Max Liebermann's and Julie Elias' World of good taste
Imagine a warm summer evening. You are standing in front of a charming villa in the middle of a secluded garden, directly on the shore of the Wannsee in Berlin. It is, of course, the 1920s and you have been invited to dinner by the Liebermann couple, who reside in said villa. Other guests will be the art critic couple Elias and perhaps the Hauptmanns, the Cassirers and the Zuckmayers will also shine with their presence. In your hands you will hold the artfully illustrated invitation from the host himself, announcing dishes such as "Soup Ambassadeur", "Steamed fillets of pike-perch à la printanière", "Partridges en cachette" and "Apples with Spanish wind". Work up an appetite? Then let's go on a culinary journey through time together with Ursula Hudson-Wiedermann's book 'Meisterwerke für uns'ren Gaumen' - Max Liebermann's Geselligkeit und feine Küche* (Masterpieces for our Palate - Max Liebermann's Conviviality and Fine Cuisine).
Not everyone may be familiar with the fact that the famous painter Max Liebermann (1847-1935) was considered a great gourmet by friends and contemporaries. Having grown up in a wealthy, upper-middle-class family, his interest in good food became apparent at an early age, which he liked to express artistically in his works as a young man and again later. An example of this is his painting Self-Portrait with Kitchen Still Life from 1873, which depicts him smiling as a cook surrounded by fresh vegetables and a soup chicken.
For Liebermann, it was a matter of principle that good primary products were first needed for good food. Once this prerequisite has been created, the next step is the art to create culinary masterpieces from the products:
"Art and nature are only one in food: the matière première must be good, but only art can make it a masterpiece for our palate." (p. 22)
Especially the garden of his villa at Wannsee, where he used to grow fruit and vegetables, played a central role for this point of view. Not only was he always able to harvest what was in season, the garden was also a place of retreat during the war years and helped compensate for the lack of fresh food in the neighbourhood.
He found a kindred spirit for his views on good food in the fashion and cultural journalist Julie Elias (1866-1945), who, together with her husband, the Northernist and art critic Julius Elias, was a frequent guest at the Liebermanns' home. Julie Elias also came from the upper educated bourgeoisie, liked to travel and spoke several foreign languages. From 1915 onwards, she regularly wrote articles on fashion and food culture for the Berliner Tageblatt and Die Dame. She expressed her enthusiasm for the latter in 1922 with the publication of her first cookbook, Brevier der feinen Küche (Brevier of fine cuisine). In addition to recipes that came from herself and friends or were collected on her travels, this work contained numerous illustrations, copperplate engravings and paintings on the subject of food, accompanied by matching literary quotations and proverbs.
Three years later, Julie Elias published another cookbook entitled Kochkunst - ein Führer durch die Feine Küche (Culinary art, a guide to fine cuisine), which she dedicated to Max Liebermann. What is special about these two cookbooks is that they do not just consist of simple strings of recipes and mechanical instructions on how to prepare them; their approach is much broader. Elias wants to convey to readers that food can be more than mere ingestion. With the right tools, it becomes a cultural and artistic experience. Together with family and friends, food can bring joy, conviviality, comfort and a sense of community. Focusing on good taste, fresh ingredients and refined preparation (which doesn't have to be complicated) is always at the heart of it. However, it is not enough to only master the technique of cooking, the mind and the senses must also always be in harmony with each other:
"No one should use the stove who is not capable of observing and examining a dish in all stages of its development. Intelligence alone does not do it - a refined sensuality is necessary." (p.129)
Elias is also concerned with a new appreciation of cooking, as she believes food preparation is a factor in human history that should not be underestimated. For her, it requires a mixture of steadily practised craft, patience and care, together with an intelligent, fine-minded approach. Yet Elias' approach is not to be understood as elitist and outmoded, a holdover from the bygone salon culture of the 19th century perhaps. Her cookbooks are definitely adapted to the changing circumstances of the 1920s, when there were more and more working women. The recipes are structured in such a way that they can be mastered alone and without kitchen help. The focus is clearly on efficiency. The processes are simplified and shortened so that everything can be prepared in as little time as possible. However, the feasibility and availability of the products are not ignored. There are also references to hygiene and thriftiness, the ingredients should be used in such a way that none of it is wasted. Especially after the war years 1914-1918 and the resulting shortages, a return to good and healthy food should be attempted.
In 'Meisterwerke für uns'ren Gaumen' - Max Liebermanns Geselligkeit und feine Küche, Ursula Hudson-Wiedemann succeeds in vividly portraying the two friends Max Liebermann and Julie Elias and their shared love of fine cuisine. The book comes with beautiful recent captures of Liebermann's garden, accompanied by historical photographs, paintings and illustrations (for example of menu cards). Also included is a selection of original recipes by Julie Elias that will immediately put you in the mood of trying them out yourself (there will be another article on this soon, so stay tuned!). In any case, the book is a clear recommendation for anyone who enjoys art, culture and, of course, gastronomy and is perhaps looking for new inspiration for a dinner party. And for those who have always wondered whether it is not too presumptuous to call themselves gourmets, Julie Elias nonchalantly gives the following advice:
"Only fools are not gourmets. One is a gourmet as one is an artist, as one is a poet. Sensual taste is an organ as delicate, capable of perfection and worthy of respect as the eye and the ear. If taste is lacking, one is deprived of an exquisite capability, the capability of appreciating food; as one may be incapable of doing justice to the qualities of a book or a work of art. One has a stupid mouth as one has a stupid head..." (p. 129)
Well then, bon appétit
*vacat verlag, First edition, Potsdam 2009
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