Founding Foodie

Thomas Jefferson introduced American junk food favorites.

There are few meals more American, and perhaps more likely to be eaten by a teenager left home alone, than a plate of macaroni and cheese with a side of French fries capped off with a bowl of vanilla ice cream.

That you can thank—or blame—Thomas Jefferson for this menu is perhaps both ironic (he was arguably our most refined, cosmopolitan president) or perfectly reasonable (he was also arguably our most articulate champion of the simple and yeomanly in his fledgling state and nation). No matter, what is tough to argue is this: Jefferson was America’s first celebrity foodie and one of a select few Americans who could be labeled as a founding father of American cuisine.

 Jefferson’s five years as an ambassador to France in the 1780s led to a lifelong adoration of the finer things of French aristocratic life. He was particularly fond of the astonishing array of sumptuous, meticulously prepared new dishes born in the explosion of creativity and craft in late 18th-century Paris. There, he discovered street vendors selling pommes frites, which he not only enjoyed eating, but also saw as a vehicle for American farmers to sell more potatoes. He adored an entrée of cheese combined with pasta from his own macaroni maker. And although Jefferson was far from the first to bring the French method of making ice cream to U.S. soil, he certainly helped popularize it by regularly serving it at state dinners in the early 19th century. High-powered guests raved about the magic of this freezing-cold, butter-and-cream treat somehow being served in a warm, delicate French pastry. 

Jefferson also greatly expanded the ingredients Americans would have on hand for cooking. Over his time at Monticello, Jefferson grew more than 330 varieties of vegetables and 170 varieties of fruits—this at a time when most Americans might have tasted fewer than a dozen varieties in their entire lives.

 But credit for introducing enviably fine French cuisine—and, thus, arguably, the simpler versions that are now American staples—doesn’t belong to Jefferson alone. He took young slave James Hemings to France in 1784 specifically to attend culinary school and become his personal chef. Hemings was widely considered one of the best chefs in the United States by the turn of the 19th century, and it was his immense skill with Jefferson’s menu that made the president’s state dinners the talk of the nation’s first foodies. You could say that, in the pantheon of this country’s foodie founding fathers, Jefferson is the impresario and Hemings is the artist. Without them, American food—from our versions of sophisticated French dishes to the simplest staples of cash-strapped college students—would be much less diverse and delicious. 


This article originally appeared in our Smoke + Salt 2019 issue.

Robert Nelson
Robert Nelson is a Virginia Living contributor.
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