Jefferson Was America's First Gourmet

October 31, 1996|By EDYTHE PREET Los Angeles Times Syndicate

While hosting dinner for a group of Nobel Prize winners in 1963, President John F. Kennedy commented that never before had there been such brilliant intellectual presence in the White House "with the possible exception of Thomas Jefferson dining alone."

Now that we are preparing to elect a president, we reflect on Jefferson who was more than one of America's greatest statesmen. Of all his varied interests, food and its cultivation were closest to his heart.

In a letter to his artist friend, Charles Wilson Peale, he wrote, "Nothing is so delightful to me as the culture of the earth, and no culture comparable to that of the garden."

A man of peace and a firm believer that farming would become the backbone of the new nation, Jefferson did not take part in the Revolutionary War, choosing instead to return to Monticello ("little mountain''), his 5,000-acre farm in the Virginia Piedmont region.

A self-taught botanist, Jefferson was an avid agricultural experimenter. In neat 80-foot plots covering almost two acres, he grew 250 varieties of vegetables and 150 fruits. Noting that mixed plantings thrived while large plots of a single species often produced poorly, and believing that a garden must be beautiful as well as practical, Jefferson turned his garden into a ferme ornee (ornamental farm). It was a living work of art where multihued greens were interspersed with shades of scarlet, purple, yellow, orange and white.

European cabbages, artichokes, eggplants, radishes, lettuces and 30 varieties of peas (his favorite vegetable) grew side by side with native American corn, beans, squash and the highly suspect tomato which most people of the day thought was poisonous. His Italian fig and orange trees thrived in a sheltered gully, but a small grove of olive trees were his treasures.

But it was neither scientific experimentation nor an appreciation for beautiful growing things that fired Jefferson's passion for horticulture. It was his palate. While serving as Treaty Commissioner to France, Jefferson discovered French cuisine and took advantage of his European travels to sample every region's specialties.

He enjoyed waffles in Holland, macaroni and cheeses in Italy, chocolate in Nancy, ice cream in Paris. When he returned home, he instructed his valet, who was following later, to acquire "a stock of macaroni, Parmesan cheese, figs of Marseilles, raisins, almonds, mustard, tarragon vinegar, oil and anchovies."

When Jefferson was elected president, his inauguration (the first to be held in Washington, D.C.) heralded a new direction in government protocol. He rode a horse to the ceremony instead of traveling by carriage to remind everyone that, despite his high office, he was simply a common citizen. And he, dressed in plain homespun clothes to promote the growth of home industries.

Eschewing all pomp and ceremony, Jefferson shook hands with guests instead of bowing, and he eliminated preferential treatment at his dinner parties by substituting a "first come, first served" system. People were admitted to dine as they reached the door and sat at a "socially equal" round table, regardless of rank or title.

Jefferson's egalitarian policies raised more than a few eyebrows. Federalist opponents who favored the wealthy class condemned Jefferson for his country ways, especially when he canceled the president's formal weekly social teas and announced that he would host only two annual receptions - New Year's Day and the Fourth of July. A group of society women called on him to protest the decision, but Jefferson won them over as easily as he coaxed rare flowers to bloom in his garden.

During his terms as president, Jefferson hosted a dinner party almost every day and many a political relationship was established at his convivial table. The company could include foreign ministers, congressmen, private citizens and Indian chiefs. And though Jefferson could as easily spend an entire evening chatting with a contingent of Cherokee patriarchs as with the English ambassador, there were three things the gossip mongers would not fault: The president's hospitality was supremely gracious, the conversation sparkling, and the food was always excellent.

His critics could not even charge him with draining the treasury to serve his appetite since Jefferson covered the costs of gourmet dining with funds from his own pocket.

Though Jefferson lived simply, his taste in food can only be called Epicurean. Europe had introduced him to daubes, ragouts, gateaux, souffles, ices, sauces and wine cookery.

Some political wags denounced him for turning his back on traditional dishes, but rarely did anyone who had actually dined with President Jefferson complain. Many a delicious meal began at three in the afternoon and lasted well into the night.

In the new capital city, diversions were few. Dinner at the executive mansion was, as it is now, a gustatory as well as a political tour de force.

Always the gourmet, nevertheless Jefferson did not ascribe to the heavy foods of his time. His breakfast usually consisted of a cup of coffee and waffles or cornmeal battercakes drizzled with honey or New England maple syrup.

Noting in his journal, "I have lived temperately, eating little animal food, and that not as an aliment, so much as a condiment for the vegetables which constitute my principal diet," Jefferson prided himself on eating more vegetables than meats.

Jefferson never drank strong alcohol, preferring instead hard cider and persimmon beer. But his favorite beverage was wine which he spoke of as "a necessity of life."Like his taste in cuisine, President Jefferson's love for the grape flowered in France.

He visited vineyards, spoke with vintners and made copious notes on viticulture. On his return to America, he tried repeatedly to produce a crop of grapes suitable for making wine at Monticello, but was never successful, a fact that grieved him greatly.

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