Next, one of the most talked about parties of the Roaring Twenties.

Every guest famous and fashionable.

A soiree so chic, few were formally invited, and it only took place on the pages of The Great Gatsby.

Or did it?

- But the parties that they talk about in that book.

- Those were real, weren't they?

- Yes, they were.

Journey back to the Jazz Age.

You know about the flappers and the bathtub gin.

But what about the savories and the sweets?

- So creating the food was important.

- Right?

Libby O'Connell imagines some of the fabulous foods that might have been on the buffet table at one of The Great Gatsby's gatherings.

Then, a lesson in luxe.

Melissa Fairchild Clark details the preparation and presentation as she puts together these delicious dishes.

- You're putting the whole thing in?

- The whole thing.

Taste sensations that just might pop your cork.

[POP OF CHAMPAGNE CORK] That's next on Drive By History.... - Delicious.

- Yeah.

...Eats.

[MUSIC] Made possible by the New Jersey Historical Commission, enriching the lives of the public by preserving the historical record and advancing interest in and awareness of New Jersey's past.

Every day, thousands of motorists pass by countless history markers and say to themselves, 'One of these days, I'm going to stop and read that.'

If you watch Drive By History, you know that's how every episode begins.

I start with a history marker, then go on an investigation to find out what happened and why it mattered.

What you don't know is that the food or the 'eats' often plays into that part of the history, but there's just not enough time to chew on that part of the past.

And that got me thinking, why not revisit that history but with a focus on the food?

This is Drive By History: Eats.

The investigation we're revisiting today begins in Huntington, New York, at Oheka Castle.

Now a hotel, during Long Island's Golden Age it was a private home built for Otto Herman Kahn, a world famous banker and impresario.

Located within a stone's throw of the Long Island Sound, It's here I met with NYU professor Karen Karbiener, who told me the summertime celebrations at Oheka added some of the roar to the Roaring Twenties.

The music was raucous, the gin overflowing, the crowd glamorous.

The guest list read like the Who's Who of stage and cinema and included Charlie Chaplin, Groucho Marx and a young writer named F Scott Fitzgerald, newly famous and fond of the lush life.

- What people say about Fitzgerald - is that he lived it up to write it down, - meaning that he put himself and his era in the work.

At the time, Fitzgerald was working on what would become his masterpiece, a novel titled The Great Gatsby.

Although Fitzgerald never said as much, some scholars believe Oheka was the primary inspiration for The Great Gatsby's mansion and its parties.

Of course, few things matter more at a party than the food.

- And that's why I wanted to revisit this history.

- The Great Gatsby served cuisine that was second to none.

- But what was on the menu?

What would have delighted your senses had you stepped into the story and onto Gatsby's great lawn, dancing the night away, Nick Carraway to one side of you and Daisy Buchanan the other.

To find out more, I head to Lloyd Harbor, New York, to the home of Libby O'Connell, one of our nation's esteemed Food and Culture Historians and author of The American Plate.

- So, Libby, I know that - The Great Gatsby is a work of fiction, - but the parties that they talk about in that book.. - Oh, those parties.

- those were real, weren't they?

- Yes, they were.

[MUSIC] - The parties were big.

- Remember, in the early twenties - World War One had ended.

- Right.

- The pandemic, the Spanish Flu was over.

- People were starting to make a lot of money.

- And women got the right to vote.

- Even though it was prohibition, - there was a lot to celebrate.

- And people were having a good time.

- And we refer to it as the Jazz Age.

- Wonderful music, great dancing.

- People got together and celebrated.

- What about the food, though?

- Well, there was a lot of good food out there.

- Of course, F Scott Fitzgerald doesn't - talk about the food very much.

- But we know that there were - a lot of cookbooks published during that time.

- So, creating the food was important.

- Right.

- So I'm curious, what are some of the food trends - that then come out of the 1920s?

- Well, the art of Canning had improved remarkably.

- People were still doing home canning, - but you could also buy actually very good - quality tasting food in cans.

- The idea of serving your guests - canned pears, for example, as part of a dessert - would be considered an excellent offering.

- Well, it's funny, because we think of fresh as best now.

- Yes, fresh is best.

- Well, but the idea was that you would serve - canned pears in the springtime.

- That's out of season.

As we head to the table, Libby tells me for the sake of today's conversation, she's taken inspiration from the following passage 'On buffet tables, garnished with glistening hors d'oeuvre, spiced baked hams, crowded against salads of Harlequin designs and pastry pigs and turkeys bewitched to a dark gold.

