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Television cooks Julia Child and
Graham Kerr paved the way, but locally Dorothy Bushnell, a proprietor
of The Garlic Press since 1976, deserves much of the credit
for introducing gourmet standards to McLean County kitchens. Gourmet
cooking provided an alternative to a local cuisine which for most
families consisted of little more than commercially processed
foods purchased in the
name of convenience.
Back when Dorothy first acquired The
Garlic Press, which was situated in downtown Normal, not far
from where it is located today, food processors were selling faster
than they could be made. Since then, Dorothy and her associates have
sold
many other
kitchen appliances and gadgets, but the central idea has remained the
same. If properly equipped, cooks can easily produce in their
own kitchens sophisticated dishes that otherwise would be very
difficult and time consuming.
Saving time is important to its
customers, but still The Garlic Press has always
been a kind of "slow-food" business. It emphasizes quality and taste
rather than how quickly and cheaply one can feed family and guests.
Have other early voices
in McLean County talked about food in terms of superiority and
enjoyment rather than cost and convenience? Have there been other local
businesses that sold gourmet foods for home consumption? We would
like to hear about your earliest encounter with gourmet foods and
cooking and, especially if you are a foodie, what influenced the
development of your tastes.
Robert Dirks
Guest Curator
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