February 2022: THE IMMORTAL CRUSADE OF MARION CUNNINGHAM
© Ben Margot, Associated Press
No, this month will not revolve around the fictional lead matriarch from the television sitcom, Happy Days, played by Marion Ross. The “Marion Cunningham”, who would have turned 100 on February 7, was a real-life culinary personality and an esteemed legend among her peers and apostles in the American food network.
Just who is the real Marion Cunningham? How did she enter the echelon of culinary immortality? And why does she permanently belong there?
Notably responsible for updating The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book to modern standards and tastes, Marion Cunningham would have been Fannie Merritt Farmer reincarnate. After all, the Massachusetts-based Fannie had been gone for seven years from a fatal stroke at the age of 57 when Marion was born to the modest Enwright family in Los Angeles, California.
However, the odds of a successor filling the void left by the predecessor only end at coincidental parallelisms and preposterous comparisons. Marion’s next 50 years find her marrying a high-powered malpractice lawyer, Robert Cunningham, and raising two children at home in Walnut Creek while struggling with agoraphobic anxieties and alcoholic vices. Much like Fannie Farmer, whose adolescent paralytic stroke hindered her from completing her formal education, she would turn to cooking to guide her out of the darkness, and her rebirth would dictate the remainder of her life before retiring from the public eye due to the early onset of Alzheimer’s, which worsened and took her life a decade ago.
A friend suggested to Marion in 1972 that they both take a two-week road trip to the neighboring state of Oregon and attend James Beard’s cooking classes. Although leaving her home state for the first time would be her baptism of fire, she had already vanquished her fear of flying on her 49th birthday. Piece of cake, and Marion found herself reaping an empowering reward for her newfound confidence and courage.
With the critical palate she previously acquired from growing up and watching the Italian maternal side of her family cook and from self-tutelage as a suburban housewife, James Beard was immediately smitten with Marion’s talents in the kitchen. He took her in as his protégé, and she reciprocated by getting his classes established in San Francisco. A new professional partnership began and blossomed between the two. I will even go far to say if Julia Child and Craig Claiborne had Simone Beck and Pierre Franey as their respective culinary wingperson, then James Beard had Marion Cunningham!
For a groundbreaking work that has standardized recipes with measuring cups and spoons, The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book had gone stale and out of touch with readers even after nine posthumous editions between 1918 and 1965. To make matters worse, the tireless dedication of the Rombauers, led by another Marion, along with the approachable voice of their book, The Joy of Cooking, pushed the erstwhile kitchen bible into the back burner of every American household. Upon the recommendation of James Beard to Judith Jones, Marion Cunningham spent five tedious years, testing out Fannie Farmer’s recipes, sharing them to neighbors, and discarding the obsolete ones. By ghostwriting the 12th edition, rebranded as The Fannie Farmer Cookbook, she catapulted the book back to universal acclaim and national bestseller, outselling the previous editions- nearly 400,000 copies sold on its first year of publication in 1979.
Marion continued her momentum of reinvention and rebirth after losing her husband and James Beard. She followed with a Fannie Farmer-voiced baking book filled with her own recipes. Later, she distanced from the persona she was originally associated with by introducing the pleasures of breakfasts and dinners. Marion also polished her teaching style by conducting cooking classes for children, elderly, and novice cooks. She expanded her circle of food icons, which include Alice Waters of Chez Panisse and Chuck Williams of Williams-Sonoma. She emphasized the need to revive and treasure forgotten American classics in her final book. Her “extraordinary achievement and contribution to the culinary arts” made her the first recipient of the Grand Dame title from Les Dames d’Escoffier International. The James Beard Foundation conferred her the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2003, a fitting honor for a disciple who carried the torch of her former mentor.
Home cooking had always been Marion Cunningham’s crusade throughout her life, and she championed her advocacy through teaching and sharing the gospel of wonderful dishes not requiring the touch of a skilled chef to drive the point through. She staunchly believed in the inclusivity of food and cooking which ordinary people can fully accept and understand, and she preached with wisdom, humility, and generosity. She encouraged home cooks to cherish their kitchen creations and appreciate the processes entailed to get there. Good cooking translates to great food at the dining table, and great food at the dining table preserves human relationships and fosters a sense of community.
Cooking once offered Marion an opportunity to turn her life around, and her lesson of “salvation for personal survival” stays exemplary and relevant to us today, given the unpredictability of the current global pandemic. Although she once lamented two decades ago that she could only wish more people cook, her dream has finally begun to come into fruition. Marion’s spirit and crusade lives on and beyond.
