ANN CURRY, co-host:
This morning in
TODAY'S KITCHEN
, the rich relationship between food and art and
mac and cheese
.
Maite Gomez Rejon
is a culinary historian and the founder of
Art Bites
, a unique experience that combines art and food at museums around the nation.
Maite Gomez Rejon
, good morning to you.
Ms. MAITE GOMEZ REJON (Culinary Historian):
Good morning,
Ann.
CURRY:
So tell me about
Art Bites
.
Ms. REJON:
Art Bites
is something that I started in '07 where I combine
art history
with food history with hands-on cooking, and it makes -- looking at art in the context of food just makes history very accessible and very fun.
CURRY:
And a person that we all know from history,
Thomas Jefferson
, loved art and he loved food.
Ms. REJON:
Yes.
CURRY:
In fact, you've got a board here of all the things we can thank
Thomas Jefferson
for here in the
United States
?
Ms. REJON:
Exactly. He brought -- he lived in
France
for four years just directly before the revolution and he brought back figs, apricots, he brought back 86 crates of stuff...
CURRY:
Herbs.
Ms. REJON:
...including food, kitchen supplies. He grew hundreds of herbs in his garden at
Monticello
. He actually even grew corn at his garden at -- on the
Champs-Elysees
in
Paris
. He brought back 680 bottles of wine,
French Bordeaux
was his favorite. And then we have all of these different spices here that were -- he was looking -- he didn't necessarily bring those back from
France
, but he was looking at the old world to make the new world better.
CURRY:
Who knew that he also brought over
mac and cheese
?
Ms. REJON:
Mac and cheese
.
CURRY:
You knew.
Ms. REJON:
Very few -- there's 10 recipes that survive in his hand.
One of them
is a recipe of macaroni, and he made
macaroni and cheese
popular because he served it in
1802
at a dinner at the
White House
.
CURRY:
And how are you making it this morning?
Ms. REJON:
We're making a modern adaptation.
Ms. REJON:
What we're doing is, right here, we are heating some milk with a bay leaf. And then I have some
Parmesan cheese
, which he also brought over, that we're going to...
CURRY:
Thank you,
Thomas
.
Ms. REJON:
Yes, exactly. That we're going to mix with some bread crumbs. Actually I'm just going to put them all in there.
CURRY:
Mm-hmm.
Ms. REJON:
And these we're going to place on top of the
mac and cheese
once it's done. So we have some milk that's heated here. Right here we have some butter, and I'm going to add some flour to it and make a roux. And this is going to thicken our sauce. The early
macaroni and cheese
recipes were of -- had more of a custard -- more of an egg base...
CURRY:
Mm.
Ms. REJON:
...and we're doing -- we're basically making a
bechamel sauce
.
CURRY:
Mm.
Ms. REJON:
The earliest actual recipe of
macaroni and cheese
in
America
was written by
Mary Randolph
, who was a relative of his. She wrote a book in
1845
. I'm going to add some of the warm milk to this.
CURRY:
Mm-hmm.
Ms. REJON:
And when you make it at home, try not to spill it like I am.
CURRY:
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Ms. REJON:
And this, you basically just add all of the milk.
CURRY:
A little at a time.
Ms. REJON:
A little at a time.
CURRY:
I can take care of that. So you're doing that. And then you -- and then -- and then -- and basically you keep doing that until it...
Ms. REJON:
You keep doing that until it's smooth and it thickens. You basically make a smooth and thick paste.
CURRY:
Mm-hmm.
Ms. REJON:
And we actually have a version of it already...
CURRY:
Yeah.
Ms. REJON:
...so you could see what it -- what it looks like.
CURRY:
Let's move on to that one then. And that just about, what, maybe five minutes, something like that?
Ms. REJON:
Yeah, five to
10 minutes
.
CURRY:
OK.
Ms. REJON:
Yeah. And here we have a thickened -- so this is a
bechamel sauce
, very French sauce.
CURRY:
Come on in.
Ms. REJON:
Hi
.
LESTER HOLT, anchor:
Good morning. Hi. Nice to see you.
CURRY:
Lester
.
Ms. REJON:
How are you?
HOLT:
Yeah.
CURRY:
And so we're making -- we're right in the throes of this now. What kind of cheese are you adding?
Ms. REJON:
We're going to add -- we're adding some
cheddar cheese
, some English cheddar. Some Gruyere.
CURRY:
Uh-huh
.
Ms. REJON:
Some Swiss Gruyere.
HOLT:
Mm.
Ms. REJON:
Just inspired by some of the places that he visited.
CURRY:
Only a few seconds left. So you've got some -- oh,
Dijon mustard
, by the way...
Ms. REJON:
Yeah.
Dijon mustard
, which he brought over.
CURRY:
...which you were hinting earlier...
HOLT:
Yeah.
CURRY:
...he brought over
Dijon mustard
.
Ms. REJON:
Some nutmeg.
CURRY:
I love
Thomas Jefferson
.
Ms. REJON:
And then you basically put this in a baking dish, put it in the oven. And then...
CURRY:
With your -- with your macaroni.
Ms. REJON:
With your -- mix it with the macaroni, and then here you go.
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