symphonies of cooking

Big Guy and I have been prowling around the area antique malls looking for interesting cookbooks. To our surprise, we found two produced as fundraisers for symphony orchestras. The first was for Dallas, Texas and the other one was for our own St. Louis Symphony Orchestra.

The two books share a publication decade of the 1960’s. In addition, they are a “who’s who” of the supporters of both orchestras who contributed recipes. For St. Louis, think Anheuser, Fleishman, and Musial just to mention examples. In addition, you have contributions from the Racquet and Noonday Club along with a touch of celebrity with Vincent Price.

My favorite part of the St. Louis book is the historical vignettes and pencil drawings of St. Louis. The Women’s Association of the St. Louis Symphony Society even included a middle pictorial section highlighting “the exciting new architecture of our City.” Remember the publication date as I mention the Benedectine Priory, McDonnell Planetarium and the Climatron.
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I look forward to digging into both books for cooking inspiration. I am also relishing the stories of this special time in symphony history.