Culinary Historians visit the Waffle House Museum!

Decatur, GA - April 2010
The Newest Way to Give Yourself a Treat” at the Waffle House Museum

2.6 billion customers have visited a Waffle House restaurant over the past 55 years, and last weekend 26 CHA members visited the Waffle House museum to soak up some nostalgia. 

Located on East College Avenue in Decatur, this small museum is free and open to the public during the week and one weekend day per month. If you missed the event then you missed exploring a 1955 era Waffle House complete with menus featuring $1.50 steaks, a compact open kitchen with bacon “cooking” on the grill, and a storage area with ice box pie. 



A gallery next door includes memorabilia and some groovy uniforms from the sixties. If you go be sure to talk with the guide, she has free waffle coupons you can use at the Waffle House restaurant down the street.



I was great fun to go behind the counter and play with the plastic food. As you can see in the above photo, it looked like the real thing. 



One of the most amazing things about this museum was to see the "commissary" in the back. This is where the prep work and a good bit of the actual cooking really took place. 



The commissary is a kitchen - not much larger than a home kitchen, but with a commercial stove and plenty of storage shelves. It was presided over by one woman, Aunt Millie (who was really the aunt of one of the owners). She had a part time helper in the person of her great-nephew, who would ride his bike to the restaurant after school. 


In the commissary, she made pies, biscuits and other items from scratch. She also came up with the method for making those marvelous Waffle House home fries. After much experimentation, she found that the potatoes should be steamed first, then peeled, then shredded. Then, and this is where the boy-helper came in, 5 oz. servings were weighed out. Each serving was placed in a small paper bag. When the short order cook in the front of the diner needed to cook an order, he just dumped the already-softened potatoes on the grill to be browned. Aunt Millie and her helper cooked, peeled, and shredded 150 lbs. of russet potatoes every day. They used a mechanical device for the peeling and shredding, but it was still a lot of hand work. 



Almost everything was made from scratch in those days. No more, unfortunately. Nowadays, convenience reigns over flavor. There is a commissary in every Waffle House. It's larger and more high tech, but very little is made from scratch any more. 


On another note: Does anyone know the people in our photo?? They were newbies and we didn't get their names!!


Article by Karen Gilbreath and Deb Duchon
Photo by Matthew Wong

Historic Beer and Avant Garde Pizza

March 23, 2010

Varasano's Pizza and Marchant du Vin teamed up to host the best pizza & beer night ever. We enjoyed beers that had been made by small, European breweries for hundreds of years Each of which was paired with just-the-right slice. Thirty-five intrepid culinary historians braved Atlanta rush hour traffic to descend on Varasano's Pizzeria on Peachtree Road in Buckhead, to enjoy the feast and the fine company. The beers included: Zatec (Czech Republic), Orval (Belgium) and Samuel Smith (England). The pizzas were off-the-menu specials designed by Jeff Varasano, but were twists on regular menu items, including Varasano's signature pizza, Nana's Favorite, and the outstanding Salumi & Sun-Dried Tomatoes.

Our resident historic beer expert, Rob Nelson, Regional Sales Manager for Marchant du Vin, entertained us with the stories of these small breweries. For example, the Orval is made by Trappist monks, just as they've made beer since the Middle Ages, but with updated techniques, including pasteurization. They make it primarily for themselves (they water it down for their own consumption) but it also provides an income for the monastery. Until modern sanitation came along, beer was safer than water, so it was an important beverage for everyone, including children.

Eating History - 11/16/09 - BIG EVENT!!!

Our biggest-ever event will be held on Monday, November 16, 2009 at 7:30 pm. Admission is free. Parking is free. 

The noted food historian Andrew F. Smith will speak.  An engaging speaker, Andy is the author of more than 15 books on food history. He teaches food history and food writing at the New School in New York City.  The program will be on:

Eating History: Turning Points in the Making of American Cuisine

Food historian Andrew F. Smith will recount—in delicious detail—some of the major moments that made contemporary American cuisine, as described in his brand new book, Eating History: Turning Points in the Making of American Cuisine, from Columbia University Press. The style of American cooking, along with the ingredients that compose it, has never been fixed. With a cast of characters including bold inventors, savvy restaurateurs, ruthless advertisers, mad scientists, adventurous entrepreneurs, celebrity chefs, and relentless health nuts, Smith pins down the truly crackerjack history behind the way America eats.

Location: Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts, 1927 Lakeside Parkway, Tucker GA 30084. Enter from Northlake Parkway, between Lawrenceville Highway and Lavista Rd. just east of I-285. 

Please rsvp by sending a comment to this blog. See you November 16! 

Julia & Us Party 8/24/09

Culinary HIstory of the Future, Part I

ATLANTA - January 20, 2009. The only composter of its kind on the East Coast is housed at Emory University's Food and Catering Service.  Senior Director Patty Ziegenhorn-Erbach and her staff hosted a Culinary Historians of Atlanta event today to show us how the machine works. Twenty-five of us showed up on this wickedly cold evening to watch lumps of food scraps, coated with enzymes, rotate in a stainless steel hopper. The enzymes break the food scraps down into water and a small amount of organic material. The water falls to the bottom of the hopper, from which it is pumped through a series of filters, and bathed briefly in the glow of a ultra-violet light to kill nasty organisms that might be in residence. The clean (but not potable) water is then flushed down the sanitary sewer and to Atlanta's water plant for further scrubbing.  The eventual plan is to use the water on campus, for watering the beautiful campus landscaping. and cutting down on the university's dependence on the water system. 

Sitting next to the filtering system is a large container of used cooking oil, which is used by "Cliff", the on-campus shuttle system.  The shuttle busses drive up to the dock, pump the oil directly into their fuel tanks and return to their duties with no time wasted going to a gas station. 

We also discussed our plans for 2009. In March, we plan to visit the Soul Food Museum in downtown Atlanta. Stay tuned for more information. In May, we'll discuss the book The Omnivore's Dilemma, by Michael Pollan.  Michael Pollan is an influential food writer who will be in Atlanta in March, 2009 for at least two speaking engagements. If you are interested in seeing him in person, you can attend the annual conference of Georgia Organics. Here is the link to their website   http://www.georgiaorganics.org/conference

We also discussed starting a true membership program, with annual dues of $25 per  person, or $20 for seniors and students. Roger Dickerson has agreed to serve as Treasurer. We also discussed holding a fund raiser either in addition to or instead of membership dues. 

Food of Roman Orgies

On a beautiful autumn Saturday last November, we gathered to celebrate the foods of Roman orgies. We met in the pavilion at Woodlands, in Decatur, Georgia. While we feasted on the foods of Ancient Rome, using recipes provided by Christy Seelye-King, we discussed the history that we were eating,  Roger Dickerson read us a long, explicit passage from  Satyricon, reporting on one such event. Deb Duchon gave the culinary biography of Apicius, and Marko Robinson reported on the history of ale and beer.  

Some of the foods that we enjoyed include: olives, grapes, mead, ale, wine, ham, figs, dates, herbed cheese, honey, bread, and broccoli.  This was a family event, and the children in attendance seemed to enjoy having a day in the woods as much as the food. 

Field Trip - 9/14/08

Field Trip 

Join us for the Chow Down at the Atlanta History Center on Sunday, September 14, 2008. Here's the link for more information http://www.atlantahistorycenter.com/template.cfm?cid=830