonymous with fine dining.

Here is the Delmonico's restaurant recipe for Welsh Rarebits. Try it at home and see what you think!

Welsh Rarebit - Take one pound of American cheese; cut up in small pieces. Place them in a sautoire, adding half a glassful of good ale. Season with half a teaspoonful of red pepper. Stir it continually with a wooden spoon until the mass is well melted, which will take about ten minutes. Have six nice, fresh, large pieces of toast; arrange them on a very hot dish, and distribute the preparation equally over, serving the rarebit very hot.

-from The Delmonico Cook Book, by Alessandro Filippini

The museum will be closed for the Fourth of July weekend

The museum will close at 1:00 pm on Friday, July 1st and will remain closed through Monday, July 4th.

Regular hours will resume on Tuesday, July 5 at 10:00 am.

Have a safe and happy Fourth of July!

This menu is from our collection of Cunard Line Fourth of July menus from 1950-1989

Wisconsin cheese and Boston beer, a match made in Rhode Island!

On Tuesday, April 19, 2011, the Culinary Arts Museum hosted a beer and cheese tasting, sponsored by the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board and The Boston Beer Company, brewers of Samuel Adams. We would like to thank Sara Hill, Culinary Manager of Cheese Education for the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board, and Bert Boyce, brewer for the Boston Beer Company for their educational and entertaining presentations. Of course, we would also like to thank all of those in attendance.

Pictured left to right: Sara Hill and Bert Boyce

Attendees tasting the beer and cheese pairings. It looks as though the pairing being tasted here is the Samuel Adams Latitude 48, an IPA and the Carr Valley Casa Bolo, a mixed milk cheese.

Here are a couple of interesting points from the evening:

Samuel Adams is the largest seller of craft beer in the United States, however, its sales account for just under one percent of the country's beer market.

Raw milk cheeses (cheeses made with unpasteurized milk) are allowed to be sold in the United States as long as they have been aged for at least 60 days. After this time period, the acids and salts in the cheese will have eliminated any harmful pathogens potentially existing in the cheese.

The pairings:
Samuel Adams Summer Ale ~ Holland's Family Marieke Gouda
Samuel Adams Light ~ Wisconsin 2 year Cheddar
Samuel Adams Boston Lager ~ Uplands Pleasant Ridge Reserve
Samuel Adams Latitude 48 IPA ~ Carr Valley Casa Bolo
Samuel Adams Black Lager ~ Montforte Gorgonzola
Samuel Adams Wee Heavy ~ Emmi Roth Moody Blue

To learn more about these beers and cheeses, you can visit the following websites:
www.samueladams.com
www.eatwisconsincheese.com