More About Jane Nickerson & Journalism History

The creation of the 1950s New York food community likely began with Jane Nickerson at the New York Times. She was the first food editor at the newspaper, beginning in 1942. Over the years, she introduced James Beard to the A.P.’s Cecily Brownstone. Those two were often dinner companions along with Nickerson and her husband. It was Brownstone who introduced the New York food community to Irma S. Rombauer, author of the popular cookbook Joy of Cooking.

Later, it was Beard who introduced Julia Child to the food community. Yet, in another example of marginalization, Nickerson rarely get the credit in historical culinary stories. Instead, she has been overshadowed by the scholarship about Craig Claiborne, who followed her as food editor. In fact, she is often described as “retiring” from the New York newspaper. Instead, she took a few years off to raise her children and then returned to being a newspaper food editor in Florida.

Craig Claiborne certainly had a significant impact on food journalism, especially in the area of restaurant reviewing. While he has been lauded as the “Inventor of Food Journalism,” I would respectfully add that Nickerson had certainly laid the foundation at the New York Times during her 1942 to 1957 tenure. In 2003, former New York Times food journalist Molly O’Neill noted that Jane Nickerson was one of the first food journalists who applied ethics to her craft. O’Neill noted that there was news in a vast majority of the coverage of food. According to the New York Times index, of the 675 stories about food, 646 had a news hook. The percentage remained the same throughout the 1950s.

According to the Evan Jones’ book about James Beard, Epicurean Delight, Nickerson regularly went to dinner with her future husband, Alex Steinberg, Brownstone and Beard. Jones wrote: “They probed New York’s ethnic neighborhoods, titillating their palates and venting their curiosities about origins of recipes.” In a letter, Beard wrote to food writer Helen Evans Brown about Nickerson:

"Going to four parties for Jane this week. She leaves next week for Florida, and how we hate to see her go. She has done more for dignified food coverage than anyone. Everyone will miss her keenly, and I more than most, for she was a good friend and a most amusing person always."

German Potato Salad: Recipes & Community Identity

When it comes to community and culinary identity, it is often the dish of a certain city that defines the people who live there.

For example, consider Milwaukee and German Potato Salad. According to Milwaukee Journal food editor Peggy Daum: “If you are making German potato salad, you already know how. The right way to make it is the way your mother and grandmother made it. You may argue about it with someone down the block, but you don’t call me.” (Dennis Getto, “Daum Retiring as Food Editor,” Milwaukee Journal, Feb. 17, 1988)

This was further proven when no recipe for the popular dish was included in The Best Cook on the Block Cookbook. The cookbook was a collection of recipes submitted by Milwaukee home cooks as part of a weekly column in the Milwaukee Journal.

Daum, who was born and raised in Milwaukee, shared a childhood story regarding the dish in the 1984 cookbook, Food Editors’ Hometown Cookbook. The book was a fundraiser for M.A.D.D.

According to Daum: “I was eleven or so before I knew that any other kind of potato salad existed. That’s when I saw an egg-and mayonnaise version at a Girl Scout potluck supper and said: “What funny potato salad. Unfortunately, I was speaking to the Scout whose mother had prepared it. I’ve learned to like a number of potato salads since, but German Potato Salad is still my favorite.” (pg 32)

The image above is my take on "Carol's Real German Potato Salad," from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's food section.

Newspaper Recipes Live On

The recipes of newspaper food editors have lived on into the internet age.

From online newspaper food sections to home cooks’ food blogs, requests for or examples of old recipes are available. In August of 2012, a reader from Miami Beach wrote to the Miami Herald and requested a recipe for a dessert called “Heavenly Hash” which included graham crackers and whipped cream. Another reader sent in a Herald clipping of a May 6, 1970 recipe written by Virginia Heffington, who was listed as “homemaking editor.” Heffington explained that the recipe was popular in the 1930s. She wrote: “Long years ago ladies had fun making what they called icebox desserts so they could show off their brand new refrigerators.”

How the Tenure Process Can Marginalize Women in History

This post was inspired by Heather Cox Richardson’s post yesterday about mothers in the academy. In addition to excellent points about motherhood, she offered a reminder of what women often bring to research as they sometimes look for new topics or at an issue in a different way.

In looking back post-tenure, it worries me that the requirements needed for tenure at an R-1 institution may lead to the marginalization of women in history. At my university, like many other schools, tenure means being a national expert – publishing in national journals. This means that research is largely about national figures, usually men. In fact, in what was intended to be helpful advice during my initial evaluation, an older male colleague asked if I had considered researching men.

My goal since becoming a researcher was to tell the stories of otherwise unknown women journalists – those in the women’s pages of newspapers. Luckily, I studied a few women that reached national stature, such as Dorothy Jurney, Carol Sutton, and Marjorie Paxson. But most of my research subjects were women who had more of a local appeal.

I did try to make arguments for women with a more regional appeal. For example, I sent out my manuscript about Arizona and California women’s page editor Maggie Savoy to a national journal. I had gone through archives, studied her work and interviewed those who knew her. The journal’s response was what I rather expected – the research was strong but Maggie did not have a national presence. It was rejected.

