RECIPE WORKERS

FINDING JOY AND THEN SOME

By Janis D. Froelich

Peg Ditchen (left) and writer Janis D. Froelich enjoy a Reuben lunch at Side Door Deli in St. Petersburg, FL. 

My Florida neighbor Peg Ditchen recalls her 20s when she was front and center with famous people and their devotion to glorious food. Back in Ohio in the late 1960s-early 1970s, Peg is in a new marriage after her earlier one broke up. She can’t type very well and cook – not good either. Yet she lands a job with the heirs of “Joy of Cooking,” the world’s best selling cookbook.

Based on Peg’s recollections, this historical fiction book is set at the home of John and Marion Becker. The place is Cockaigne, a French-named estate in Cincinnati. Marion is the daughter of the original Joy author, Irma S. Rombauer of St. Louis. In 1936, the cookbook gained fame and sales for its boxy format recipes and chatty remarks. This helped many perplexed housewives! (Now the cookbook is a mainstay for chefs and cooks everywhere!)

Marion continues her mother’s cookbook. To do so, she and architect husband John build an eight-acre country retreat and entertain in a manner not seen in Cincinnati’s farmland. Starting in the morning with homemade pastries and coffee by the fireside and continuing with formal sit-down lunches. Working class-raised Peg breaks bread with Bob Hope, answers fan mail from Julie Andrews, goes on cookbook autograph missions with Marion as the star. All this time, Peg is also the “dumb bunny” in Marion’s Joy kitchen, learning to cook and bake, testing recipes and offering honest opinions.

With oodles of royalties pouring in, the Cockaigne lifestyle is tethered to duty and many traditional complications. Before Peg’s time at Joy ends, will she transform herself enough to put behind youthful failures? All this to ponder while enjoying lots of food adventures in this fictional behind-the-scenes gourmet tale.