The roots of foodiness

I have been interested in fine food from a very young age. My mother, a doctor, had very little time for me at home because of the demands of her busy practice. However, she did take me to her cooking classes and I remember helping her create penguins from hard-boiled eggs and olive slices when I was five years old. Weekends were often spent making delicious cakes from a variety of wonderful American cookbooks. We never liked really true "American food" and most of the dishes we made were French-style. In a word, we bonded over our cooking activities.

For my tenth birthday party, I ordered a luncheon for my 12 best friends that consisted of artichokes, tenderloin of beef and chocolate soufflé for dessert. How I loved that soufflé and how well my mother made it! My girlfriends were used to hotdogs and ice cream at birthday parties and so I don't know what they made of our menu. But I was very happy.

Several times a year, my parents and I went to fancy restaurants in NYC to celebrate family events--especially birthdays. I always asked to keep a menu for a souvenir. Fast forward to 2007 when I have donated a collection of 1,300 menus to the Schlesinger Library at Harvard University. I don't have examples of the very early editions to my collection but the current collection dates from about 1980. Prices have certainly skyrocketed since those days!