We start with those salads of Harlequin designs.

- I think that means a colorful spread filled with choices.

- Harlequin costumes being very colorful and... - I think of patchwork.

- Patchwork, exactly.

- I think I came up with something that will be fun.

- Egyptian salad - Oh.

- from a cookbook in the 1920s.

- So it's period exact.

- Mm hmm.

- And it starts with canned pear halves.

- You mentioned that canned fruit was really popular.

- It was.

- And canned pears particularly were something that was admired.

- They were not déclassé at all.

- They were something that would be served at an elite party.

- And this has pear halves - stuffed with a mix of dried fruit and nuts - that seem Egyptian, at least to Americans, and then - put into a pyramid shape on the top of the pears.

- The reason why this would be chosen - is because of the theme of Egypt.

- Egyptomania has taken over the world.

- This is when Howard Carter discovers King Tut's tomb.

- So it's on everybody's mind.

- It's a great trend in all sorts of things.

- You see it in arts, - you see it in design, and you see it on the table.

- So the Egyptian salad is really representative - of pop culture in the 20s.

- That's right.

- Well, it certainly seems like a whimsical dish.

- I can't wait to see what else pulled.

- I think this is going to be fabulous - and just the right thing to have on hand - at a Great Gatsby Party - Okay.

- because it includes champagne.

- How can you go wrong?

- How can you go wrong!

- It's pan-seared scallops in a creamy champagne sauce.

- Scallops have a very mild flavor.

- And when you cook with champagne, that's mild, too.

- But I think it makes a really nice combination.

- But Libby, what people have been cooking - with champagne during prohibition?

- Well, most people wouldn't have been, - but there's a tiny elite that can afford it.

- And it is illegal, but accessible - because this is a center of smuggling.

- You're on the North shore of Long Island.

- Lots of inlets, lots of necks of land.

- The...during... - before the American Revolution, we were evading Tea Tax here.

- Gosh darn it, we're going to evade prohibition here, too.

- The black market is thriving.

- Absolutely.

Not only would the food at Gatsby's party have tasted great, it would have looked great, too.

To find out how to prepare and present Egyptian Salad and Scallops in Champagne Sauce, I turn to Chef Melissa Fairchild Clark.

- Okay, Melissa, we're starting with the Egyptian Salad.

- Now, the 1920s were big for Egyptomania.

- Yes.

- But I know they were also big on how the food was styled.

- Yes, so we are going to be styling this two different ways, - one way that was very traditional from a cookbook from that era.

- And then I wanted to give it a quick update, - so I'm going to.

- Okay, that sounds good to me.

Melissa starts with dried figs, chopped dates and chopped almonds.

After she mixes them together, she adds a little bit of honey and a pinch of lemon to brighten things up.

- So we've got a nice mix going here.

- A nice mix there.

- So we're going to start off with the traditional plating.

- Very classic to have a bed of lettuce at that time.

- Okay.

- So we going to start out with a bed of lettuce - and create kind of the feet of our pyramid shape with... - Look at this.

- yes, with some pear segments.

- And these are canned pears that we're using.

- Right, Libby had mentioned that canned fruit was incredibly - popular in the 1920s.

- Yes.

- I mean, it's a great way to be able to enjoy things - out of season, which is always... - Right, but they were considered kind of a luxe option, too.

- Oh.

- It wasn't a secondary choice.

- Oh, nice, okay.

- Learning...we're all learning.

- So I'm just going to kind of pile this.

- So you've got your feet of the pyramid now.

- Feet of the pyramid, and then trying to create - kind of a little bit of height in the middle - with the idea being that these will act a bit like - scoops, if you will.

- Nice.

- So that's the first way I want to do this.

- And we will dress it in a moment.

- But the way that I thought of updating this was to - kind of make something along the lines of a lettuce wrap.

- Very popular now.

- Yes, very popular now.

- So...and also very simple.

- So what I've done is I want to add, - because we are lacking pear in this so far, - I want to just chop up some pear quickly.

- So you're actually going to put the chopped pear - into the mix itself?

- Yes.

- Gotcha.

- It's going to add a different texture - and a little bit of brightness.

- A little different flavor, too.

- Yes.

- So I'm going to mix that in there - and then we're just going to - kind of load it into these lettuce cups.

- That looks really good.

Melissa finishes the salad with a whipped cream dressing, a sweeter dressing authentic to the Gatsby Period.

She starts with heavy cream, then adds salt.

Next, she adds honey, then a pinch of apple cider vinegar.

