Alice B. Toklas (1877-1967) was born in San Francisco in 1877 and educated in the United States. At 29 she moved to Paris and fell in love with writer and fellow American Gertrude Stein. The women became lifelong partners, never separating until Stein’s death in 1946.
Originally published in 1954, the Alice B. Toklas Cook Book is a memoir of Stein and Toklas’ life together, from the “salon” years, hosting the era’s artistic and literary elite in their famous Paris apartment at 27 Rue de Fleurus, through to the years when France was occupied by Nazi Germany. It is also a genuine cook book, containing about 300 recipes. The quality of these recipes, combined with the book’s undeniable literary quality, has kept the Alice B. Toklas Cook Book almost constantly in print for the last 45 years.
Recipes in the Alice B. Toklas Cook Book
To modern North Americans raised on canned goods, Toklas’ gourmet fare can be intimidating. There are a few simple recipes but most require fresh ingredients and slow, elaborate preparation.
The dishes are rich and beautiful-sounding, fit to be eaten with the same care and ritual with which they are prepared. Most are presented in the context that Alice discovered or created them, and her memories are rarely mundane: “One day when Picasso was to lunch with us I decorated a fish in a way that I thought would amuse him…”
In two chapters Toklas dispenses almost altogether with storytelling. “Little-Known French Dishes Suitable for American and British Kitchens” is laid out like a traditional cook book with recipes for hors d’oeuvres, soups, fish, poultry, meats, vegetables, salads and deserts. “Recipes From Friends” includes recipes from a number of famous artists, photographers, writers and musicians, including Laurel-Leaf Soup from surrealist photographer, painter and poet Dora Marr, Haschich Fudge from beatnik misogynist Brion Gysin and Stuffed Italian Squash from Sir Francis Rose, who illustrated the book.
Tales from the Alice B. Toklas Cook Book
Despite gorgeous food and the appeal of its famous contributors the Alice B. Toklas Cook Book is most remarkable as a memoir. Toklas’ good-natured snobbery is best illustrated in the chapter “Servants in France, an amusing account of the numerous people employed in the couple’s household service. A favourite was the cook Héléne, who knew how to prepare eggs to honour a guest (an omelette soufflé with an elaborate sauce), to show indifference to him (an omelette with mushrooms or fine hérbes) or to insult him outright (fried eggs).
The German occupation of France in 1940 brought lean times, and Toklas was forced into the sudden “disagreeable necessity” of cooking for herself, her partner and their guests. Tales of lunch parties to which guests brought bread ration coupons, of serving Rasberry Flummery to friends in the Résistance and of hiding black-market ingredients for an anticipated Liberation Fruit Cake from billeted German soldiers are lighthearted and coloured with nostalgia.
Strangely, Toklas neglects to discuss the constant fear she and Stein must have lived in, being Jewish lesbians in a Nazi-occupied country. She doesn’t mention their being Jewish at all, and the only reference to their sexuality is the account of a maid who quit their service after three days because the couple “lived French.”
“Living French”
Alice B. Toklas and Gertrude Stein did indeed “live French,” not through their sexual orientation but their gastronomy. The final chapter of the Alice B. Toklas Cook Book, “The Vegetable Gardens at Bilignin,”reiterates a theme that runs through the entire work: the importance of fresh local ingredients, beautiful settings and the careful, sensual appreciation of good food.
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