Dining Car to the Pacific

Library Bookwatch, March, 2005

Dining Car To The Pacific

William A. McKenzie

University of Minnesota Press

111 Third Ave. S. #290, Minneapolis, MN 55401-2520

0816645620 $24.95 upress.umn.edu

Travelers on the Northern Pacific Railway got much more than a ticket to travel when they chose to ride: they often received gourmet dining in the dining car, as William A. McKenzie illustrates in his Dining Car to the Pacific: The "Famously Good" Food of the Northern Pacific Railway. The Northern's service was widely regarded as the best in the industry--and source materials from railroad records of the 1860s blends with memoirs of meals to recreate the experience--complete with over 150 recipes used on the line, many developed for or by Northern Pacific. McKenzie's nearly thirty years as a PR manager and corporate historian for the railroad lends expertise to his review and organization of the company's archival records for this lovely survey, while his wife Violet tested and modified the dishes for use at home.