A Moment in Time

"She Defined How America Ate: Meet Clementine Paddleford"

November 1998
By Bobbie Athon

A monthly series from the Kansas Historical Society

"Tell me where your grandmother came from and I can tell you how many kinds of pie you serve for Thanksgiving," wrote Clementine Paddleford in How America Eats. Paddleford was known as "America's Number One Food Editor" for her ability to make good cooking read as fine literature. Paddleford's love for food began on a farm in Riley County where she was born in 1900.

"In the Midwest two is the usual, mince and pumpkin," Paddleford wrote. "In the South no pie but wine jelly, tender and trembling, topped with whipped cream. Down East it's a threesome, cranberry, mince and pumpkin, a sliver of each, and sometimes, harking back to the old days around Boston, four kinds of pie were traditional for this feast occasion-mince, cranberry, pumpkin and a kind called Marlborough, a glorification of everyday apple."

Paddleford was known for food descriptions that stimulated the senses. To her, the perfect souffle responded "with a rapturous, half-hushed sigh as it settled softly to melt and vanish in a moment like smoke or a dream." She covered the food stories behind the great events of the era, such as Queen Elizabeth II's coronation and Winston Churchill's Iron Curtain speech. And yet she maintained a taste for the simple. "It'll be good to be home where the ice water flows like champagne," she commented after an assignment with French royalty.

Paddleford's first book, A Flower for My Mother, reflected on her early years in Kansas where she developed an interest in food. "Stirred-in joy" was the secret of her mother's cooking. "Every last dish seasoned well with love," Paddleford wrote. "She knew that eating was more than just filling hollow legs, just as environment is more than a place. This is one of the things she tried to teach her daughter. Cooking should never be made a chore."

How America Eats, published in 1960 from a compilation of Paddleford's earlier writings, highlighted culinary traditions in each of the fifty states. In her research, Paddleford traveled thousands of miles visiting with the nation's best cooks. "I have eaten with crews on fishing boats and enjoyed slum gullion at a Hobo Convention," she wrote. "How does America eat? She eats on the fat of the land. She eats in every language. For the most part, however, even with the increasingly popular trend toward foreign foods, the dishes come to the table with an American accent."

Clementine Haskin Paddleford was born in Stockdale, Kansas. She graduated from Kansas State University in 1921 with a degree in journalism and studied at New York University's school of journalism. Paddleford joined the New York Herald Tribune in 1936, and stayed until its demise in 1966. She concurrently wrote for This Week from 1940 until her death, served as the woman's editor for Farm and Fireside magazine, and wrote for Gourmet magazine from 1941 until 1953. She died in New York City in 1967.

Paddleford is among the hundreds of people with Kansas roots who found fame for a time. The Kansas Museum of History will highlight some of these interesting stories in its new exhibit Leading the Way: Famous Kansans, opening January 22 in the Special Exhibits Gallery. Underwritten by Western Resources, Inc., the exhibit will feature numerous famous Kansans and explore Kansas's role in their achievements. An interactive exhibit will offer visitors a chance to view a list of famous Kansans through a computer database. The museum is open 9:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. Monday - Saturday, 12:30 - 4:30 p.m. Sunday. Information about other famous Kansans is available through the holdings of the Center for Historical Research, open 9:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. Monday - Saturday. Both the museum and the research center are located in the Kansas History Center, 6425 SW Sixth Avenue, Topeka, KS 66615-1099; 785-272-8681; TTY 785-272-8683; www.kshs.org

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