I STAND CORRECTED!

One of my writing assignments for TOURIST & TOWN, the prize-winning bi-weekly newspaper here in southern Maine, is called “Kitchen Talk.” Now let’s get real: I’m no Martha Stewart or Erin French. But somehow this page of recipes and cooking tips attracts a following, for which I’m grateful. 

Recently I posted a recipe for the famous “Neiman Marcus cake” that I found on the internet. What happened afterwards was a delicious surprise. Read on!

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An email popped up on my computer the day after posting on TOURIST & TOWN’S Kitchen Talk page what I thought was THE recipe for the “famous” Neiman Marcus cake.

“Hi Val,” it read, “I ran the NM restaurants for nearly 30 years and had to field many questions concerning the store’s recipes that appeared on the internet. Quite literally, all were imposters, especially our Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe which became an urban myth in 1997. My best guess is that the recipe you shared was also mythical — maybe someone doctored it up by adding cake mix and called it Neiman’s. It wasn’t.”

The email came from Kevin Garvin, summer resident of Kennebunk Beach and former vice president/executive chef over three decades for Neiman Marcus in Dallas, Texas and across the country. After answering his email with an apology (and a red-faced admission that I scooped that ersatz recipe off the internet), we met to talk.

I soon feasted on multiple delectables about this gifted chef, a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, who admits he had “the best restaurant position in my life. I got paid to eat and drink, I traveled three million miles over 30 years, I did book tours for three cookbooks — and it never once felt like a job.”

Before joining Neiman’s, Kevin had the honor of preparing breakfast and lunch for Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip during their 1991 visit to Dallas. Kevin recalls, “I created a satellite kitchen next to their suite at the Adolphus Hotel where I was then working. Having studied the Queen’s list of protocols, it was agreed that I would debone the chicken — the Queen does not like any bones left on her plate — then fill the breast with a wild mushroom duxelles. My dessert was ‘Summer Pudding,’ a traditional English berry recipe I took the liberty of making on my own. The Queen approved.”

Several years later, Kevin Garvin received even more approval from the late Stanley Marcus, son of the store founder, Herbert Marcus. “Mr. Stanley,” as he was affectionately addressed by his employees, needed a new executive chef. In 1993, he set his sights on Chef Garvin whose French Room at the Adolphus Hotel had recently received the prestigious Five Diamond Award “for outstanding food, beverage and service.” 

But first, some necessary background. In the early 1950s, Mr. Stanley had noticed that customers were leaving his store midday. He sensed that if Neiman’s had a restaurant worthy of its loyal customers, they would undoubtedly shop, then lunch, then shop some more. (Mr. Stanley’s motto: “A sated shopper is a happy shopper.”) In 1953, when the Zodiac Room opened in the Dallas flagship store, it was headed by Helen Corbitt, hailed as “the best cook in Texas.” Within a year, the restaurant was jammed with customers who went gaga over her Mandarin Orange Souffle Salad and the Neiman Marcus Cake.

Stanley Marcus knew how to woo. He spent three years persuading Miss Corbitt, a Home Economics major from Skidmore College (how about that!) who graduated in 1928, to work at Neiman’s, sending her flowers nearly every month. During her 20 year reign, “the Balenciaga of the Kitchen” (as Mr. Stanley dubbed her) wrote five best-selling cookbooks and opened 20 NM restaurants across the country. Even President Lyndon B. Johnson had tried, unsuccessfully, to hire her as White House chef.

When Mr. Stanley enticed Chef Garvin back from his then current employment at Vermont’s Woodstock Inn to become Neiman’s executive vice president of food services and to update the Zodiac Room, his opening words were: “You need to learn everything about Helen Corbitt.” In becoming the “gatekeeper” of all her recipes — held on four stuffed and oversized rolodexes —  Garvin was encouraged to use them creatively, “to take old favorites and turn them into something wonderful and modern.” Specifically, no more lard and less heavy cream.

Garvin admits that, even though he greatly admired her cooking, many of Corbitt’s recipes were quite sweet. He wasn’t alone. During lunch a deux with Julia Child, he recalls, “All she wanted to talk about was Helen Corbitt. ‘Even though,’ Julia said, ‘she starts every recipe with a marshmallow.’” 

What he appreciated about Corbitt’s recipes were her unique touches, like dousing poached chicken breasts with apple cider vinegar before dicing them for salad, and never using olive oil (“only canola or safflower”) in her Poppy Seed dressing. “She had a distinctive culinary touch,” Garvin says. (Today, half of Helen Corbitt’s recipes are archived at Skidmore College and the other half at the University of Dallas.)

Early in Garvin’s NM tenure, nutritional information became mandatory on restaurant menus. “This caused a stir with our best-selling dessert across the country, the Mandarin Orange Souffle Salad, invented by Corbitt. The dish was sinfully delicious and ladies were coming in and ordering it three times a week until they saw on the new menus that it was 1500 calories. They then came and had it just once a week.”

Garvin never lost sight of Mr. Stanley’s ultimate goal. He said, “When you’re running restaurants like I did in a luxury retailer like Neiman’s, you leave your ego at the door. The reality is: it’s all about selling that Chanel handbag. The chicken salad and popovers are simply there for window dressing.”

But what DELICIOUS window dressing!

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PS: if you’d like the authentic recipes for the Neiman Marcus cake, chicken salad or Mandarin Orange Souffle Salad, email: valmarier@me.com   I’ve got the real stuff!

Today, kevin enjoys practicing and playing golf at webhannet golf club, kennebunk beach. His favorite cooking day of the year is Thanksgiving. “I have 7 recipes and start cooking at 6 AM, ending at 10 PM when I put the turkey carcass and drippings in a soup kettle to simmer all night.”