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One afternoon in 1948, in a small backroom off of the mansion’s kitchen, assistant cook Vivian Gibson worked to perfect her orange chiffon cake. She wanted it to turn out nicely since it would be served to her employers, Adelaide and R.S. McLaughlin, in the dining room of their palatial Oshawa, Ontario, estate: Parkwood. Mrs. Beedie, head cook, would always test Vivian’s desserts, ‘and if it didn’t turn out right, she’d say “chuck it!”’ There was always time to make another dessert when one did not turn out nicely, and the McLaughlins would not find out anyway since Vivian never met them.

This talk examines the oral history project that has been ongoing at Parkwood Estate since 2010, with particular focus on the processes related to foodservice at Parkwood. While cookbooks are rich in detail about recipes and cooking methods, they cannot tell us how staff accomplished complex meal services demanded at Parkwood. How did staff organize their work and maintain a domestic economy capable of producing the delicate French and Italian dishes recorded in the mansions’ archival menus?

Using oral histories, Ryan and Samantha will present three different aspects of food process that are well recorded in Parkwood’s oral record. Focusing on estate-raised foodstuffs, baked goods, and the process of becoming a cook at Parkwood, they will highlight the different types of evidence oral memory can offer to food history research. Although not always as detailed as cookbooks with respect to ingredient use, Parkwood’s oral histories indicate that ingredients passing through Parkwood’s kitchens witnessed a lively and ingenious group of staff who, daily, navigated social status, technology, available knowhow, and internal politics to produce meals that reflected the McLaughlin’s aristocratic airs. 

Suggested materials:

Whibbs, Ryan; George, Samantha. (2024) "An Apple Pie for Colonel Sam: The Kitchen, Cooks, and Food of Parkwood Estate, Oshawa, 1917-1973". Cuizine, 11(1). https://doi.org/10.7202/1112244ar

Presenter(s) Bio:

Dr. Ryan Whibbs is an Instructor at the School of Hospitality & Tourism, Southern Alberta Institute of Technology. In 2014, he earned his PhD in history from York University, Toronto, with a dissertation entitled “"God Sends Meate but the Devil Sends Cookes": Cooks Working in French and English Great Households, c.1350-c.1650.” Since then, his publications have evolved to include both medieval and modern questions surrounding cooks & culture. 

Samantha George is the Curator of Parkwood National Historic Site in Oshawa, Ontario. A graduate of York University’s History Department, Toronto, and Algonquin College, Ottawa, Samantha’s work focuses on mid-century Canadian foodways and incorporating foodways into living-history experiences.

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