The Club of Cunning Cooks. [with:] The Lenten Council of Ten

Philadelphia, 1877. Two printed menus for two different dinners. Philadelphia’s so-called "Council of Ten" was a small group of wealthy men active in politics and municipal affairs who periodically gathered for dinners. Both menus print excerpts of dialogue from the plays of William Shakespeare to describe various items on the bill. For instance, under Boned Chicken is the caption "Alas, poor hurt fowl" from the second act of Much Ado About Nothing. For Potato Salad there's a quote from All's Well that Ends Well, "Mine eyes smell onions." The group’s name, "Club of Cunning Cooks”, is likely taken from the line of Romeo and Juliet, "Go hire me twenty cunning cooks..." Besides the two menus, there is also a printed dance card with holograph notations from Philadelphia's Natatorium Hall dated 1876-77 and a partly printed, partly holograph announcement of a meeting of "The C.C.C." (Club of Cunning Cooks) at a Locust Street address on March 3, 1877. One menu and the dance card and announcement glued to a backing sheet, the other menu loose. All show minor offsetting from either tape or glue.