Frank Beacham's Journal

Finding Soul Food, and Comfort, at Sylvia’s

Finding Soul Food, and Comfort, at Sylvia’s

Alexander Smalls is now an acclaimed restaurateur in his own right, but when he came to New York to sing opera in 1977, he told us, he found sustenance and comfort at Sylvia’s, the Harlem restaurant and fixture founded by Sylvia Woods in 1962.

For me, it was sort of like going to a big Southern enclave where the people were very much like Southern people I knew in the South.

Sylvia was the queen of all that in Harlem because she came from South Carolina and she created this environment for other Southern people to congregate and carry on.

It was like that Sunday dinner after the church service, but it was in Sylvia’s.

We would go up there, and it was a little edgy and sketchy and you kind of clutched yourself a little tighter because clearly the economic scenario there was much different from the Upper West Side or Lincoln Center.

But it was also exciting. We were going to have fried chicken and candied yams and mingle and run into folks who made you feel like you were back home, south of the Mason-Dixon line. That’s what Sylvia’s was like. It was a pilgrimage.

And Sylvia was there. And she greeted you. And seated you and sometimes gave you a hug. When I told her I was from South Carolina, I remember her taking me back in the kitchen, showing me how she made her ribs.

It makes me think of Nina Simone. I was there eating one night, and Nina Simone came in and she and Sylvia had a little tussle, a little argument, because Nina never wanted to pay her bill.

You know Nina was one of those girls, like, “You know who I am?” And Sylvia was like, “Yes, and somebody’s going to pay this bill, Nina, I’m tired of you.”

I’ve been there many times with Cicely Tyson; with Ruby Dee and Ossie. This is the chorus of voices and images and impressions that wraps around me when I go there.

These are people I knew personally, but I was introduced to them as a 20-something-year-old from South Carolina who had come to New York to produce my operatic career, and they were as fascinated with me as I was with them. Baldwin! At Sylvia’s! It was iconic.

And I see that photo and I think of Gordon Parks and Life magazine.

And that’s what comes at me. You hear the roar of history, you know, a flash of civil rights and marches, Sylvia standing out front during a press conference and being revered and being seen as the mother of whatever the movement was, an anchor that anchors this great community. Adam Clayton Powell. That picture conjures up all of that for me.

New York Times

Photo by Jim Wilson

Article by Damien Cave

The story of how macaroni and cheese came to the United States

Do you know who brought the idea for macaroni and cheese to the United States?

The answer is Thomas Jefferson, an American founding father, the principal author of the Declaration of Independence and the third president of the United States.

Despite his credentials, it could be argued that Jefferson’s greatest achievement was popularizing macaroni and cheese.

Though a dish of English origin, Jefferson first encounter macaroni and cheese in Paris and northern Italy in the late 1700s. He hand drew a sketch of the pasta and wrote detailed notes on the extrusion process.

In 1793, he commissioned the American ambassador to Paris, William Short, to purchase a machine for making it. Evidently, the machine was not suitable, as Jefferson later imported both macaroni and Parmesan cheese for his use at Monticello.

In 1802, Jefferson served "a pie called macaroni" at a state dinner. The menu of the dinner was reported by Rev. Manasseh Cutler, who apparently was not fond of the cheesy macaroni dish.

Nevertheless, since that time, baked macaroni and cheese has remained popular in the United States. Jefferson liked hot, melted cheese blended in creamy harmony with pasta, one of the great comfort foods.

A recipe called "macaroni and cheese" appeared in the 1824 cookbook, The Virginia Housewife, written by Mary Randolph. Randolph's recipe had three ingredients: macaroni, cheese and butter, layered together and baked in a hot oven. The cookbook was the most influential cookbook of the 19th century.