My grandmother was a certified Irish cook in some rich guy's house on the Main Line in Philadelphia where she had to learn how to cook French food and supposedly thought very little of it. But my favorite quote about Irish cooks from Irma Rombauer's Joy of Cooking intro to hash recipes: "The Irish cook, praised for her hash, declared: "Beef ain't nothing. Onions ain't nothing. Seasoning's nothing. But when I thro myself into my hash, that's hash!"
Great post! I've heard there's a more Jewish connection to the cured and boiled brisket that we credit to the Irish-Americans, but that's a whole separate essay I'm sure.
And you didn't even include Typhoid Mary Mallon who had to be forcibly quarantined for two decades to keep her from pursuing her cookery career.
My grandmother was a certified Irish cook in some rich guy's house on the Main Line in Philadelphia where she had to learn how to cook French food and supposedly thought very little of it. But my favorite quote about Irish cooks from Irma Rombauer's Joy of Cooking intro to hash recipes: "The Irish cook, praised for her hash, declared: "Beef ain't nothing. Onions ain't nothing. Seasoning's nothing. But when I thro myself into my hash, that's hash!"
Great post! I've heard there's a more Jewish connection to the cured and boiled brisket that we credit to the Irish-Americans, but that's a whole separate essay I'm sure.