WASHINGTON 鈥� What鈥檚 one thing former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt and longtime Cosmopolitan editor Helen Gurley Brown have in common?
Here鈥檚 a hint: It鈥檚 the same thing we all have in common 鈥� food.
Everybody eats, but not everyone eats the same thing. And the food one consumes on a day-to-day basis tells a lot about that person.
鈥淚 think our whole lives can be read into what we eat, what we choose to eat, how we cook, how we feel about the person for whom we cook,鈥� said food writer and culinary historian Laura Shapiro.
鈥淲hen you look right at the food, where it comes from, its history, and then you put it into the personal context of the table where it鈥檚 being served, the people around the table …I think that鈥檚 the whole world.鈥�
In her new book, 鈥�,鈥� Shapiro tells the stories of six women from a new perspective 鈥� that of what they ate.
Eleanor Roosevelt is well known for her role as a politician, diplomat and activist, but during her time in the White House, she was also famous for serving some of the worst food in the history of U.S. presidencies.
鈥淎nd everybody talked about it at the time,鈥� Shapiro said, adding that while meals at the White House were economical, they were far from appetizing.
鈥淚t was badly cooked, it was very bland, it was silly with the marshmallow salads that were somewhat popular at the time, but you didn鈥檛 expect to see it at the White House, so there was that whole aspect of the food.鈥�
However, while researching Roosevelt鈥檚 life outside the White House, Shapiro came across records and reports that were pleasantly surprising, including Roosevelt鈥檚 newfound love for a pancake dessert, smothered in Vermont maple syrup.
鈥淲ell, that is not the Eleanor Roosevelt we think of in the White House, but it was the other Eleanor Roosevelt, and I was so happy to discover her,鈥� Shapiro said. 鈥淪he followed her own appetite and her own tastes.鈥�
Fast-forward to the 1960s and the decades that followed, and Cosmopolitan editor Helen Gurley Brown wrote non-stop about her love of indulgent foods, such as cookies, brownies and whipped cream. The only thing is, she rarely ate them.
鈥淔ood was incredibly important [to her], but what was more important was denying herself the food,鈥� said Shapiro, who described Gurley Brown鈥檚 relationship with food as less of a passion and more of a mania.
The serial dieter got much more joy out of staying slim than the guilt that followed after biting into a brownie.
However, there was one dessert she wrote about that she would frequently eat: Jell-O, or more specifically, a package of Jell-O made with one-quarter the amount of liquid the recipe called for.
鈥淪o that what you got was like this red, rubber-brick tasting of chemical sweeteners,” Shapiro said. 鈥淪he said this was delicious. This, to her, was heaven. She ate it once a day and twice on weekends. To me, you look at that lurid, red, chemical Jell-O and you see Helen Gurley Brown.鈥�
Other women Shapiro exposes through their cuisine include novelist Barbara Pym, London caterer-turned-social-climber Rosa Lewis, Hitler鈥檚 mistress Eva Braun and Dorothy Wordsworth, sister of the poet William Wordsworth.
鈥淚 wanted people who had kind of a mystery at the core. There had to be something unknowable about them,鈥� Shapiro said.
鈥淎nd food tells us everything.鈥�
