Book club explores Thomas Jefferson and his slave’s role in bringing French food to U.S.

French fries, mac and cheese and creme brulee were among the first samples of French haute cuisine to whet the taste buds of backwoods Americans, thanks to Thomas Jefferson and his slave James Hemings.

Before he became the third U.S. president, Jefferson was a serious gourmand who longed for what he called “choice meals.” When Jefferson served as a minister to France in the 1780s, he took Hemings along to apprentice under the finest chefs, promising to grant his slave freedom once he taught others how to reproduce the celebrated cuisine back home.

Foodies may give credit to pioneering chef Julia Child for popularizing the cuisine with her cookbooks and TV shows, but they will discover who first introduced French cooking to America in “Thomas Jefferson’s Creme Brulee,” by Thomas J. Craughwell (Quirk Books, 2012).

The book will be discussed at a Slow Food Oahu book club meeting June 23 at Da Shop: Books & Curiosities in Kaimuki. No need to register; just read the book and show up with questions and insights.

Leading the dialogue will be Kristin McAndrews, a Slow Food board member and retired English professor who has taught courses and written about food and culture at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, focusing on American folklore.

The food-centric book club is a continuing event, with sessions for the next few months still being planned. In addition, McAndrews is starting a club specific to cookbooks next month (information at right).

“Creme Brulee” looks at the convergence of American agriculture, food and politics that eventually gave birth to a culinary dynasty. Jefferson aimed to bring back plants from Europe that would flourish in the fledgling nation, as well as foodstuffs, kitchen utensils and at least 150 recipes that have survived.

McAndrews admires him for trying to diversify and improve crops, and thus the American diet, though some of his efforts failed because of differences in climate.

He brought back grape vines so that he could make wine at his Monticello plantation in Virginia, and tried to grow a high-quality strain of Italian rice. He was committed to planting olive trees, to make oil that would make vegetables tastier and thus get people to eat more greens. He also was responsible for promoting a taste among Americans for imported bottles of Champagne and other refined products.

“Often we just assume that things are available and readily accessible, and we don’t have appreciation for the effort to bring things to this country,” McAndrews said.

Not surprisingly, the humble fried potatoes, cheesy macaroni and creme brulee, or “burnt cream” — glazed with a hot shovel instead of the modern blowtorch — were among the first French dishes that became popular in this country.

McAndrews notes that Hemings could have claimed his freedom during his three years in France, where slavery was illegal, but did not. He became fluent in French, was paid a salary, enjoyed freedom of movement, and was treated with respect, privileges unheard of back home.

When they returned, Jefferson freed his slave, as he had promised, but Hemings’ life ended sadly. He held various jobs as a cook, became an alcoholic and committed suicide at the age of 36.

His brother Peter Hemings preserved his recipes and taught them to other slaves at Monticello. Eventually these skills were passed on to Peter Fossett, another slave, who gained his freedom and became a prominent caterer in Ohio in the 1870s.

SLOW FOOD OAHU BOOK CLUB

>>Next meeting: 2 to 3:30 p.m. June 23, to discuss “Thomas Jefferson’s Creme Brulee”

>>Place: Da Shop: Books & Curiosities, 3565 Harding Ave.

>> Call: 421-9460

>> Coming up: Scheduled for Oct. 29 is “Hippie Food: How Back-to-the-Landers, Longhairs, and Revolutionaries Changed the Way We Eat” by Jonathan Kauffman. Silent reading starts at 5:30 p.m., followed by a potluck, with discussion at 7 p.m., led by Lloyd Carlson, governor of Slow Food Hawaii. Check the events calendar at slowfoodoahu.org for book talks that could be scheduled sooner.

BOOKS FOR COOKING

Kristin McAndrews is launching another book club in which participants use recipes from a selected cookbook and bring their dishes to share.

First up is “Six Seasons: A New Way With Vegetables,” by Portland chef Joshua McFadden, with an intial meeting from 5 to 7 p.m. Aug. 10.

Over three monthly sessions, participants will choose recipes from the book to prepare and discuss.

Participation is free, though online registration is required at slowfoodoahu.org.

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THOMAS JEFFERSON’S CREME BRULEE

“Boil 2 quarts of milk with a large piece of orange peel; when it is cool take 1/2 lb of sugar, the yolks of 7 eggs and whites of 2 well beaten and stir them into the boiled milk with 2 or 3 handsful of flour. Pass the mixture through a sieve, put it on the fire and stir it till it thickens; add an ounce of fresh butter, pour it into a deep dish and when it cools and drips on the surface a little, sprinkle it over with sugar and glaze it with a hot shovel. Flavour it with essence of lemon or anything you like.”

CONTEMPORARY CREME BRULEE

By Kristin McAndrews (adapted from “Barefoot in Paris” by Ina Garten; Clarkson Potter, 2012)

• 2 vanilla beans
• 1 extra-large egg
• 4 extra-large egg yolks
• 1/2 cup sugar, plus 1 tablespoon per serving for topping
• 3 cups heavy cream
• 1 tablespoon brandy, Armagnac preferred

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Split vanilla beans and scrape out beans; set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with paddle attachment, mix egg, yolks and 1/2 cup of the sugar on low speed until just combined.

Meanwhile, scald cream — heat in a small saucepan until very hot but not boiling.

With mixer on low, slowly add cream to egg mixture. Add vanilla beans and brandy. Pour into 6 to 8 ramekins (6 to 8 ounces each) until almost full.

Place ramekins in a baking pan and carefully pour boiling water into the pan halfway up the sides of the ramekins. Bake 35 to 40 minutes, until custards are set when gently shaken.

Remove custards from water bath; cool to room temperature, then refrigerate until firm.

To serve, spread 1 tablespoon of sugar evenly on the top of each ramekin and heat with a kitchen blowtorch until sugar carmelizes evenly (or place ramekins under a broiler). Let sit at room temperature for a minute until topping hardens.

Nutritional information unavailable.

JEFFERSON BROUGHT back an Italian pasta-making machine from Europe to make fresh macaroni (meaning, all pasta).

Here’s his recipe for mac and cheese dish if you want to use it:

• 6 yolks and whites
• 2 wine glasses of milk
• 2tb (tablespoons) of flour
• a little salt

“Work them together without water, and very well.

Roll it then with a roller to a paper thickness

Cut it into small pieces which roll again with the hand into long slips, and then cut them to a proper length.

Put them into warm water a quarter of an hour.

Drain them. dress them as macaroni.

But if they are intended for soups they are to be put in the soup and not into warm water.”

FRENCH FRIES

“As for French fries, Jefferson knew them as pommes de terre frites a’ cru, en petites tranches, or potatoes deep-fried while raw, in small cuttings.”

>> Interesting fact: There’s an ongoing dispute about the origin of French fries. While France claims the fried potato sticks as its own tour de force, Belgium claims the credit as Americans soldiers during World War I mistakenly labeled them French because the Belgians who fed them the fries spoke French.