Cooking With James
Marthe Bernskoetter
An hour later, I laid four crepes in a baking dish, stuffed them with the cooled carrots, poured on the sauce, turned on the oven, and spooned the chocolate ganache into the remaining crepes, my pleasure at the finished result attenuated by increasing anxiety. I paced the hardwood floor of my apartment, looking out the window every five minutes, trying to see through the dim twilight. I could hear raindrops pounding on the glass, water cascading down the cracked sill.
On top of that, merely watching chefs cook on TV does not teach a captive audience the textures and smells and experience of actually cooking. Radio, with its room for the imagination to play, was better. Regardless, too many modern diners prefer to eat out or order in instead of tying on an apron. That passivity means that home cooking is a dying skill, and, with it, significant familial connectedness; when we give up control of our stoves, we surrender the stove and kitchen table as fulcrums for conversation and debate. On that score, James, who made his bones teaching people how easy it is to cook good food, would be appalled.
The house kitchen is available to you early in the morning on the day of your event. If another event is not scheduled, it is sometimes possible to use the kitchen a day before your event. Please call us to discuss these arrangements. Local chefs generally prepare most of the menu in their own kitchens and transport food to the Beard House. Out-of-town chefs are advised to locate a host kitchen in New York where they can prep ahead of time. We will try to help you by providing a list of spaces and telephone numbers, if necessary.
The local cooking schools include the ICC - International Culinary Center (formerly the French Culinary Institute), the Natural Gourmet Cookery School, ICE-Institute of Culinary Education (formerly Peter Kump Cooking School), among others.
Although the main purpose of your dinner at the James Beard Foundation is to showcase your talents, it also helps our mission to celebrate, nurture, and honor chefs and other leaders making America's food culture more delicious, diverse, and sustainable for everyone. Events such as yours are an important source of revenue for the Foundation. You are responsible for procuring the food and wine for your event. We encourage you to seek products at a discount or donations from your own purveyor. We have also listed our House Purveyors for your convenience (see logos below). We also encourage you to seek donations from wine and spirit companies, as this is a wonderful promotional opportunity for them. We have found that restaurant suppliers are often willing to contribute food and wine products for an event in exchange for credit on the menu and in our newsletter. We hope that you will explore this possibility with your suppliers. To include donation credits in our newsletter, please keep our publications deadlines in mind.
The Foundation does not provide floral or decorate centerpieces. We encourage chefs to decorate the dining areas in any way that will enhance the ambience of the event such as with linens, centerpieces, additional flowers, music, etc. Our house florist John Yarce can be contacted to arrange for flowers or centerpieces. He can be reached at 212-691-5412 or www.organicany.com. We have a sound system for playing CDs and ipods if music is desired during the reception hour. The floor plan and seating chart are available upon request.
JBF contracts professional photographers for each dinner. Limited to kitchen shots of all the food, candid shots of the team in action, posed group shot in the kitchen, and the chef introduction at the end on the second floor.
James Hemings (1765-1801) was a chef, trained in Paris, yet he was born into slavery and lived much of his life enslaved. At thirty years of age, he negotiated for legal manumission and began his life as a free man. He traveled and pursued his career as a chef, but unfortunately his career and life in freedom were short due to his tragic and untimely death at age thirty-six.
James Hemings was brought to Monticello as a nine year old boy, along with several of his siblings and their mother Elizabeth Hemings. They were a part of the Wayles estate, and among the many enslaved people who came into Thomas Jefferson's possession through his wife's inheritance. Six of Elizabeth Hemings's children were fathered by John Wayles, making James Hemings a younger half-brother to Jefferson's wife, Martha Wayles Jefferson. The Hemings family was the largest family at Monticello, free or enslaved; many members of this family were tasked as domestic workers or tradespeople throughout Jefferson's lifetime.
