Customer Reviews

Hometown Appetites: The Story of Clementine Paddleford, the Forgotten Food Writer Who Chronicled How America Ate

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Clementine Paddleford is not a name you're likely to recognize. But as Kelly Alexander and Cynthia Harris tell us in this lively and engaging biography, Paddleford, a true original, invented the genre of culinary chronicles, to the enormous delight and edification of millions of readers over a career that spanned nearly a half century.

Paddleford (1898-1967) grew up in Kansas, earned a journalism degree in 1921, and went to New York to begin her career as a writer. When that didn't work out, she moved to Chicago, where she took a number of public relations jobs, eventually writing herself into the position of household editor at Farm & Fireside National Farm Journal. A few years later, she took a similar position at the Christian Herald, and finally, in 1936, became Food Editor at the Herald Tribune, a position she held until 1966.

By the time she went to the Tribune, Paddleford had gained a reputation for a pert and personally-engaging style that stood in lively contrast to the dull, objective food reporting practiced by the home economists who dominated food writing at the time. Her articles about her forays into American kitchens around the country placed the food that people really ate (as opposed to what the food industry was telling them to eat) in the context of regional and family traditions. Every article included at least one recipe, such as "Mrs. Wilkie's Drop Biscuits," offered by the wife of Wendell Wilkie, the Republican presidential candidate who lost to Roosevelt in 1940, or the famous "Lindy's Cheesecake," beloved by patrons of the New York restaurant. "It stands half a foot tall," she wrote in her highly evocative style. "It measures one foot across. Its top is shiny as satin and baked to the gold of the frost-tinged oak... Fluffy, velvet soft, the filling dry but not too dry, an extravaganza in richness." Lavish? Embellished? Yes. But her readers ate it up. At the time of her death, twelve million people a week eagerly devoured her articles and thousands wrote to tell her so.

Paddleford's personal life is as interesting as her professional career. Secretly married to her lover in 1923 and divorced nine years later without ever living with him, she counted as friends the women journalists who were changing American newspapers and magazines. She was adamantly single and married to her work, but she adopted and raised the teenage daughter of a friend. A survivor of laryngeal cancer in a time when few people lived through the disease, she spoke with the aid of a silver tracheotomy tube she regulated with a button on her throat. Writing and research were her cures for depression and loneliness, and she simply wrote her way out of every dark corner.

Paddleford's legacy, her biographers write, is the connection she made between real food, real cooking and the traditions, family histories, and ethnic backgrounds of real people sitting down to home-cooked meals at tables across America. She may have been eclipsed by the glamorous stars who came after her: Craig Claiborne at the New York Times, Julia Child at PBS and more recently, Martha Stewart. But her 1960 book, How America Eats, is the work of a writer who understands the importance of regional American food, whether it's Maine clam chowder, Pennsylvania Dutch sauerbraten, or the humble macaroni and cheese, and pays it the attention it deserves.

And now, happily, comes Hometown Appetites, restoring Paddleford to her place in the pantheon of American food writers. It is the work of two biographers--an award-winning food writer and a university archivist--who know and respect their subject. Their book--which includes a generous helping of Paddleford's comfortable recipes--is as energetic, endearing, and informative as Paddleford herself. Kudos to Alexander and Harris for telling the story of a woman whose writing touched the lives of millions of Americans, helping us all to recognize and appreciate the extraordinary alchemy of the ordinary American kitchen. Highly recommended for women's studies, American culture, and food collections.

by Susan Wittig Albert
for Story Circle Book Reviews
reviewing books by, for, and about women

I grew up with the recipes collected by Clementine Paddleford. Although my mother liked to fiddle with the recipes (for example, Mom added finely minced candied fruitcake mix to the Joe Froggers recipe) I avidly read Ms. Paddleford's columns in the Sunday "This Week" magazine insert to our local newspaper. What I enjoyed most about this biography was the inclusion of recipes along with the story, just like the stories Clementine wrote for This Week. I guess it was training for me to learn how to taste what I was reading.

Now that I have 20/20 hindsight, I see that Clementine captured the food ways and culture from what are now by-gone days, and has given us a window--kitchen window, that is--on the past.

This volume is a valued addition to any cookbook or American history collection. Right up there with MFK Fisher, et.al. And what I meant by "know our roots" is to say that she was one of the driving forces to promote good food and the "culinary enthusiasm" we know and love today (such as the Food Channel).

Congratulations to Cynthia Harris and Kelly Alexander for their hard work in sharing with us the biography of one of the forerunner feminists of America.

Now my greatest hope is that Clementine's book "How America Eats" will be re-printed.

I had never heard of Clementine Paddleford before reading this book. By the end I had come to understand how her influence on food journalism helped shape the modern landscape. Her passion truly helped define what we understand today as American food culture.

Alexander and Harris do a great job of bringing Paddleford's character to life. She lead a fascinating life, overcame personal adversity, and left a tremendous impact, yet her name is virtually unknown to younger generations of foodies. It's great to see this remarkable woman receiving the credit she deserves.

It's also clear that both authors have an understandably tremendous reverence for Ms Paddleford. The end sections about how the authors personally discovered Paddleford's work were as interesting as the main biography.

The detailed recipes sound fantastic and I am looking forward to trying several of them. The fact that they are interspersed in the biography add colorful context to the narrative. They will ensure that this book stays handy rather than finds its way into box in the garage.

As someone who both loves to cook and read all kinds of food reviews, this was really a great view to one of our earliest food editors on American cooking.
Miss Paddleford really was a trailblazer in her time. Some of the recipes are just great and most likely would have been lost. There is a recipe from a famous San Francisco restaurant that brought me back to my childhood.

This book gives you insight to everyday foods from 1920's to the 60's. Ms Paddleford traveled to different areas trying the regional foods and wrote down the recipes for a newspaper food section. I gave it 4 stars because it seems to me the book could/should have more of her recipes.

I first learned about this book listening to National Public Radio. Before I heard the interview I had never heard of Clementine Paddleford. Fortunately for me and the rest of us Kelly Alexander of Saveur magazine and Cynthia Harris, Paddleford's archivist, has introduced her to a whole new generation.

The book originated from a James Beard award winning story printed in Saveur magazine under the same title. But it begged to be broadened into a book because there was too much of Paddleford's story that remained untold. Between Alexander and Harris they've put together a vivid portrait of one of our countries great food writers.

Some would say that Paddleford's style of writing was a bit florid but at the time it was the way journalism was done. It just happened to be the first time that the style was used to describe food. In the book film critic Judith Crist describes reading Paddleford writing about strawberries "She was the first food writer I ever encountered who made me feel her enthusiasm for what she was talking about, yes, but also made me taste it."

How ground breaking is that? In today's world that is what talking/writing about food is all about. Food Network stars spend most of their time telling you how delicious whatever they're making is. The great cooking magazines such as Saveur, Bon Appetite, and Food & Wine have photographers that can make you drool and writers who can do the same thing. Where we are now just proves what a great pioneer Clementine Paddleford really was.

The authors do their best to describe the personal life of this very private person and they really hit the mark writing about Paddleford's Mother Jennie. It is clear that this is where Paddleford received her strength. A wonderful quote from Jennie that is printed in the book describes one of her philosophies in life; "Never grow a wishbone, daughter, where your backbone ought to be." Is it any wonder that Clementine thrived in the world with a Mother like that?

This is a great book because it reminds us where we have been and how far we have come.