Philly Eats Magazine Second Edition 2017

Freelance writer and foodie John Howard-Fusco decided that
the rich history of Cape May food needed to be written and explored.
His book “A Culinary History of Cape May: Salt Oysters,
Beach Plums & Cabernet Franc” does just that. Below you can
find an explanation as well as a summation of what to expect
in this extremely well written and informative book.
“C
ape May is the place of places
for an epicure. All our great
hotels…have become famous
justly for their cuisine. Everything
that the world gives in the
edible line is to be found in the bills of fare of
our Cape May hotels – aye and on their tables.”
– Cape May Ocean Wave, August 24, 1878
More than a century after these words appeared
in print, the New York Times declared
Cape May “The Restaurant Capital of New Jersey.”
While we now bask in the brightness of a
multitude of great restaurants, local farm markets
and vineyards, microbreweries
and top-notch oysters
and scallops, Cape May
has had its share of culinary high
points and low marks. As America’s
Original Seaside Resort made its
journey from a hunting ground for the
Native Americans to a sea bathing destination
for the affluent, from a shore town
on decline and lost in time to its modern renaissance,
food has been an important part all
the way.
This is the story that I explore in my book
“A Culinary History of Cape May: Salt Oysters,
Beach Plums & Cabernet Franc.” And the journey
will take you, inquiring reader, from the Kechemeches
hunting for wild game and seafood to
the Europeans who
would eventually
take over the land.
From the ambitious
yet failed plans of
Dr. Daniel Coxe to
start a whaling fishery
as well as harvest
wild grapes
and grow fruit
trees, to the yeoman farmers that
would harvest the land and sea. From the early
tavern owners to the hoteliers that would make
Cape May a grand resort for Victorian America.
Even before the American Revolution, sea
bathing brought people to visit Cape May. But
an advertisement placed by Ellis Hughes in the
Philadelphia Gazette in 1801, announcing “Sea
Shore Entertainment” and that “fish, oysters,
crabs, and good liquors” would be available,
opened Cape May for the vacationing business.
Ellis’ son Thomas H. Hughes would go one step
further, building his Big House by the Sea in
1816. When Thomas was elected to Congress
in 1828, his hotel got a new name: Congress
Hall.
The cuisine in Cape May would change drastically
as the level of sophistication increased. A
traveler to Cape May in 1829 might have had to
help in the catching and dressing of the evening
meal. By 1837, hotels were seeking out the best
cuisiniers in the country. And the hotel dining
rooms would expand as more seaside visitors
July 2017 Philly Eats Magazine 43