Ultimately the article was published in the California History Journal focusing on her work at the Los Angeles Times. It was the right fit for my article. The editor added information about Los Angeles I had not known and an archivist was incredibility helpful in adding visuals that would not have been printed in the national journal.

While lacking a national appeal, most of these women’s page editors were incredibly important to their communities. Flo Burge told the stories of maids in the hotels in Reno, Nevada. Aileen Ryan helped the fashion industry grow in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Bobbi McCallum documented the difficulties of teen mothers forced to give away their babies in a home for pregnant teens in Seattle. Vivian Castleberry helped change the lives of women in Dallas, as Marie Anderson did in Miami, Florida.

Writing about these regionally important women (women's page journalists) means publishing in regional journals, which have the same rigor and peer review as national journals. Yet, under my tenure guidelines, regional journals count half as much as a national journal publication, which meant I would have to work twice as hard to tell the women’s stories. My research life would have been much easier if I had chosen to study Ben Bradlee.

I felt it was more important to tell the stories of untold women journalists, who built their communities behind the scenes and helped move society forward in cities across the country. And while each publication counted as half on the tenure list, the work to tell each woman’s story actually took more effort. These were people who were unlikely to leave behind papers or be part of oral history project so more time and work went into gathering and verifying information.

I hope that the increasing pressure to be a national expert does not lead to the marginalization of women in history. My life would have been easier if I had taken my colleague’s advice about studying male journalists. Yet, if I had, the stories of more than 20 women would not have been told. While I would do it over again, the system seems unfair. It rewards those who study big names (most likely to be male) and forces those who study regional figures (more likely to be women) to work twice as hard for the same reward.

Gender & Restaurant Reviewing

I loved this response published yesterday to a sexist 1961 letter from an university administrator.

It was written by journalist and novelist Phyllis Richman. She was the longtime food critic at the Washington Post.

This was the part that caught my eye, as she wrote about the mid-1970s: "I co-authored Washingtonian magazine’s restaurant guidebook on the promise that I’d replace the magazine’s critic when he retired. Instead, the editor chose a man who had written nary a restaurant review. I wasn’t really surprised. Besides, in the next year The Post hired me as its restaurant critic. I was the first woman to hold that job at the newspaper, and one of only a handful in newspapers and magazines around the country."

What is so fascinating is that food - including restaurant reviews - was pretty much exclusively women's news for decades - running in the women's pages.

That changed most visibly when Craig Claiborne was hired as the food editor at the New York Times in 1957. It was quite newsworthy as a "male first."

It made think about food writer Mimi Sheraton's memoir, Eating My Words. She wrote that when Claiborne (who took over from Jane Nickerson) left the newspaper in 1972, she and other female New York food writers were not considered as replacements: "Neither I nor any other female food writer I knew was given an interview for his job, no matter her credentials. (If any were interviewed, I still would like to hear about it.)"

Sheraton was eventually hired for the position but it is telling that after so much that women in food journalism were accomplishing, gender could still stand in the way in 1972.

To add to that story that Richman felt a first at her newspaper shows that in two decades, a female-dominated profession had flipped. I wonder if this is because a critic is expressing her/his opinion and that was what made it suddenly a more masculine field.

Roxcy Bolton, Gender & Naming Hurricanes

This is the first week of the hurricane season and the potential names have been announced. The list includes male and female names. That wasn't always the case. Prior to the Women's Liberation Movement, hurricanes were only named for women.

Miami feminist Roxcy Bolton (pictured below) played a central role in changing the policy. She got tired of reading headlines about hurricanes with women's names destroying communities. Instead, she suggested that hurricanes be named for senators - since they like to name things after themselves.

Roxcy put up a significant fight with government officials. By 1979, the policy was changed to alternate women and men's names when it came to naming hurricanes. Here is a story that provides some background.

Roxcy was a friend of Miami Herald women's page editor Marie Anderson.

Green Goddess Dressing History

I recently read about food editor Judyrae Kruse retiring from the Herald, a newspaper in Everette, Washington. According to her retirement story:

"To read Judy's column is to read a diary of life in Snohomish County: Recipes for slow-cooker stew and make-ahead casseroles followed the school year. She shared an idea for dinner pulled from the pantry after a week of snow and ice. When the weather warmed, the recipes cooled: crisp salads and gelatin desserts, ideas for grilling.

Occasionally, without warning, a recipe would strike a chord. Who knew Snohomish County residents ate so much Green Goddess dressing? After a request, the deluge of recipes continued for months."

Green Goddess dressing has a long history. According to this history, the dressing goes back to the 1920s in San Francisco:

"The Green Goddess Dressing was created at the Palace Hotel in 1923 by Executive Chef Phillip Roemer. Chef Roemer created the dressing for a banquet held at the Palace. The event was honoring actor George Arliss who was the lead in William Archer’s hit play The Green Goddess."

In the 1965 version of her cookbook, Mary Meade's Magic Recipes, Chicago Tribune food editor Ruth Ellen Church included a recipe for Green Goddess Dressing (pg 271). She noted that it was good on seafood or greens.

In 2008, the New York Times ran an article about Jane Nickerson's 1948 recipe for Green Goddess dressing.

This 2010 article noted variations on the Green Goddess dressing in San Francisco area restaurants.