Bohemian San Francisco

SOMETHING extremes are rarities, and sometimes ABOUT duty and burden are synonymous. COOKINCi In ordinary understanding we have American cooking and Foreign cook- ing, and to one accustomed to plain American cooking, all variants, and all additions of spices, herbs, or un- usual condiments is classed under the head of Foreign. In the average American family cooking is a duty usually considered as one of the necessary evils of ex- istence, and food is prepared as it is usually eaten — hastily — something to fill the stomach. The excuse most frequently heard in San Francisco for the restaurant habit, and for living in cooped-up apartments, is that the wife wants to get away from the burden of the kitchen and drudgery of housework. And like many other effects this eventually becomes a cause, for both husband and wife become accustomed to bet- ter cooking than they could get at home and there is a continuance of the custom, for both get a distaste for plainly cooked food, and the wife does not know how to cook any other way. Yet when all is considered the difference between plain American cooking and what is termed Foreign cooking, is but the proper use of condiments and sea- soning, combined with proper variety of the food sup- ply from the markets. Herein lies the secret of a good table — proper combination of ingredients and proper variation and selection of the provisions together with proper preparation and cooking of the food. We have met with many well educated and wtU raised men and women whose gastronomic knowledge was so limited as to be appalling. All they knew of meats was confiiied to ordinary poultry, i. e., chickens and turkeys, and to beef, veal, pork, and mutton. Of 106 SAN FRANCISCO these there were but three modes of cooking — frying, stewing and baking, sometimes boiling. Their chops were always fried as they knew noth- ing of the delicate flavor imparted by SOMETHING broiling. In fact their knowledge was ABOUT confined to the least healthful and COOKING least nutritious modes of preparation and cooking. Not only is this true of the average Ameri- can family, but their lack of knowledge of the funda- mentals of cooking and food values brings about a waste largely responsible for what is called the "high cost of living." It is a trite, but nevertheless true saying that a French family could live well on what an Ameri- can family wastes. Waste in preparation is but the mildest form of waste. Waste consequent upon lack of knowledge of food values is the waste that is doubly expensive for it not only wastes food but it also wastes the system whose energy is exhausted in trying to as- similate improper alimentation. It is a well recognized medical fact that much of the illness of Americans arises from two causes, improper food and improper eating methods. In Europe this fact was recognized and generally known so long ago that the study of food values and preparation for proper assimi- lation is one of the essential parts of every woman's education, and to such a degree has this become raised to a science that schools and even colleges in cooking are to be found in many parts of England, France and Germany. Francatelli, the great chef who was at the head of Queen Victoria's kitchen, boasts proudly of his diploma from the Parisian College of Cooking.