Photo of excerpt from MacLean’s March, 1963 edition courtesy of the Fisher Thomas Rare Book Library at the University of Toronto.
Published: May 9, 2017
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Last week food and museums expert Irina D. Mihalache shared with us the second recipe in a three course meal of vintage dishes (read about the classic appetizer of the 40s – stuffed Maple Leaf weiners, or their entrée favourite of the 1950s – green rice casserole). This week, we wrap up your next dinner lineup with a Mocha Parfait recipe from the 1960s.
“This is no ordinary dessert as it has been created by no ordinary chef,” says Mihalache. “James Beard is considered to be, alongside Julia Child and Dione Lucas, America’s first celebrity chef, well-known for his love of French-inspired gourmet cooking. Beard encouraged domestic cooks to not fear the challenges of good food, to drop prepackaged TV dinners and canned soups and to embrace culinary excellence.”
Beard demonstrated his culinary skills to hundreds in 1963 in Toronto’s Blue Flame Room, the demonstration kitchen in The Consumers’ Gas Company’s headquarters at 17-19 Toronto Street. “The famous chef visited Toronto at the invitation of the Art Gallery of Toronto (now AGO) Women’s Committee, part of The Art of Cooking, an annual fundraiser/ cooking demonstration by a famous chef,” says Mihalache.
INGREDIENTS
½ cup of sugar
½ cup of water
1 ½ teaspoons of instant coffee powder
1 cup (6 ounce package) semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 eggs
1 ½ cup heavy cream, whipped
INSTRUCTIONS
Combine the sugar, water and instant coffee in a saucepan and bring to a boil over a high flame. Boil for 3 minutes.
Put the chocolate chips in the electric blender and add the sugar syrup. Blend for 6 seconds.
Add the eggs and blend for 1 minute. Remove and fold the mixture into the whipped cream.
Pour into ice trays or a mold and freeze until firm in the freezer section of the refrigerator.”
Serves six people.
(Source: “James Beard’s $30 Cooking Course: Does forty cloves of garlic scare you? Great eating takes nerve”, MacLean’s, 23 March 1963)