Oh, sure - I can cook. But I've often joked that nobody every stubbed their toe in the night, trying to get back to my fridge for leftovers. I'm an average cook, not terribly creative. Adequate but a little wary of new cooking ventures. So, believe me when I say that this blog will never become a cooking or recipe blog. However, oddly enough, I do enjoy cook books and the local ones are the best, the ones put out by area churches, women's clubs....that sort of thing.
Just recently I was asked to provide some recipes for the new CHS Band cookbook, which should be available for purchase by Christmas! So, with some anxiety, I got out a couple of my fave cookbooks - the ones that are dog eared and that have my own notes written in them. And I got in to a file of recipes that have been shared with me personally through the years. One of the first ones I came to was a recipe given to me years ago by my cousin, my dear friend, my former co-worker - the late and great Eileen Gordon......a recipe for Mayfair Salad Dressing.
Just a little history, which many of you may already know......The old Mayfair Hotel building, now the Magnolia Hotel, is located in downtown St. Louis. I've gone to Wikipedia for some of the following specifics. The original Mayfair, a concrete building covered in brick and terra-cotta, was built between 1924 and 1925. It featured 18 stories, ornate in its window frames ornamentation and cornices. The building had three high speed elevators, run by elevator operators. The hotel also featured a nine-chair barber shop, a six-booth beauty salon, private dining rooms and a luxurious lounge in the mezzanine off the lobby. Among the notable hotels guests throughout the years were Irving Berlin, John Barrymore, Douglas Fairbanks, Cary Grant, Harry Truman, Lyndon B. Johnson and our Eileen Gordon. I remember walking by the Mayfair many times when I lived in St. Louis in 1968 and worked in downtown St. Louis. I had lunch there one time and I actually had the Mayfair salad dressing. It was grand.
In 1925 radio station KMOX broadcast from a studio in the mezzanine of the hotel. The station installed an $18,000 Kilgen organ and held recitals every day at noon and between 6 and 7 p.m. Wouldn't we all have liked to have seen this wonderful setting? In 1977 the hotel was renovated with 85 rooms being removed and the interior redecorated. Many original features, however, were kept in order to maintain the character of the building's historic value. The hotel was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979. The hotel was sold in 2003 and then again in 2013 to Magnolia Hotels, the current owners.
In 1935 the Mayfair Salad Dressing recipe was created by Mayfair Hotel Chef Fred Bangerter. It would have been served over a tossed green salad with toasted croutons. At that time you would have been dining in the Mayfair Room, the first-ever five-star restaurant in Missouri! At some point the recipe became available to the masses. Who knows how, as social media certainly was not available. But people loved it and women loved making it and sharing it among their friends. Of course, that was then and this is now. It's pretty convenient to go to the local grocery and grab a bottle of your favorite dressing off the shelf. But this dressing is delicious and it's different than anything you'll find on that shelf. You might want to get creative and give it a try. Just a note, the recipe makes a quart and can be divided into smaller containers that you can give as gifts to your friends - along with the recipe! It will keep in the fridge for two weeks. I hope you enjoy it. After I finish writing, I'll be on the porch as long as I can stand the humidity. Care to join me?
Mayfair Salad Dressing
Ingredients:
1 clove garlic
1/2 onion
1 T anchovy paste
2 T mustard (horseradish may be used if you prefer)
1 T lemon juice
1 rib celery
1/2 tsp sugar
3 eggs
2 C vegetable oil (or canola)
1 tsp pepper
Directions: Put garlic, onion, anchovy paste, mustard, lemon juice, celery, pepper and sugar in bowl of your food processor. Process for a mere 2 seconds. Add eggs one at a time, blending two seconds each time. Add oil gradually through the feed tube with the processor on continually. After all is added, process for two more seconds.
You can no longer thank Chef Fred, but you can thank me at a later date!
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