Culinary and Fine Arts come together with our newest acquisition!

Contributed by Deborah Pinkham, Museum Assistant, and Kristin M. Zosa Puleo, Event and Program Coordinator

Art historians, artists and photography buffs may recognize the name Edward Steichen. Culinary collectors, stove enthusiasts and anyone who grew up in the 1930s-1940s may recognize the Ward's Medalist Range that the museum has just acquired, which is dated to 1938-1939. This very stove stood in the Connecticut home of American photographer Edward Steichen (1879-1973)!

Steichen was a founding member of the Photo-Secession, organized by fellow photographer Alfred Stieglitz in 1902. The group's gallery was housed in Steichen's portraiture gallery at 291 Fifth Avenue, which later came to be known as "291." In 1923, Steichen took a job with Conde Nast, photographing for Vogue and Vanity Fair until 1938, when he was said to have been the highest paid photographer in the world. During World War II, he joined the Navy and served as the head of the photography unit. From 1947 to 1962, Steichen became the first Director of Photography at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. He also curated MoMA's famous exhibition "Family of Man" in 1955.

In 1928, Steichen purchased an abandoned farm in Redding, Connecticut and called it Umpawaug Farm. He weekended here as a retreat from his bustling New York City lifestyle. He built a modern, rectangular and mostly glass home on the property in 1938. The land was sold by Steichen to the town in 1971 to ensure its conservation.

The cast iron range is wood-fired with white porcelain enamel finish. The Art Deco style details are indicative of the time period in which it was made. The range has two warming cabinets above a cooking surface with six flat plates. the center oven is flanked by the wood box on the left and a hot water reservoir on the right. There is an additional warming drawer or "hot box" underneath the oven.

Welcome back students!

Although summer officially ends on September 21st, it has unofficially come to a close for many students and for those who work in the education field. At JWU, this time of year is always an exciting one; last weekend many international students moved back to campus, this weekend is Wildcat Welcome Weekend (when the remainder of incoming and returning students move into their residence halls), and classes begin on Tuesday (classes in the Doctoral program started last Friday). We here at the museum would like to extend a warm welcome to all students, and an especially warm welcome to our own Student Assistants and Work Study students who are so very integral to the operation of this museum. Also, thank you to the Student Assistants who worked with us over the summer and who will remain on staff for the upcoming school year.

Museum staff and Student Assistants have been working very hard over the last few months on various projects (as always), and three new exhibits were installed this summer. We truly hope you have time to come on over to see them! 

We have revamped the Biltmore exhibit, which tells the story of the hotel, focusing largely on the stories of two employees - former Executive Chef Adolf Schrott, who started as a Sous Chef in 1959, and Jim McDonnell, whose hotel food service career of fifty-five years started in 1948 as a busboy, and ended with his retirement in 2003 as the Biltmore's Director of Catering. As many hotels do, the Providence hotel hosted many celebrities over the years and Mr. McDonnell was kind enough to donate a collection of photos which provide a sample of the visitors he hosted over the years. We've turned this portion of the exhibit into a game - how many of the local and national figures can you identify?

In the area by the Ever Ready Diner is a photo essay about diner manufacturing with a sequence of images of Tierney Dining Cars, their factory and the Tierney Training School. This was an operating lunch wagon adjacent to the Tierney plant at New Rochelle, NY, where the Tierney Brothers would teach fledgling proprietors how to operate a diner in the 1920s.

Our largest exhibit to open this summer was conceived, developed and curated by a Johnson & Wales student. "Roughing It: Fare of the Wilderness" was the brainchild of Emmalee Santioni, a former museum Student Assistant who graduated in May 2012 with a Bachelor's degree in Baking and Pastry Arts. Along with a team of her peers and professional museum staff, she put together an exciting and engaging exhibit about safety and survival in the wilderness - with a focus on cooking, of course!

There is much more in store for students in the coming academic year, so stay tuned, and we hope to see you all very soon!

Happy 100th Birthday Julia Child!

