Ida Bailey Allen's Food for Two Cook Book, 1947 Post-WWII Cookbook | Cooking for Two | Vintage 1940s Cookbook
Post-World War II America was settling back into domestic life in 1947 with a new trend emerging -- cooking for two. As the Foreword explains...
"Questions asked by twosomes the country over... Business girls doubling up in one-room apartments, Young men batching in cramped quarters, Dwellers on house-boats in Quonset huts and trailers, Older couples, children married and away from home, Brides and grooms in kitchenette apartments... To buy and cook food for two is a tiresome chore. So in answer I have written this book. It contains essential solutions to cooking-for-two problems. It is based on my own personal experience, the teaching of brides' cooking classes, a nation-wide survey, and a careful tabulation of cooking-for-two problems posed in letters from radio listeners over many years, including the war and post-war period."
ABOUT THE AUTHOR (Courtesy of Wikipedia)
Ida Cogswell Bailey Allen (1885-1973) was an American chef and author who was once popularly known as "The Nation's Homemaker," writing more than 50 cookbooks She was described as "The original domestic goddess" by antique cookbook experts Patricia Edwards and Peter Peckham. In 1924 Allen was food editor of the Sunday New York American. By 1928 she was hosting a regular daytime radio show which expanded to two hours the following year. She not only performed on the show, she also produced and sold her own advertising; she was a pioneer in selling spot advertising rather than having a single company sponsor a show. The program ended in 1932, at which time she began a syndicated cooking show on Columbia Network. She became television's first female food host on Mrs. Allen and the Chef. She was an editor of Good Housekeeping, writing the "Three Meals a Day" column, as well as Home Economics Editor of Pictorial Review and Woman's World. She was President and founder of the National Radio Home-Makers Club. During World War II, Allen's was drafted by the US Food Administrator as lecturer. She once lived atop 400 Madison Avenue, New York City where visitors were able to see the "latest developments in homemaking", and could watch her staff develop and test new recipes for cooking. A 1932 promotional book she wrote for Coca-Cola, When You Entertain, was so popular 375,000 copies were sold in under six months.
BIXLEY NOTES
• Ida Bailey Allen's Food for Two
• Written by Ida Bailey Allen
• Published by Garden City Publishing, 1947
• FIRST EDITION
• 339 page hardcover cookbook
• Measures 8 1/2" x 5 1/2"
VINTAGE NOTES
• In good condition
• Binding is slightly loose -front cover is beginning to pull away from the binding
• Covers show a little wear and smudging
• Dust jacket is missing
• Pages have yellowed a bit
• Cooking stains on some of the pages
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