- And then we're just going to kind of - make sure we're keeping it a little loose and do a little - dollops here and there.

- Well, I have to say, it's a very attractive dish.

- Yes.

- I'm curious to taste it, - but it looks beautiful.

- I could see this at a Gatsby Party.

- Okay, Melissa now we're on to the champagne scallops.

- And you'll be happy to know that unlike Gatsby, - we didn't have to pay off a wise guy to get our champagne.

- I don't know if you paid that guy.

[LAUGHTER] - Nah, I kind of, you know, back of a trunk, called it a day.

- All right, what are we starting with?

- So we're going to start with getting bacon into a cold pan.

- Always start bacon in a cold pan.

- Ah, interesting tip.

- Yeah, because you want to give it a chance to really render, - and that's going to happen best with gradual heat, - not shocking heat.

- And that's what we're looking for is the fat to come off the bacon.

- Exactly.

[SIZZLING BACON] After the bacon is cooked, Melissa sets it aside for later and also pours out most but not all of the fat, leaving just enough in the pan so the scallops don't stick.

- All right.

- Okay, so now we're going to get the scallops in the pan.

- You want them really dry so that they... - They sizzle like that?

- sizzle like that, yeah.

- It might take a second to get that noise going, - but we really want to hard sear on these.

[SOUND OF SCALLOPS SIZZLING] - Yeah, those look beautiful.

- These are good to go.

- So I'm going to get these out of the pan - and onto that same paper towel-lined plate as the bacon.

- Visit their friend, the bacon.

- Yes.

- And then we will get to making the pan sauce.

- Perfect.

- We'll be back to you in a second.

- All right.

- So we're going to add the rest of that bacon fat to the pan - and then we will add the shallots.

- And these are just going to kind of sweat down, wilt down.

- All right, how are we doing?

- We are ready for the champagne, Ken.

- Okay, I know my cue here.

[LAUGHTER] - All right, let me do it the way I learned - so that we don't take an eye out.

- Yes.

- There we go and - ah, listen to that.

- Beautiful, ah, yes.. - What a waste.

- I don't want to lose any of it, but hey.

- It's the angel's share.

- So we'll let it breathe a little bit.

- Yeah, we'll give the angels a little bit of the bubbly.

- So the last, well, second to the last thing I want to get - in this pan before the champagne is the thyme.

- And then... - That's quick.

- we will add our flour.

- OK, just to thicken it up a little bit.

- Yes.

- All right, so are we ready for the champagne?

- Yes, we are.

- So I have to ask you, what's the difference - between cooking with champagne and cooking with wine?

- This has to be a much more luxe version.

- Yes, the difference is opulence, - Yes.

- and that's what we're here for.

- We are celebrating a Gatsby opulent era.

- You are not kidding, boy.

- So we're throwing the champagne in here.

- Well, I am happy to do so.

Shall I pour?

- Yes.

- Okay.

- - We'll need about one cup.

I'll tell you when.

- Okay.

I- t's going to foam up quite a bit, so... - Oh, it's beautiful, though.

- This looks like part of the show.

- We're probably good there.

Yeah, let's call it there.

- Oh,look, and there's some left for us for later, too.

- Oh, gorgeous.

[LAUGHTER] - So now we're just going to... - That's interesting, - so it's very foamy because of all the carbonation.

- Exactly.

- Now we're ready to add our chicken stock.

- So you get a boost of flavor from that as well.

- Yes, exactly.

- This will add some richness, where the champagne will add - brightness and depth of flavor.

- This will add a richness of flavor.

Next, Melissa adds a spoonful of Dijon mustard and some heavy cream.

- Some richness here.

- Yes.

- And these are flavors that will go well - with the champagne, too.

- I think of champagne as being delicate, - but it actually can stand up to this.

- Yes, absolutely.

- And we've kind of...every flavor that's gone in here, - we're softening down a bit.

- Yes.

- So this looks beautiful.

- Now, I'm just going to add our spinach, - which I have - Cooked spinach, yeah?

- wilted, and then squeezed all of the liquid out of - as much as I could so that we didn't turn this turn this sauce - some weird green color.

[LAUGHTER] - And then the last ingredient, our bacon.

- And yeah, we just want to kind of incorporate - that into the sauce.

Next, Melissa adds cooked pasta into the pan.

She turns the pasta over and over to thoroughly incorporate it into the sauce.

- Oh, I can't wait to taste this.

- Yes.

- So, I'm going to try and get... well, let me cut the heat first.

- Okay.

- So try and get a little fancy.

