Some Notes on Dining
With the Washingtons
A Culinary History

"I do not pretend to teach professed Cooks, my design being to instruct the ignorant and unlearned, (which will likewise be of use in all private families.) and that in so full and plain a manner, that the most ignorant Person, who can but read, will know how to do Cookery well." Hannah Glasse, The Art of Cookery, Made Plain and Easy (1763, 6th ed.)










Today we live within one of the great food revolutions in known history. The advent of hunting, gathering, tools, and the advancement of far flung eras past of cooking techniques could be seen as revolution number one, but our revolution is unprecedented in its scale, degree, choice, and broad professionalism. The popularity and number of cookbook available for the modern consumer is nearly as good a symbol of this revolution as the number of homespun restaurants erected in the past 20 years. At the time of the Washington's rise to prominence in America, from 1774 especially, until Washington's death in 1797, one could make a case that Mt. Vernon and similar estates would have been the symbol of food culture for that time. In the year 1774 – the year Washington was elected to command the Continental Army – for example, it was reported that the Washington household entertained dining guests 136 of 207 days that he was home. "In 1785, two years after the war's official end, the Washingtons welcomed dinner guests 225 times and overnight guests 235 times." Visitors might have been old friends, dignitaries, military officials, politicians, foreign visitors, or just the curious passer-by. All were welcome and all were served, to varying degrees, warmth, a meal, conversation, and the option for an overnight stay. As Washington himself once remarked that there seemed very few differences between the open door policy of home and a town tavern.  If

Washington was in charge of overseeing the running of the farm property, Martha was in charge of supervising all of the domestic affairs, not always cooking herself, but making sure that all cooking operations were taken care of. "Her grandson likewise remembered how she excelled in this role: 'Mrs. Washington...gave her constant attention to all matters of her domestic household, and by her skill and superior greatly contributed to the comfortable reception and entertainment of the crowds of guests always to be found in the hospitable Mansion of Mount Vernon.'" Part of this contribution would have been menu construction as well, often conceived directly after breakfast, served at 7 a.m. regularly. Unlike modern times, interestingly, only two cookbooks would have made up Martha's collection at this time, one a hand written family chronicle of recipes and the other Hannah Glasse's famous The Art of Cookery, Made Plain and Easy, a book that was quite common among households of means at that time and one that was directed toward the clear training of servant cooks.  Sometimes this relationship between the head of domestic household and cook too the form of Martha reading the recipes aloud to the cook. She would have shared recipes with friends and neighbors and created her own, hand-written them, and included them in her own hardbound copy. When considering Mt. Vernon in its entirety, then, from farm to table, from inn keeper to cook, to dinner guests to family members, and cookbooks to recipes, it is a safe surmise to see this as one of the more unified beginnings of the American food culture, which makes sense in light of the fact that this was the same time, place, and coterie of the beginning of the American democracy. Today we see

at the very edge of food culture phenomenons such as small organic farms that offer both dining and overnight services, such as the famous Blackberry Farm in Tennessee, with tenets of sustainability in visible use, just as they were at Mt. Vernon where – as memoirs record – the Washingtons served fresh fine meals hospitably but rarely if ever over indulging in either food or drink. Cooks were often encouraged to try to sell in other markets waste from food production. In a famous example of Washington's keen sense for farm practices, he eradicated his tobacco crop for wheat and a grist mill, a similar practice, many today would be inclined to support, to transform the dominant corn crop to a full rotation, and to feed cattle grass again.