Alexander, Kelly and Harris, Cynthia. Hometown Appetites: The Story of Clementine Paddleford, The Forgotten Food Writer Who Chronicled How America Ate. Gotham Books 2008.
It’s no easy task to take on the biography of a pioneer, much less one who was known above all else for her writing. Kelly Alexander and Cynthia Harris were able to revive the spirit that Clementine Paddleford brought to American food ways through their biographical tale, Hometown Appetites, while doing justice to her memory.
Thorough research is an understatement of the depths Alexander and Harris explored to chronicle Paddleford’s life. Harris, the collections processor at K-State’s Hale Library, tediously picked through approximately 300 file boxes of recipes, articles and other papers Paddleford left to the school in order to make them accessible to library patrons. Alexander, an editor at the magazine de cuisine Saveur, was inspired when she received a secondhand copy of Paddleford’s signature work, How America Eats, and came to Kansas to research her for an article. Eventually, they decided to collaborate on a book about the woman who had inspired so many home cooks in the middle of the 20th century and were now disappearing into obscurity. The personality of the once-ubiquitous food editor emerged page after page as the writers pored over everything from the menu at Paddleford’s childhood birthday party in Manhattan, Kansas, to her coverage of the food served at Winston Churchill’s historic Iron Curtain speech.
Paddleford begins as the classic “small town girl with big town dreams,” but as the story matures, Paddleford emerges as a one-of-a-kind trailblazer for American eating. She documented what people (of all cultures and classes) ate in their homes, on the road, and for various holidays. She dined with the Queen at her coronation, ate with sailors on submarines, and followed migrant workers in orchards. Her work was revolutionary in that it not only presented recipes, it told the stories behind the food average people ate. It also helped introduce regional foods to people in other places, which was less common than it is now. Through her writing in articles from the New York Herald Tribune and This Week Magazine (at both of which she was an editor), she laid the groundwork for future food writers, television cooks and even the increasingly popular Food Network.
The authors did an excellent job in choosing anecdotes to illustrate Paddleford’s many travels and the importance of her work while keeping the book entertaining. They also wisely chose to sprinkle the stories with recipes Paddleford published. This gave readers a sense of the range in terms of region, type, and difficulty of food about which she wrote. Nothing was too humble or too foreign, and she had no patience for snobbery. Paddleford once said, “Good food is good food no matter where you find it.”
Known for her bold voice, brisk pace and quirky phrases in her writing, Harris and Alexander sought to emulate Paddleford’s writing to some extent when chronicling her life. Like Paddleford, they took care to paint vivid pictures and keep the prose lively. The effect was successful, which resulted in a book both readable and charming. It’s hard not to become enthralled with Paddleford’s passion for food and writing.
The use of imagery is so precise that readers feel a part of Paddleford’s life. From the whimsical lilac bushes her mother Jennie planted along a pig run, to the expressions on interviewees’ faces as Paddleford asked them provocative questions, the character came through in technicolor. Paddleford herself is still an inspiration to those who knew her. For those who are unaware of her infinite contributions to the food industry and her revolutionary insight, this book acknowledges her with the all the credit she deserves.
Alexander and Kelly clearly did their research. Phenomenal quotes and recollections, photographs and recipes: all of Clementine Paddleford’s past brought to the present. To the very last chapter, the book captured her effervescent nature. It is a true page-turner.
