The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram., 1922-05-31

NEW YORK CITY, May 31-New |
York is now in the grip of a pastry
wave second only TO the crime wave
in scope and power Never has the
demand for pastry been so great;
never the supply so conspiciously in
evidence. Window displays of gilt
tering pastries, in a bewildering vari-
ETY. of colors, designs and nationali-
| ties, tempt the passerby on every
hand; new pastry shops are spring
ing up all over the city, and even the
| drug stores now serve cream puffs
and chocolate eclairs.
Consequently. many public-spirited
citizens who are already considerably
worried about the trend of the race,
/ are in panic of apprehension. What.
/ they demand gloomily. can be expect
/ ed of people which goes in for such
! gastronomic orgies? How can we
! hope TO develop a race of supermen
/ on macarOons and Boston cream pie
! Is it not time. they suggest, that a
new and powerful reform organiZa-
! ton be formed to combat this pastry
! eating vice which is surely destined
| TO turn the good-natured but indomi-
! table American people into a dolorous
! tribe Of dyspeptics?
| Pastry is apparently a popular sub
stitute for liquor. At any rate. 1t IS
estimated that its consumption has
/ increased 33 1-3 per cent since the
passage of the eighteenth amendment.
| Farmers are not the only sturdy
( Fo1I 10 n4+ Tfn e., olrco o-f
days. New York business men per
! form that courageous feat also, as
any early riser can see by gazing in
! the giant window of one of those
famous restaurants, so numerous
| throughout Manhattan, that IrvS1
! Cobb has likened to a goldfish bowl
, Furthermore, the cold slab of break
fast pie is merely a drop in the New
d, Workers. daily bucket of pastry ra-
tions. From this mild beginning he
goes bravely on to doughnuts. eclairs,
spice cake, napoleons and other mon,
umental pastries. The young man in
Stevenson's story of The Suicide Club
who had to eat so many cream tarts
has lost his pathetic charm for US.
! There are too many pastry fiends in
New York who daily outdO his spec
tacular record under no sinister COM
pulsion at all.
All Hail the Doughnut
Before the war, doughnuts we're
comparatively scarce. here. They
were sold largely by pushcart vendors
in the far downtown districts, or by
German bakeries up in the Bronx.
They were totally ignored by the best
hotel menus Then the Salvation Ar
my started feeding doughnuts to the
doughboys, and the great revival
started. New York is now full OF
tiny street kitchens which have cap.
italized the Salvation Army idea and
are selling coffee and dOughnuts to
crowds of appreciative patrons.
The sudden increase in the demand
!, for pastry. however, is noticed prin
cipally in the large hotels. The chef
in one such establishment who form
erly had a daily pastry record of 5000
pieces now turns out 5000 a day, or
more than $4,000 separate pastries a
week. His annual total is somewhere
around the three milliow mark. He
could. he believes, easily outline the
Equator with the chocolate eclairs he
has made.
He is a French chef, and he is nat
urally prejudiced in favor of French
pastry, but he is willing to admit that
America has made a noble Contribu
ton to the pastry internationale in
Boston cream pie. Always lucious
this delicacy is now likewise becom
, ing exquisite in the hands of the art
, lists in cream and sugar who work in
! the kitchens of the big hotels.
so much smarter than apple pie
he exclaimed approvingly, pointing tc
an iridescent piece of the Boston va
riety. "and yet always it is the ap
pie for which we have the most de
mand, 1t is, of course, the dietetit
cornerstone of your republic. Bu
why? It lacks distinction. 1t is dull
} We cannot beautify it for it becomes
soggy. The lemon meringue, yes, wf
: can make attractive, but with the ap
t pie one can do nothing-bah.'
: The making of French pastry has
: become one of the most important
/, functions of hotel housekeeping, anC
2 the pastry cooks have lately develop
f ed all the symptoms of the true artiG
5 tic temperament Their kitchens mus
be spotless, with all the latest elec
l trical appliances and just the righ
? degree of temperature. They mus
/ have the best raw materials to wort
. with-special flOurs and sugar an
J enormous quantities of fresh eggs
y incidentally, they must also have enor
! nous salaries, for they are by NJ
means ordinary cooks. They are alst
sCulptors. painters and designers, AM
occasionally inventors of some nev
+ and elaborate pastry which earns
e small fortune.
il Pastry royalties are worth workin|
:, for. One pastry inventor, who is tn
/ son of an Iowa confectioner. draw
n more than $4,000 week for his sim
t pie invention, the Eskimo pie. H
$ was wise enough to have his ide;