Contributed by Deborah Pinkham, Museum Assistant 

Julia Child was born Julia Carolyn McWilliams in Pasadena, California on August 15, 1912. She graduated from Smith College in 1934, and after college she worked in publicity and advertising in New York. During World War II, she served with the Office of Strategic Services (an agency which later became the CIA) and was stationed first in Washington, D.C., then later in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and China. During this time she met her husband, Paul Child, and after the war, when he was assigned to the U.S. Information Service at the American Embassy in Paris, Julia enrolled at the Cordon Bleu Cooking School. Here she met Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle. The three subsequently opened their own cooking school, L'Ecole des Trois Gourmandes, and in 1961 published their first cook book, Mastering the Art of French Cooking.

Julia Child became a beloved household name when she entered our lives through the medium of television. Her long-running PBS series, The French Chef, debuted in February 1963, and she went on to present more than 200 episodes demonstrating classical French cooking. Later, she branched out into more contemporary cuisine with series like Julia Child & Company, Julia Child & More Company, and Dinner at Julia's. She revolutionized American cuisine through her teaching, her many award-winning cookbooks, and her numerous television series by making sophisticated French cooking accessible to "home" cooks. Her book and instructional video series collectively entitled The Way to Cook was published in 1989.

She was the recipient of numerous awards and honorary degrees both in in the United States and in France. In 2000, Child received the French Legion of Honor and was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She was awarded the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2003. Child also received honorary doctorates from Harvard University, Johnson & Wales University in 1995, her alma mater Smith College, and Brown University. She received Emmy awards in 1966, 1996, and 2001.

Julia's kitchen from her long-time home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, which her husband designed with high counters to accommodate her formidable height and which served as the set for three of her television series, was donated to the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C.

Julia Child passed away on August 13, 2004, just two days before her 92nd birthday.

Happy 100th birthday, Julia, and "toujours bon appetit"!

The Culinary Arts Museum acquires a piece of a RI Icon

So a museum employee (we'll call him Steve) was driving down Richmond Street one day and saw that a new restaurant was moving into where Stanley's once stood. "What are you doing with that sign?" he asks. Next thing I know, it's arriving here on the museum loading dock (there is obviously much more to this story that I am leaving out). Needless to say, the museum has a new acquisition that's sure to make your mouth water.

Stanley's is a staple for many a Rhode Islander, and for those who don't know it, you should really give it a try (the original restaurant on Dexter Street in Central Falls is still open). The restaurant was started in 1932 by a Polish immigrant named Stanley Kryla, who wanted to sell an affordable, home-cooked, flavorful product to customers in the midst of the Great Depression.

Now owned by Gregory Raheb, Stanley's is committed to using the freshest ingredients sold at affordable prices, just as Mr. Kryla intended 80 years ago. If you're ever in the Providence area, Stanley's should definitely be a stop on your culinary travels.

Below is a quick slideshow of the sign being taken down and strapped in for transport to the Culinary Arts Museum. A huge thank you to the guys at Dexter Sign Co. for all of their help. Photos were taken by Steve Spencer, museum operations manager.

What's new at the CAM this weekend?

We're glad you asked! We have two items to report:

First up:
There is a new wedding cake on display in our bakery case, and it was made by our very own
Student Assistant, Emmalee Santioni.

According to Emmalee, "this Wildflower Wedding Cake was made for a bride who is a 'lil bit country.' It is decorated with leather bands, lace, and the classic cowboy necktie - the bolo tie. The Keith Anderson song 'Pickin Wildflowers' was the inspiration for the cake design."

All decorative elements on this cake are crafted with edible material.

And the next bit of news:
It's ICC (Intra-collegiate Culinary Competition) time! On Saturday, February 4, the Denver, Miami, and Charlotte campus teams will come to Providence to compete against one another for the coveted ICC trophy. Museum Student Assistant, Courtney Staiano, is a competitor on the ICC Pastry team. Join us in wishing all teams the best of luck. But because we're a bit partial here, let's focus most of that luck on the Providence team. After all, we have been looking at a mere photo of the trophy here in the museum since 2009.

The Ever Ready gets a neon name tag

On Wednesday, December 21, 2011 the Dexter Sign Co. was at the museum, installing a replica neon sign for the Ever Ready. Museum Operations Manager (and photographer extraordinaire), Stephen Spencer, shot some photos of the action.