A review by tommcconnell1456
Thomas Jefferson's Creme Brulee: How a Founding Father and His Slave James Hemings Introduced French Cuisine to America by Thomas J. Craughwell

2.0

I read this as part of a reading challenge and was extremely disappointed. The author really doesn’t bring much new insight into the book, while deferring frequently to Annette Gordon-Reed’s The Hemmingses of Monticello, which is by far the superior read. James and Philip hardly garner any mention, beyond they learned how to cook in the French style. While I don’t think you can divorce the food from the politics of the time, it would have been better to provide more insight on the food culture that Jefferson tried to cultivate. The interesting parts were on Jefferson’s attempts to resolve issues like rice or grapes to make American products more palatable or exportable.