The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-10-20
Mrs. Betty Lyles Wilson

W HEN arsa sns s.s reads the n,S,,.ss tl%s,hoa
 man cannot live without cooks" one also instinetively thinks that this statement may be reduced to single equasion. and that equasion called by the-name of Mrs. Betty Lyles Wilson, for so familiar figure has Mrs. Wilson become to Birmingham that we have come to believe that we could scarcely exist without an occa- sional visit from her.
 Mrs. Wilson is just as pretty and att tractive as she can be. and this is one or her greatest assets when she is play Ing about with pots and kettles and pans and things for her neatness and immaculate appearance appeal to the casual observer, and attract the atten- ton of even the most blase*
 One thinks of the average cook as rather disheveled and disordered look ing, her hair disheveled and quite an untidy appearance. but Mrs. Wilson contradicts all this in her lovely appearance round the stove where she presides with the grace of a queen and is as elegant as she is in the drawing room of her own home up in Tennessee
 Yesterday was the opening day of the Cooking School" at the Rhodes Car
 
 attractive kitchen has been installed with the big, shiny. bright convenient Round Oak Boiler Chief Range" as the central figure. and a large audience was present.
 Mrs. Wilson was explaining about "sauces" and their ingredients the dif- ferent kinds that should go with differ ent salads--how to make them, how to economize on them, and as she did this the most delicious of fumes and odors greeted the sensitive nostrils as the famous lady who makes the Christmas cake for the President every year, ex- planed:
 Tn these days of the high cost of living, economy is the keynote. and while 1t is difficult to modify our old- fashioned extravagant way of cooking, it can be done"
 For instance. in a cake that I used to use a dozen eggs in," Mrs. Wilson said, T now use eight; in cake that required two dozen eggs. now use six teen. This saves enough eggs to make the icing, thus conserving a large amount. Of course substitutes are used by many for certain ingredients in cakes. but I don't do this; I merely modify the recipes and in this way save considerably"
 For instance, in the Presidents Christmas cake,' Mrs. Wilson con- tinued, which have made for several years, l am going to use fewer eggs and less sugar than I have done for merly- Last year the President was so i'll I did not send him a cake. for I knew he couldn't eat it--a heavy fruit cake-but instead I sent him a large box of beaten biscuit. This year. how ever, I'm going to send him his Good by Christmas Cake
 And speaking of sending prominent people samples of my cooking" Mrs. Wilson said "I sent General Leonard Wood a beautiful fruit cake some time ago. In fact. it was before the repub licans held their convention in Chicago and there seemed a good chance for General Wood to be the next President. It was suggested to me by friend the possibility that I might be furnish ing him as head of the White House cakes for the next few years--so I practiced a bit on him, but, of course. he was not nominated and I suppose that's the last cake he'll get from me.
 The first and most important thing" Mrs. Wilson announced, "in cooking or in anything eIse--is good foundatio@&' If you have the best ingredients Tn the world for a dish, you can't make 1t taste like anything unless you have good range to cook it on; that's the foundation. All the moderne apparatus which can be invented, gas, coal and wood stoves. are now in use. and II all depends upon which you are fused to cooking on--which method you.prefer."
 "As to daily menus" Mrs. Wilson said, good wholesome food is the ground work of happiness. and every woman should learn to cook.esL Lscon- sider it her duty to herself, her family and her friends, and with the modern appliances and cooking apparatus, all the drudgery and dirty work of the kitchen is dispensed with.
 .'The sage old adage, Tell me what you eat and I'll tell you what you are is as full of the pitch O sense as in the days of long ago, for food either makes us physically fit and fully eff esent or miserable failures with physi- enl complications that keep us con- oAeQy in the physicians hands.
 Kcientific cooking means the elimi- nation of waste" said Mrs. Wilson -the preservation of edible resources and the conservation of energy through the preparation of wholesome. good food, with as little cost and as little labor as we can possibly reduce 1t to-"