April 24 marks the 235th anniversary of President George Washington’s visit to Roslyn, and the Roslyn Landmark Society is celebrating the occasion with a journey through 18th-century cuisine.
On Saturday, April 26, historic cook Diane Schwindt will demonstrate colonial cooking techniques and prepare Washington’s favorite dishes, such as hoecakes and waffles, on the lawn of Trinity Episcopal Church on Northern Boulevard, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Schwindt said the experience will immerse attendees in a demonstration of what locals in the former Dutch community would have likely eaten, using the context of the period’s economic and climate conditions.
“It’s not just making batter and making some pancakes or some waffles,” Scwindt said.
In preparing for the event, Schwindt, the resident historic cook at the Ketcham Inn in Center Moriches, has made every effort to ensure her cooking demonstrations are accurate to the period, without fabricating any details.
In researching Roslyn’s culinary past, Schwindt has been considering popular dishes in the former Dutch village, such as waffles and small cakes, along with the cooking and milling techniques that would have been common at the end of the 18th century.
“What items would they have had? How would they have milled the wheat? What kind of wheat would they have used? Would they have used sugar?” Schwindt asked herself. “It’s really just basically finding the root.”
While researching and preparing dishes based on Roslyn’s historic context has been smooth, figuring out what Washington would have eaten or done when he visited the village over 200 years ago has proven more challenging.
Schwindt said the primary sources about Washington’s visit to Roslyn only refer to him having breakfast with the Onderdonk family, and nothing more.
“There was evidence of what he brought on this trip to Long Island, but the cook didn’t know how to read or write, so that was kind of a wash,” Schwindt said.
Despite the hurdle, Schwindt was able to piece together a menu using Washington’s favorite breakfast meals and considering what locals would have had access to at the beginning of spring.
Schwindt also consulted Mount Vernon, Washington’s home estate, to accurately track down details like the type of heart-shaped waffle iron Martha Washington would have cooked with.
The April 26 culinary experience is the latest in Schwindt’s line of historic cooking events across Long Island. At the Ketcham Inn, where she primarily works, Schwindt has been cooking in a hearth kitchen she helped develop since 1693.
As a child, Schwindt said her passion for history began when her parents would take her on trips to historic places, from Nova Scotia to Key West. Later in life, Schwindt said she combined this passion with her professional background in horticulture to create a career in historic cooking.
For those attending the event marking Washington’s brief visit to town, Schwindt said not to hesitate to ask her a question, even if she might not know the answer.
“I take the person’s email and I research it, and I try to find it, because that just makes me more learned about my subject,” Schwindt said.
To learn more about the Roslyn Landmark Society’s upcoming events, including their Colonial Breakfast event on April 26, visit their website at roslynlandmarks.org.