- Let me bring the bowl over so you don't have to go so far.

- Thank you, I appreciate that.

- Well, you certainly don't have to do this.

- Yeah, but that's going to make for a beautiful presentation.

- It feels fun.

- Yes.

- Yeah, I'm going to come in with a little bit more.

- Okay.

- And then we'll just get the scallops on top of this.

[MUSIC] - We only have time for one more recipe, - inspired by a different passage in The Great Gatsby, but very much from Fitzgerald's pen.

He writes, 'Every Friday, five crates of oranges and lemons arrived from a fruiterer in New York.

Every Monday, these same oranges and lemons left his back door in a pyramid of pulpless halves.'

- I think most of those citrus fruits were going right - into big punches or cocktails.

- Cocktails?

- Yes.

- The era of cocktails.

- It was, it was the era of cocktails.

- Well, did they eat any of these citrus?

- Well, I found a recipe that made me think this will be perfect.

- It uses Clementine oranges, and Clementines - had just been introduced about 20 years before.

- So they were still kind of, you know, fancy.

- This recipe is for a Clementine cake.

- All the parts of the Clementine are in there.

- You literally put the whole Clementine in?

- Well, you puree it, you cook it a little bit, you cook them, - and then you put them into your blender, - and it makes this incredibly tasty pulp - and that gets stirred into the batter.

- I can imagine Nick Carraway and Jordan Baker - sitting down and thinking, Wow, this is going to be a great dessert.

Well, - Well, Fitzgerald certainly wrote a lot about lemons and oranges, - but there are so many recipes today that incorporate lemons, - we decided to go the orange route.

- Yes, so here we have some clementines.

- We microwaved these for 3 minutes.

- Okay.

- What that did - was it made the juices and the essential oils in there - more bioavailable.

- Essentially, they're unlocked.

- So when we blend them in here, - We get more flavor?

- Yes, more flavor, - looser texture.

- So that's why you're... - Are you putting the whole thing in?

- The whole thing.

- Interesting choice.

- Yes.

- Well, if we were in Italy, this would be kind of - the standard choice of how to make lemonade or a citrus juice.

- Very interesting.

- But, you know, here we are.

- So we're just going to mix them just like that.

- Yes, so it may take a second for it to... [SOUND OF BLENDER] Once the clementines are blended into a smooth puree, Melissa sets the mixture aside for a moment.

Next, she asks me to take the sugar that she's mixed with clementine zest and pour it into our mixing bowl.

Then she adds butter, creaming the two ingredients together.

- Okay., that looks like it's pretty good.

- Yes, this look pale like we want it to be and quite well mixed.

- So now we're going to move on to our next step - which is incorporating the eggs.

- We're going to do this one egg at a time.

- Okay.

- And only at our next egg - when the previous one is fully incorporated.

- I see that in a lot of recipes.

- What's the reason?

- Yeah, I wish I knew.

- Okay.

[LAUGHTER] - Well, let's get to it then.

- It allows the...certain things take more time to absorb.

- And so if you were to add it all at once, - it would be this really sloppy mess that would take - a really long time to look the way that it's supposed to.

- Gotcha, Okay.

- Whereas one at a time.

- Yeah, give you more control.

- Give it a moment.

Reattack.

- Gotcha.

Let's go.

[SOUND OF MIXER] - Okay.

- Now we're nice and combined.

- So the next thing we're going to do is add our... - The puree?

- Our clementine puree.

- Actually I will use that spoon.

- So I'm going to add this with it off.

- All right.

[SOUND OF MIXER] - It's looking incorporated.

- Yeah, that looks great.

- So now we can combine our dry ingredients - and add them in here.

- Okay.

- So we've got almond flour, our AP flour, - and then we've got a little bit of baking powder - and salt.

- And for those of us who don't now, AP Flour -- - all purpose flour.

Gotcha.

- All purpose, yeah, sorry.

- That's okay.

- So for lack of a whisk in front of me, - I'm just going to use my hands.

- Chef's best tool.

Yep.

- And then we can start adding this one third at a time - into our wet ingredients again, just giving it a chance - to acclimate to that new ingredient and then - adding a little bit more from there.

- Sounds good.

All right.

- So... [SOUND OF MIXER] Once all of the ingredients are mixed together, they create a fragrant cake batter, which Melissa carefully pours into a springform pan.

Next, she bakes it in the oven for one hour and then waits an additional 2 hours for the cake to cool.

- Why did you make me wait so long?

