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At Smith College, famous cooks spiced up gatherings

E-mail|Link|Comments () October 8, 2009 02:11 PM

Oh to have been present (and hungry) at those Smith College gatherings where the menus were shaped by alumnae famous for their cooking.

Gloria Negri's obituary this week of Charlotte Turgeon, the acclaimed cooking educator and writer who died at 97, recalled how Turgeon and her friend, the late Julia Child (both in Smith's class of 1934) would make meals and even entertain at the events. They both shared a passion for French cuisine.

Charlotte Turgeon (right) with Julia Child. (Smith College photo)

For the inauguration of Smith president Mary Maples Dunn in 1985, they settled on Child's recipe for Cornish Rock Hens.

When Smith inaugurated president Carol T. Christ in 2002, Child and Turgeon were joined by another famous foodie, Joyce Goldstein (class of '56 and author of "The Mediterranean Kitchen"). According to Food Management magazine, Turgeon consulted on the special tea events; Goldstein helped select recipes for some 4,000 lunches; and Child worked on the gala inaugural dinner.

Attendees dined, among other dishes, on a salad with warm goat cheese, roasted rack of lamb, and a dessert of Child's apple tarte tatin with Calvados creme fraiche.

When the food was put away, Turgeon and Child were known to team up for a bit of silliness.

At one class reunion, they performed a two-person cooking musicale. Child told The New York Times that it included the line "If you don't have any fish you can put in some tennis balls. We thought it was very funny. I don't know if anyone else did.''

-- Roy Greene, Globe Staff