Dear RecipeCurio,
I cannot tell you how much I am enjoying your site! I am Canadian, but a European trained, professional chef, at present cooking in an independent living retirement residence. You see, I was trained in all the classical French “repertoire de la cuisine”. My culinary heroes were Escoffier, Larousse, Antoine Carême and Francantelli, the fathers of French haute cuisine. Just even to mention a dish of my mother’s or great aunts’ cooking brought derision, gales of laughter and condescension, delivered in several European languages. Domestic North American cooking was not ever to be taken seriously and just simply did not exist in any European kitchen of merit.
Things changed with the advent of comfort food in the late ‘80’s. Suddenly the meatloaf was very much back in vogue. I studied on the side, asking older relatives for family favourite recipes. All of my research and this web site have now come very much in handy as I am cooking for residents who are in their ‘80’s and ‘90’s. Their reference to cooking styles would set us back 40 -60 years. I laugh; maybe even cringe a bit, when I see you describe a recipe as being from “a date unknown but maybe the early ‘60’s”. I too am from the early ’60’s don’t you know!
So, I ask, who are you? It would be great to put a name to the person who created this site. Thank you for all your efforts at preserving and documenting the domestic recipes of our not too, too distant past.
David C. Alsop