- I made you wait so long - because if we were to glaze this - when there was any heat still coming off of it, - the glaze would just kind of slide off avalanche-style.

We'd have a pool around the sides.

- Exactly, which is not the goal.

- So, it's totally room temperature now.

- We're going to start to make our glaze.

So we just have a whole mess of confectioners sugar.

- I'm going to add a little bit of salt to that.

- A small mess of salt.

- Small mess of salt.

Big mess meet small mess.

- And then a bit of water and you're going to be surprised - how little water you actually need to do this.

- And that's the point.

- You want it to be thick.

- Yes.

- So it looks like a good consistency to me.

Once the glaze had reached a thick but pourable consistency, Melissa asked me to drizzle it over the entire cake, allowing the excess to cascade over the side.

- So gorgeous.

- Well, thank you.

I did it myself.

- Wow.

Okay, that's better than I could have done it.

- Nah, I don't believe that for one second.

- This looks great.

- How long does it have to sit now?

- We have to let this kind of set up for an hour - and then we can decorate it.

- Perfect.

- I have four decorations today.

- We have honeycomb, dried orange segments, - marigolds and then candied clementine.

- Ah, is that what we're doing with these?

- Yes.

- I just want to try and spread them out so that each slice - would get a clementine, - which means that everybody gets a very large slice - because we only have six for this purpose.

- I don't think anyone is going to complain.

- No, this is just my generosity.

- You are a giver.

- Yes.

[LAUGHTER] - And then I wanted to have something - with a little bit of height so that you weren't - just looking at a flat plain.

- So we're creating a little pattern here going around.

- Just adding a bit of height - and a bit of interest - and after that, - we can kind of come in and fill in - little gaps with interesting bits.

- My favorite time of day.

- Now we get to see everything tastes.

- Here we are.

- All right.

- Salad first?

- Let's, well of course.

- Egyptian salad.

Yes.

- Yes.

- So I'm going to, you know what, I'm going to scoop this way.

- Exactly a little bit on a piece of pear.

[MUSIC] - So I took a big bite.

- Yeah.

- To be honest, I kind of questioned whether I would - like this as an appetizer, or if it was really more of a - dessert, given the dressing and the sweet that's in there.

- Yeah.

- I think I've decided it's really more an appetizer.

- Yeah, I think it suits and a lot of appetizers - do have a sweet component.

- Yeah.

- You're just setting the tone - for the rest of the night.

- But this is easy to pick up with your fingers.

- You can actually get some of the mix on top there, on top of a pear.

- Pop it in your mouth and you're good to go.

- All right.

- On to our luxe scallops with the champagne sauce.

- Oh, I can't wait to try these.

- I know you're the most excited for this one, - and I can't blame you.

- I love scallops.

- I love pasta.

- And champagne is not not too bad either, - I got to tell you.

- No.

[MUSIC] - I really like how the sweetness of the scallops - is balanced out by the fatiness of the bacon, - and then the acidity of the champagne.

- Exactly right.

- And there's a little sweetness to it as well, - which I assume is from the champagne.

- Yes.

- Cooking with wine - you typically get that... you burn the alcohol off, - but you're left with that sweet undertone.

- Yes.

Yeah.

- Champagne is very subtle, so it's not overwhelming.

- But this is a fantastic dish.

- All right.

- Okay.

- No meal is complete without a dessert.

- My mouth is watering, watching you cut this.

- Such a reasonable sized fifth of the cake.

- A fifth...I think it works.

- Well, you know, I thought it served one, but I could be wrong.

- Okay, I'm going to go in from this angle.

- Get the purist's view.

- I'm going to.

- It's really light.

- Mm hmm.

- That is absolutely delicious.

- It's not too sweet.

- No, I think that's the whole clementine puree - and the way that you get the pith in there, - along with the added zest that we double dosed it with, - really pulls this back from being cloyingly sweet.

- Yeah, it's not at all.

- But it also isn't too orange flavored.

- No.

- It's just enough.

- Like you said, it's not too sweet, but it's also light.

- I expected it to be dense because - we put the puree in there.

- Yeah, I think the baking powder really helped that.

- Well done.

- Thank you.

The Gatsby age, complete with flappers and bathtub gin, is certainly a thing of the past.

But thanks to Libby and Chef Melissa, you can get a flavor for what those parties were like today in the present.

We'll see you next time.

All of today's recipes are available on our website, DriveByHistoryEats.org Made possible by the New Jersey Historical Commission, enriching the lives of the public by preserving the historical record and advancing interest in and awareness of New Jersey's past.