Felisa Rogers: Thomas Jefferson, America's Original Foodie
Felisa Rogers studied history and nonfiction writing at the Evergreen State College and went on to teach writing to kids for five years. She lives in Oregon’s coast range, where she works as a freelance writer and editor.
The table is set with an elegant fusion of Southern comfort food and fine French cuisine. The beef and lamb are grass-fed; the artisan smoked hams are from locally raised pigs. The produce is locally grown and, of course, organic. All this local bounty is enhanced by fine imports: Italian Parmesan, French wine, and extra virgin olive oil. No, you're not sitting down to eat with Michael Pollan; you're at the table of Thomas Jefferson, statesman and gourmand extraordinaire.
Despite his service as legislator, the governor of Virginia, minister to France, secretary of state, and president of the United States, Jefferson likely believed his famous statement: "The greatest service which can be rendered any country is to add a useful plant to its culture." In honor of the anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, we explore the author's lesser-known contribution to American culture: his influence on the country's culinary tradition.
In an era when red meat and rum predominated, Jefferson directed his prodigious intelligence toward his health. Dinner with Jefferson sounds like dinner with Pollan because much of Pollan's manifesto "In Defense of Food" could be taken directly from the Jefferson playbook: exercise daily, use high-quality olive oil, don't overcook vegetables, practice moderation with complex carbohydrates and red meat, drink wine in moderation, eat plenty of fresh local organic vegetables.
Although organic was kind of a given in Jefferson's world, local was not. Some large Southern plantations were so devoted to cash crops like cotton and tobacco that they imported the bulk of their food. This was certainly not the case at Jefferson's Virginia plantation, Monticello.
A grass path shaded by cherry trees led to Jefferson's vast gardens, where 330 varieties of vegetables and herbs flourished in a patchwork of red earth and flowering bounty. The aisles glowed in jewel tones: midnight eggplants, skeins of scarlet runner beans, the fire hues of Mexican chiles, the flash of nasturtiums, and the new green of broccoli and cabbage. He grew squashes and broccoli imported from Italy, 15 types of English peas, French artichokes, Native American lima beans and African okra. In the orchards below, Indian corn gleaned from the Lewis and Clark expedition would grow amid 170 varieties of fruiting trees and shrubs, including almond, peach and pomegranate. On May 6, 1795, Jefferson noted in his journal, "The first lettuce comes to the table." Jefferson delighted in growing greens, and a typical Jeffersonian salad sounds like something you might get at Chez Panisse. As Peter Hatch, director of the Monticello gardens and grounds, writes: "Monticello salads probably included a mixed bouquet of greens, including spinach and endive for winter use, orach, corn salad or mache, pepper grass, French sorrel, cress, and sprouts." Jefferson's cousin Mary Randolph describes a salad dressing of oil, tarragon vinegar, hard-boiled egg yolks, mustard, sugar and salt. Jefferson, who was obsessed with salad oil, grew sesame for that purpose....