By Nathan Duke
Douglaston culinary specialist Carol Brock is donating her collection of 4,000 cookbooks to the State University of New York’s Delhi campus, where the college will designate a special room in its library to showcase the former restaurant critic’s recipe anthology.
Brock, 85, who was a former restaurant critic for TimesLedger Newspapers as well as a food writer for the Daily News, founded Les Dames D’Escoffier, a worldwide philanthropic society of professional women in the food, beverage and hospitality industry.
She said she began collecting the 4,000 cookbooks in her library before she was 8 and that her collection includes rare books from all over the world, such as the Philippines, Japan, India and Denmark. SUNY Delhi will put the books on view in a special collections room on its campus this fall.
“I’m floored,” Brock said. “It’s a once−in−a−lifetime chance. And the library assured me that I could call up anytime I needed to find a recipe.”
Brock said she chose to give her cookbooks to Delhi because the school has an Escoffier club. Her collection includes several rarities and personal favorites, such as Charles Ranhofer’s 1894 cookbook “The Epicurean,” Herman Smith’s “Stina: The Story of a Cook” and books of recipes by artist Salvador Dali.
“I have always collected cookbooks — from libraries when they used to dispose of books to garage sales,” she said. “My hairdresser is next to a Barnes & Noble, so I’d always go in to get new books. I’m still collecting.”
Brock will also hand over numerous menus she collected during her years of food writing and photography as well as restaurant reviews she composed for TimesLedger.
Thomas Recinella, program director for SUNY Delhi’s culinary arts program, said Brock’s collection would be accessible to the 439,624 students at SUNY’s 64 campuses across the state.
Brock will also be interviewed by radio food and wine talk show host Patricia McCann at Great Neck’s Cumberland Adult Center May 7 at 7:30 p.m. The event will focus on “Cooking with Les Dames D’Escoffier,” a book dedicated to Brock which features recipes by 250 food celebrities, including Douglaston’s Lidia Bastianich, that was released last fall.
Brock worked for Good Housekeeping and Parents Magazine and acted as food editor for the Daily News before launching Les Dames in 1976 as a society of women professionals in the woman, beverage and hospitality industry. The organization now has thousands of members in its 26 chapters across the nation and Canada.
She said she is currently putting together a notebook of ideas and suggestions for free−form recipes that she eventually hopes to publish.
“Someday, after the memoir,” she said.
Reach reporter Nathan Duke by e−mail at nduke@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718−229−0300, Ext. 156.
