The Harvey House Cookbook: Memories of Dining Along the Santa Fe Railroad

Among the underappreciated elements of the American West was the civilization brought by train in the form of the trainside restaurants. As the authors of The Harvey House Cookbook describe, initially any food available on the long cross-country trips was provided during the 20-minutes or so that it took to replenish the locomotive's water supply, and the railroads didn't think they were in the food business. The food was dreadful -- until Paul Harvey suggested to the Santa Fe Railroad that he provide the restaurants, good food, and personnel. In a few short years, someone taking the train from Kansas to Los Angeles might be served -- on white linen, by uniformed wait staff -- roast turkey with cranberries, lobster salad, and New York ice cream. Most likely, they were served by waitresses called Harvey Girls (perhaps you vaguely remember the Judy Garland movie, The Harvey Girls?). Those young women, who had to meet the criteria of "young women, 18 to 30 years of age, of good character, attractive and intelligent" often married local men... the *best* of the local men, suggest the authors, since the girls had plenty to choose from. And thus they had a profound impact. So did the resort hotels that the Fred Harvey company built or ran, among them El Tovar at the Grand Canyon and La Fonda in Santa Fe. The history in this book is excellent: well told, backed up with plenty of facts and sources, and accompanied with photos and even a Harvey House menu from 1888 (the meal cost 75 cents). It's a short, non-academic read. If you have any interest in railroad history or the opening of the American West, you'll enjoy the book. The book advertises itself as a cookbook, however, and indeed there are about 200 recipes. But they are primarily of historical interest rather than "What I'll cook tonight." It's not that the recipes are bad; to the contrary, they're fine, though many have a 19th century imprecision that we're not used to. They're just unremarkable except in the context of the "Harvey System" whereby Fred Harvey (and later his son) were innovators in "quality franchise operations," including such things as roast goose with cognac and apples, chicken enchiladas, or pampano in papillote. Menus were determined based on what was in season and sent by train from California (for produce) or the midwest (for meat). It's impressive and astonishing to think of that being accomplished in the 1880s at conveyed-by-railroad speed. Still, I just made a cheese fondue for dinner a few days ago, and the recipe I used was very much like the one in this cookbook. If you *do* cook from it, you won't go wrong; the point I want to make is that the recipes are, in all likelihood, "illustrations" more than they're "dinner tonight." I know plenty of male rail fans (in the model railroad club to which we belong) who would buy this cookbook as a present for their wives ("See honey, I got you a cookbook!") and then read the book themselves for the history. Go ahead. I won'

Little known history of the day of the railroads, especially of the Santa Fe and the Harvey Houses along the way. Fun to read and recipes too!

this is a fascinating account of the story of Fred Harvey and the Harvey House restaurants. You will discover that Fred Harvey truley won the west.He was an innovative thinker, and supplied to the people along the railway route somthing that they never had before, Good food and service, he was a perfectionist in every way. He also had the foresite to realize the untapped potential in the art of the native American by setting up shops in order for the Indians to be able to sell their beautiful handiwork. No one had ever done that before. The book is also intersperced with vintage recipies from the various Harvey Houses and railway cars. This book is beautifully written and very moving in many parts as you will find when you discover that one by one these landmards gradually disappeared with the advent of modern times.