As teenagers, James Hemings and his brother Robert were taken to Williamsburg and then Richmond as personal attendants to Thomas Jefferson following his election as wartime governor of Virginia in 1779.[1] When British troops under Benedict Arnold threatened to attack Richmond in 1781, James Hemings and Robert Hemmings were charged with taking Jefferson's wife and children to safety.[2]
When Jefferson was away and Hemings was not required to wait on him, James Hemings was permitted to hire himself out and keep his wages.[3] While many members of the Hemings family negotiated for and were allocated marginal levels of comparative material comfort and wages while still being held in bondage, none of these small solaces changed the fact that they were enslaved. James Hemings's future was still determined by the person who legally owned him; the direction of his life was not his to decide. Correspondence indicates that it was Jefferson's idea that Hemings travel with him to France for the primary purpose of his training in "the art of cookery."[4]
In May 1784, James Hemings received a summons to join Jefferson in Philadelphia. From there they would travel to Paris, as Jefferson had been appointed an American minister to the French court, and he had a "particular purpose" for sending for Hemings.[5] These instructions were sent via William Short, who would follow Jefferson to Paris to serve as his secretary, but meanwhile Short was in a flurry of activity, as he began his own travel arrangements and tried to locate Hemings.
At that moment, James Hemings was in Richmond working as a riding valet for Henry Martin, an acquaintance of Jefferson's. Writing to Jefferson, Martin provided his impression of Hemings's work ethic, stating that "James has attended me some time ... and conducted himself much to my satisfaction as he has been very careful and assiduous."[6] Jefferson's instructions were for Hemings to travel with Short if possible, but if not, to come to Philadelphia without delay. Hemings briefly returned to Monticello of his own volition before meeting Jefferson in Philadelphia, taking a chance to visit with his family and loved ones before being sent overseas for an unknown period of time.[7] Despite this detour, he managed to join Jefferson and eldest daughter Martha in time to sail with them from Boston harbor in the early hours of July 5, 1784.[8]
While in Paris, James Hemings was trained in the art of French cooking. He studied first with the caterer and restaurateur, Monsieur Combeaux, apprenticed with pastry chefs and then with a cook in the household of the Prince de Cond. After three years of study he became the head chef at the Htel de Langeac, Jefferson's residence that functioned also as the American embassy. Here his dishes were served to international guests, statesmen, authors, scientists, and European aristocrats.[9] His wages of twenty-four livres a month were a regular income (and more than the occasional gratuity he received in the United States, but that salary was half of what Jefferson paid his previous chef cuisinier.[10]
James Hemings applied some of his earnings toward engaging a tutor to teach him the French language. With his immersion in French kitchens, working among a French-speaking staff, then with the more formal training of a tutor, it is likely that he developed a good command of the language. The importance of language skills would have been evident to him upon his initial arrival in France. From the port of Le Havre, Jefferson had sent Hemings ahead to Rouen to arrange their lodging, where he proved resourceful, as he was able to return half of the 72 francs Jefferson had given him for expenses.[11]
Ease with the language would bode well for his work in the kitchen and his experience of the French culture around him. The political turmoil of late 18th century France elevated public discourse on human rights and personal liberty. He was likely aware of the French law that allowed a slave, even one brought in from another country, to petition the courts for freedom. His wages as chef de cuisine made retaining a lawyer a possibility, but no records indicate that Hemings pursued that option. He left Paris with Jefferson in October 1789 amidst the early days of the French Revolution and returned to the United States an enslaved man.
Hemings organized his first American kitchen in a small house at 57 Maiden Lane in New York City following their arrival there in March 1790. Secretary of State Jefferson was disappointed by the shortage of housing that forced him to lease what he considered a small, "indifferent" house.[12] The stay in New York was brief. The seat of government moved to Philadelphia in December 1790. In Philadelphia Hemings would be called upon to prepare dinners for the President, European diplomats, Jefferson's fellow cabinet members, congressmen, and many national and international visitors. His wage of seven dollars a month was the same amount that Jefferson paid his free staff. Only Adrien Petit, Jefferson's French butler and manager of the household, received a higher wage. Hemings was often allotted "market money," indicating that he was out making purchases for the kitchen and circulating among other free and enslaved working people and tradesman. He likely knew that in Philadelphia he could lawfully become a free man.
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