National Coconut Torte Day

Today’s Food History

on this day in…

1764 Charles Grey, 2nd Earl, was born. Earl Grey was supposedly given the recipe for Earl Grey Tea by a Chinese mandarin with whom he was friends (and/or whose life either he or another British diplomat saved).

1813 Lorenzo Delmonico, famed restaurateur was born at Marengo, Switzerland. In 1851 he joined his uncles in their catering and pastry shop in New York City. He transformed the business into one of the most famous restaurants in the country.

1893 The original Waldorf Hotel opened. It had 450 rooms and almost 1,000 employees.

1915 Wilbert Robinson (Uncle Robby), manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, attempted to catch a baseball dropped from an airplane. Someone had substituted a grapefruit instead, which virtually exploded in his glove on impact, covering him with grapefruit pulp and juice, much to the amusement of his team.

2006 While a Poultry and Food Science professor at Cornell University from 1949-1989 he developed chicken nuggets (keeping the breading on was the key), turkey ham, poultry hot dogs and many other products. He founded Cornell’s Institute of Food Science and Marketing in 1970, and in 2004 was inducted into the American Poultry Hall of Fame.