Remembering Kennedy Warmly

Fifty years ago America, like so many other countries, lost a promising young leader to hate and senseless violence. Kennedy was a leader who hoped for peace because he had seen the terrible face of war.

He was also a man who found some small part of that peace at sea. When time allowed, which was far too seldom, he left the White House and sought time sailing. There he was away from the stress of decisions that affected millions and from the pain that dogged his days.

Who shot him and why is still debated. Was it Cuban terrorists, was it the Mafia, was it a lone gunman? We may never know. But the singular truth remains that such violence, in the end, solves nothing and only leaves behind tears and fears and a thousand unanswered questions.

As America pauses and remembers that horrid day that shocked and shattered the nation, it is so easy to forget the man, a man sailing with the wind in his face, seeking answers he was never allowed to find.

Let's not forget he was not a monument or a demi-god - just a person daring to seek sane solutions in a world that seems to offer few.

Often after he finished sailing, he enjoyed a warming bowl of chowder made in the New England style. Later, when his duties as president keep him sitting painfully hour after hour behind his large oak desk in the Oval Office, he would often send down to the White House kitchen for his favorite chowder and continue working long into the night, still guiding the ship of state. 

Here is the White House recipe for that very chowder - enjoy and then pause and consider the challenge he left behind for each of us to steer a good and noble course in life:

Kennedy's Favorite New England Chowder

INGREDIENTS 

• 2 pounds Haddock
• 2 ounces salt pork (diced)
• 2 onions (sliced)
• 4 potatoes (diced)
• 1 cup celery (chopped)
• 1 Bay leaf (crumbled)
• 1 quart milk
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 teaspoon salt
• Freshly ground black pepper

DIRECTIONS

1. Simmer haddock in 2 cups of water for 15 minutes, drain and reserve broth.
2. Remove bones from fish.
3. Sauté diced pork until crisp, remove and set aside.
4. Sauté onions in pork fat until golden brown.
5. Add fish, potatoes, celery, bay leaf, salt and pepper.
6. Pour in fish broth plus enough boiling water to make 3 cups of liquid.
7. Simmer for 30 minutes.
8. Add milk and butter and simmer for 5 minutes.
9. Serve chowder sprinkled over pork dice.

 Your Culinary World copyright Ana Kinkaid/Peter Schlagel 2013

Two Legends Reign as St Regis NYC Re-installs the King Cole Bar Mural

New Yorkers are cheering as the St. Regis Hotel has now reinstalled Maxfield Parrish's famous King Cole Bar mural after a four year absence. After a century of being surrounded by smokers, the artwork has been restored to its original stunning luster. The result is like seeing the large 30 foot painting for the first time.

The restored mural now glistens with an iridescent effect that is exactly what Parrish famously created during his lifetime without equal.

Like a master chef who layers flavor on flavor to create a final culinary masterpiece, Parrish placed layers after layer of light-enhancing varnish between his individual colors to create the unique glowing effect that the staff of the Rustin Levenson Art Conservation Associates have so carefully reclaimed.

Art historians, as a result, consider Parrish to be in a class by himself – just like the famed King Cole Bar itself. Year after year the rich, the famous and the talented have favored this New York landmark. Most often it is the Bar’s famed Bloody Mary cocktail that everyone seems to ask for at least once (or twice).

Indeed, this esteemed cocktail was created in its final form at the King Cole by bar master Fernand, “Pete” Petiot.  And although there had been previous versions, it was at the St Regis that it was finally christened the Bloody Mary – all thanks to James A. Michener and Juanita Hall.

Prior to 1947, the Bar had served the cocktail under the name of the Red Snapper. But that year a previously unknown writer, James A. Michener, released a small book entitled, Tales of the South Pacific. Within a year this collection of revealing stories about war in the Pacific theater would win the Pulitzer Prize for Literature. It would go on to be transformed into the epic musical, South Pacific, by Rogers and Hammerstein.

Enter Juanita Hall. In the Broadway production and also in the 1958 movie version, she would play a unique character entitled, yes – you guessed it, Bloody Mary. A skilled jazz singer in her own right, she made this role her own. Her haunting rendition of the song, Bali Ha’i, won her the Tony Award, the first ever presented to an African American woman. 

In one of those rare moments when a society acknowledges a major cultural change, the name of this half tomato-half vodka (plus spices) cocktail converted overnight to the Bloody Mary, the name of Juanita Hall's unforgettable character.

And so it has been called ever since. Oh, various individual people would, through the years, say they alone named the drink. Such occurances, however, seldom stem from a single source - history rarely works that way.

No perhaps, just perhaps, it was the conscience of the American people who decided to honor a book, a musical, a pivotal role – a difference, an acceptance of equality... all still presided over to this very day by ol’ King Cole in the restored mural that now glows softly behind the bar at the legendary St Regis Hotel. 

Post Note, November 21, 2013: Chef John De Lucie just finished his relaunch of the King Cole Bar and Salon. Among those present to celebrate the re-installation of Parrish's grand painting at the St. Regis Hotel were Uma Thurman and Hilary Rhoda - definitely ladies of discerning taste and style.

Your Culinary World copyright Ana Kinkaid/Peter Schlagel 2013