ISSUE 51, BLACK CULINARY HISTORY, Part 7: John Young, & the Role of The Steward
JOHN YOUNG (1866-1920)
Born in the first year of liberty in Rappahannock, Virginia , African-American caterer John Young was “a scientist, an artist and an alchemist” to those who tasted his diamond back terrapin and fried chicken. He left Tidewater Virginia for Baltimore in 1883 intending to be a Pullman Porter on the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad, failed to secure a position, and hired on as a waiter and kitchen aid by Henry James.
In the 1880s waiters and stewards frequently took over the task of preparing chafing dish preparations in hotel banquets and club dining rooms. John Young became the greatest of the figures who transmuted from waiter to caterer. His initial post was at the famous Maryland Club in Baltimore. There he learned to make a “Terrapin a la Maryland,” the signature dish of Chesapeake cuisine, created by chef Francoise Lagroue on the eve of the Civil War, and a fixture of fine dining in Club dining rooms and restaurants along the eastern seaboard in the 1880s: “: “Carefully cut up two terrapins . . . place them in a saucepan with half a wine-glass of good Madeira wine, half a pinch of salt, and a very little cayenne pepper, also an ounce of good butter. Mix well a cupful of good, sweet cream with the yolks of three boiled eggs, and add it to the terrapin, briskly shuffling constantly, while thoroughly heating, but without letting it come to a boil. Pour into a hot tureen, and serve very hot.” Lagroue’s masterpiece became a central chafing dish preparation, and the lynchpin of Young’s repertoire.
Young moved from the dining room of the Maryland Club to the Hotel Rennert where be became captain of the waiters and master of the chafing dishes. In the 1890s he served in a similar capacity in the Baltimore Club and the Athenaeum Club, but became nationally famous as the steward of the Elkridge Hunt Club, one of great fox hunting sodalities of the American elite at the turn of the twentieth century. During his seven year residence as steward, he mastered the entire repertoire of game and seafood cookery. During his time at the Elkridge Hunt he made two sets of connections that would serve him in good stead in subsequent years—a chain of African American suppliers of terrapin and ducks from the eastern shore, and a list of well heeled Americans from Europe and North America who had sampled his work and desired more.
In 1905 Young set up business for himself as a caterer, working out of his house at 134 Richmond Street. One component of his business was to serve as provisioner of diamond back terrapin to wealthy clients throughout the United States. Shipping barrels of dormant turtles via rail to Chicago, Boston, and New York City, he had a steady income as a wholesaler. In Baltimore he became the first call caterer for fashionable events—weddings, association banquets, and anniversaries. He was the regular caterer of the Bachelor’s Cottillion in the city. He supervised all the events at the Baltimore Yacht Club as well. “To attempt to list all the Baltimoreans who knew John Young by his works would be like reprinting a blue book. “
He died of influenza at age 54 after an illness of two months.
Sources: Alexander Filippini, “Terrapin a la Maryland,” One Hundred Ways of Cooking Fish (New York: H. M. Caldwell, 1892), 99. “John Young Is Dead,” Baltimore Sun 66, 154 (May 13, 1920), 24. “Seeing the B. and O.” Baltimore Sun 135, 12 (May 28, 1904), 6. “Guests of Miss Jenkins,” Baltimore Sun 122, 85 (February 23, 1898), 10. “Fox-Hunter Entertained, Luncheon Give at the Elk Ridge Club,” Baltimore Sun 22, 81 (February 18, 1898), 10.