Craig Claiborne, Food Editor of the N.Y. Times, gives a brief history of the state of American cooking at the time of America’s third president, Thomas Jefferson, and lauds him as a gourmet who awakened a new view of our palates. Claiborne and Chef Pierre Franey prepare a feast that was served at the White House in the year 1800. Themes: American cooking as “plain”. The Puritans had complained, “God sent me; the Devil sent cooks.” Jefferson championed “fine food” in America and wrote on food and recipes. His presidency was an “age of hand power:” slaves labored at every level. It was a time of the introduction of the fork in polite society. Jefferson bought the waffle iron and the first pasta machine; he was among the first to make spaghetti here, and helped promote capers, baking powder, vanilla bean, almonds, broccoli, and tomatoes (which were at first considered poisonous). Claiborne announces the menu for this meal: duck, venison, rabbit stew, deviled squabs (prepared to look like frogs), and galantine of turkey —all examples of Jefferson’s intention to have the finest kitchen possible in the White House. Claiborne and Franey explain and demonstrate the preparation this meal.