The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1900-08-07

what they sEcrave and bye making corn
food popular with them reach the other
classes by showing them they could afford
what the more fortunate ones chose for
their diet. Finally the idea of corn
Kitchen at the Paris Exposition was con-
ceived. COmm1ssary Peck was interest
cd, and since taking hold OF it has been
enthusiastic. First WeSvisited restaurants
and eating houses to get the most COM
pact and economical method or serving
large numbers Them EVE engaged the
chef of one of the largest and best-known
hotels In the country to make the more
delicate dishes from corn and South
ern NANNY, Aunt Jemima, to do the
old plantation kind Of cooking. The
result is that in the kitchen corn is
served in probably fifty different styles
and people of all nations are eating
there. The chef makes a number Of corn
soups. Sometimes he uses canned green
corn, but more often one or another of
the hom1ny preparations, which make
delicious creamy soup, sometimes with
beef stock and sometimes without, He
makes corn patty, using corn meal for
the she'll and new gradesof ho1niny with
dressing for the filler. Lobster juice,
oysters or sea foods are sometimes used
to flavor them and again a more common
article gives the desired taste and variety
to th9 cooking. He makes half dozen
kinds of pudding and cakes and all sorts
of side dishes. Aunts Jemima makes
Johnny cakes and pOne and other old
plantation dishes, and when the visitor
comes to the kitchen he has we ll-varied
meal, practically all from corn, an d the
menu varied from day to day.
''And all this is served free of cost, not
even tip 60 the waiter being permitted,
This is possible through the liberal APP
preparation OF the government for agr1-
cultural purposes at the Exposition and
through big donations from the manu-
facturers of corn foods. When we started
this movement we wrote to the manufac-
turers asking them how much of their
food they would contribute on board
cars, the commission to pay transporta-
tion. Most OF them replied: All that
is needed to keep up the supply during
the Exposition Two firms started out
with two tons apiece with tenders of
more il needed. Secretary of Agricul-
ture Wilson and his Department. have
been very helpful to the kitchen fro IN
the beginning, and helped us to accom-
plish much
tWhen the kicthen was first opened we
had from seven hundred to q thousand
patrons day Now the average is near
II two thousand a day. The French peO-
pie are Iargey in the majority of course,
and next in point of numbers are the
English, But the number from other
na6ionallt1es is constantly increasing and
recently the Japanese have shown great
/ interest. This comes through Japanese
students in Paris trying the Kitchen and
recommending it to their friends
II do not expect an Immediate phe-
nOmenal demand for our corn products
in the Old World on account of this ex-
pertinent, but l am convinced that the
movement is started and that nothing
can stop it, 1t is like the oatmeal ex-
perience, 1 believe. Not many years ago
oatmeal was not known in the market.
1t first reached the people as a medicine
and was handled in little tin boxes
4 y
t1Ons to be bought at a drug store and
used as an invalid's Cruel But the in
valid food was palatable and soon came
into use by those who were not sick until
now it is to be found in every market
place, and is one Of the most common ar
t1cles of food So 1 believe it Will be
with corn foods in the Old World, now
that the people have had taste OF them
The French papers are deVOting much
space to the corn kitchen both in news
and editorial columns and recommending
it, too. One of them is indOrsing a more
general use OF corn for food and urging
the French people to raise the corn at
home. And in this we encourage them.
At first thought it might appear foolish
for US to work up q demand for an ar6i
Gle OF our own production and then en-
courage another people to produce it
themselves. But with the small tracts of
tillable land in France the farmer can
not raise corn for the market; he can
only raise for home consumption and by
doing this he merely helps to increase the
demand for the surplus of our great
American corn fields
II do not expect to return to the kitch-
en- Mr. Snow and myself undertook to
establish and open the place, and we feel
that this has been successfully accom-
plished. Mana gers are now in charge
under the supervision of Commissioner
Peck and we feel confident that 10 viii
continue a success to the end Of the big
show"