April 12, 1916 — 7th floor, J.L. Hudson Company, Detroit MI

[“The trouble with the fellow who is feeling “all in” just now, likewise the chap with the perpetual grouch and the old and young who complain of indigestion, and the woman who has “nerves” and the debutante who has lost her zest for the fox trot, is just cooking.”]

The average woman who presides in the family kitchen has no real knowledge of food values and does not concern herself to learn.

I have been interested in food and its proper preparation all my life, and to me it is a fascinating pastime rather than the drudgery it seems to be to most women. I am absolutely certain that if the dyspeptic business men and women were to eat proper food there would be no rebellious stomachs, no frayed nerves, no irritability and ill-temper, but a fine vigor and a splendid efficiency. American men and women eat too fast, mix foods in the most horrible manner, and have no idea of the relative values of the “bread of life” which they take into their bodies.

The time which parents insist their daughters shall spend on music and dancing and other so-called accomplishments, while all are charming, is not to be considered in the scheme of life as representing the inestimable value of a similar amount of time devoted to dietetics and cookery of plain, everyday food. Improperly selected, cooked and served food is the cause of more unhappiness, physical and mental, than all the rest of our ills put together.

Cookery is most interesting; it is even fascinating when one takes it up in the right way. It needs never be drudgery unless the individual makes it so. There is no accomplishment more to be desired than that of being able to prepare food that will be nourishing, stimulating, palatable, agreeable to the taste, and of real benefit to the human body. Little children should be taught the rudiments of cooking and women should begin to apply a proper knowledge of cookery to the baby’s bottle food.

Source: Detroit Times, April 22, 1916.