Learn how Colonial culinary tastes were shaped and American cuisine started to define itself at the screening of James Hemings: Ghost in America’s Kitchen. This 2022 documentary explores the life, contributions, and eventual erasure of perhaps the most influential American chef of all time. Credited with introducing staples such as ice cream, French fries, and […]
Learn how Colonial culinary tastes were shaped and American cuisine started to define itself at the screening of James Hemings: Ghost in America’s Kitchen. This 2022 documentary explores the life, contributions, and eventual erasure of perhaps the most influential American chef of all time. Credited with introducing staples such as ice cream, French fries, and […]
French connections: In his four years as the United States minister to France, Thomas Jefferson came to love all things French, especially the cuisine—and the sophisticated culinary palate he developed is still serving us today. In The Art of French Brasserie Cooking at Monticello, the newly appointed Chef David Bastide teaches us about the fine […]
Wine diplomacy: If you’re interested in celebrating presidents, pairing them with wine may be the way to go. In a nod to Presidents’ Day, the second installment of Monticello’s History in a Glass series explores Thomas Jefferson’s passion for wine and the influence it had on diplomatic relations and social entertaining at the White House. […]
Urine for a treat: More than 40 contributors dug into the dark recesses of their art closets to assemble the “deep-dive into the most peculiar parts of our community’s collective wonder” that is the Gallery of Curiosities. In other words, you’ll be offered a peek behind the curtain, past the sensical and the visually accessible, […]
Thomas Jefferson never wrote about the food at Monticello. His kitchens were stocked with ingredients from around the world—cinnamon from Asia, lemons from the Caribbean, brandies and fine cheeses from Richmond. But in his writing, Jefferson didn’t remark on the fine food that his enslaved chefs prepared for his table. He simply expected its consistent […]
It’s the (new) law July 1 not only heralds the start of another hot summer, but it’s also when new laws go into effect. Things you were doing legally on June 30 (ahem, 20-year-old vapers) are now against the law. And sometimes vice versa (hello, happy hour). Nicotine users: Virginia bumps the legal age to […]
‘Odd’ indictment The felony embezzlement charge against former City Council clerk Paige Rice, 37, for an iPhone and Apple Watch valued at more than $500 has many scratching their heads. “It seems very unusual it got to this point without a resolution,” says attorney Scott Goodman. “It seems like something that could have easily been […]
Upon finding the source of the Jackson River, parent to the James River, Earl Swift writes in Journey on the James: Three Weeks through the Heart of Virginia: “From this trickle grows a river that offered sustenance to Indian and early colonist, carried pioneers to new lands of the West, bloomed red with the blood […]
Thomas Jefferson was not an IPA guy. We know this thanks to the scholarly efforts of J. Nikol Jackson-Beckham, a Randolph College professor, whose research provides a fascinating account of the work of Jefferson’s enslaved brewer, Peter Hemings, a son of Elizabeth Hemings. Jackson-Beckham’s recently published article, “Missing Ingredients—The (Incomplete) Story of Thomas Jefferson’s Unsung […]