I was sent a free copy of The Gilded Age Cookbook by Becky Libourel Diamond. I will have a full review and recipe demonstration at a later date so stay tuned!
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About The Gilded Age Cookbook:
The American Gilded Age (1868 to 1900) and its extreme extravagance continue to be a source of wonder and fascination, particularly for foodies. The style and excessiveness of this era has ties to modern popular culture through books, films, and television shows, including The Alienist and the Julian Fellowes TV series The Gilded Age, on HBO.
The Gilded Age Cookbook transports the reader back in time to lavish banquet tables set with snow-white linen tablecloths, delicate china, and sparkling crystal glasses. Cuisine featuring rich soups, juicy roasts, and luscious desserts come to life through historic images and artistic photography. Gilded Age details and entertaining stories of celebrities from the era—the Vanderbilts, Astors, Goelets, and Rockefellers—are melded with historic menus and recipes updated for modern kitchens.
“A beautifully designed and photographed cookbook, filled with intriguing stories. The parties and events may have been excessive, but the classic recipes here look simple and doable to make.” — Dianne Jacob, author of Will Write for Food
Becky Libourel Diamond provides a delicious behind-the-scenes glimpse of Gilded Age dining in her meticulously researched cookbook and social history. Photographs of the ballroom at Sherry’s (where one spectacular dinner in 1903 enabled guests to dine while on horseback), or images like a ball at the Waldorf Astoria show us a world of luxe personified.
Favorite mini-segments are “Gilded Age Heiresses Go to Cooking School” and “Mrs. Vanderbilt’s Decorated Dishes,” which invite their own Downton Abbey spinoffs. Lest you feel intimidated, the recipes are easy to follow and enticing. - Cordelia Frances Biddle, author of the Victorian-era Martha Beale novels. -This text refers to the hardcover edition.
About the Author:
Becky Libourel Diamond has had a varied career combining writing and research. Her second book, The Thousand Dollar Dinner, tells the unique story of a nineteenth century “Top Chef”-style competition between Philadelphia restauranteur James Parkinson and the Delmonico family of New York.
The result was a luxurious seventeen course feast that helped launch fine restaurant dining in America as we know it today. She is also the author of Mrs. Goodfellow: The Story of America’s Cooking School, a successful nineteenth century pasty chef who also ran an innovative cooking school for young woman - a Philadelphia first.
Her next book is The Gilded Age Cookbook, to be published by Globe Pequot in August 2023. Now available for pre-order!
