Lilliputian Quantities: An Early Tasting Menu

Hotel Wellesley
Wellesley, 1879

The cover of the 1879 menu from the Hotel Wellesley in Wellesley, Massachusetts looks straightforward. The only problem is that there was no Wellesley, Massachusetts at the time. The small town located fifteen miles outside Boston was still named Needham.1 Hotelier William Emerson Baker, who made a fortune in sewing machines, had previously tried to split away and establish his own town named Hygeria, a “hygienic village” where he would conduct scientific work on sanitary food production. When his proposal was rejected, he simply adopted the name “Wellesley” as the name of his hotel and its location.

Hotel Wellesley (1877-1891)

The summer hotel, which was originally constructed in Philadelphia for the Centennial Exposition of 1876, was dismantled and rebuilt the following year on Baker’s Ridge Hill Farm. The 800-acre estate situated in southwest Needham already featured a variety of amusements including man-made lakes, gardens with statues, a bear pit and a sanitary piggery where the animals were kept in strictly clean conditions and fed wholesome food. In fact, Baker was passionate about the hygienic farming of livestock, the elimination of adulteration and additives in food, and the scientific principles of food preparation.

Sabrina Lake - Ridge Hill Farm

Inside the menu, there is a wine list followed by the bills of fare for two dinners. The first is the table d’hote menu for the regular dinner at 1:00 P.M. As shown, a few of the dishes were crossed out during service in the normal manner (although it seems unusual to run out of bananas). During an era when there were few regional dishes and little day-to-day variation on such menus, the dinner is basically the same as that being served at other hotels throughout the country that day.

The second menu lists a twelve-course meal entitled “Investigation Dinner No. 3” beginning at 5:30 P.M. A notice informs diners that the dishes would be served in “Lilliput quantities, inviting to the eye and palate.”2 The brisk pace of this unusual tasting dinner was regulated by cornets that heralded the arrival of a new dish every ten minutes.

One of the "Diamond Entrees,"  Stewed Kidneys with baked Banana and Madeira sauce, may have been the reason why there were no bananas available at the regular dinner earlier that day. In fact, there was a greater emphasis on fruits and vegetables at the special dinner, as seen in dishes such as Sweet Apple and Corn Oysters, à la Catawba. Some of food sounds strange. For example, under the heading “Brain Culture,” there is Real Artificial Fish with lemonizing (sic) dressing. Another dish that is difficult to figure out is the Broiled Meat Diamonds, à la Quatlibbets (sic),  a name suggesting that it may have been a whimsical combination of familiar foods. (Baker was well known for his sense of humor.)

The evening concluded with a puzzling “mock trial” of the hotel guests before a special train departed at 9:00 P.M. Wellesley Ice Cakes were packed in special paper boxes so that the diners could take them on the 30-minute ride back to Boston.

The recreational activities listed on the back of the menu go well beyond the ordinary concerts and dances that were offered at most resort hotels, the  microscopic and chemical food analysis  scheduled after the “Investigation Dinner” on Thursday being a good example. The lecture on Friday entitled “Food as an Aesthetic, Chemic, Kinetic, Physiologic, Pathologic and Therapeutic” gives us an idea of the range of ideas that were being explored.

In order to study and teach his Pure Food principles, Baker established the Massachusetts Institute of Cookery and the Ridge Hill Laboratories. Although he was often considered an eccentric, Baker was not alone in his ideas. His interests in public health, women’s education, and scientific methodology were in concert with other progressive initiatives that were being launched in and around Boston at the same time.

Wellesley College, located just two miles north of Baker’s estate, began classes in 1875. By the time the first eighteen students graduated in 1879, the new institution was attracting attention in the press. The New York Times reported, “…the college has taken the natural method of instruction. The textbook is well enough a guide, but the physics are taught by laboratory process; botany is taught by the constant use of the microscope, biology is taught by the analysis of living specimens, and…chemistry is studied as far as possible by practical methods.”3

The Boston Cooking School, founded in 1879 by the Woman’s Education Association of Boston, fostered a scientific approach to food preparation and sanitation techniques. The school trained women of modest means for professional careers as cooking teachers and experts on proper diet. Culinary expert Fannie Farmer completed the two-year program in 1889 and later published The Boston Cooking School Cookbook, which has remained in print for more than a century. Farmer stated in the preface of this classic American reference, “It is my wish that it may not only be looked upon as a compilation of tried and tested recipes, but that it may awaken an interest through its condensed scientific knowledge which will lead to deeper thought and broader study of what to eat.” William Baker could not have said it better himself.

Notes
1. The residents of West Needham voted to secede in 1880. The Massachusetts Legislature officially christened the town “Wellesley” the following year.
2. The term “Lilliput,” one of the fictional island nations inhabited by tiny people in Jonathan Swift's novel Gulliver’s Travels, was used to describe very small portions.
3. New York Times, 4 January 1880.