This post comes to us from Judy Gelman and Peter Zheutlin, who are co-authors of The Unofficial Mad Men Cookbook.
Our friends at AllFreeCopycatRecipes.com are hosting a giveaway through April 21st, in which they’re giving away a copy of the The Unofficial Mad Men Cookbook to three lucky winners! Learn more about the inspiration behind the book and how to host your own Mad Men dinner party with Mad Men recipes with this helpful guest post from the authors!
Get ideas for a Mad Men menu and entertaining tips just in time for Mad Men Season 5. The Mad Men Season 5 premiere is scheduled to run on AMC on March 25, 2012. Enter to win AllFreeCopycatRecipes’ giveaway and you can enjoy the cookbook while 5th season Mad Men episodes are still running! This Mad Men cookbook is perfect if you’re in search of a recipe for a Mad Men viewing party, or just love nostalgic ’60s recipes.
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Mad Men has hooked millions of viewers with its smart writing, outstanding acting and its meticulous recreation of a bygone era in which every detail, including the food and drink, is historically accurate. We both grew up in the 1960s just a few miles from Manhattan, so the show has special resonance for us: We remember going to some of the restaurants depicted on Mad Men, the foods served at home, and our mothers owned the same cookbooks we see on Betty Draper’s kitchen counter.
Our goal for The Unofficial Mad Men Cookbook was complete authenticity. We noted every food and drink consumed by the characters, ordered in restaurants, mentioned in passing, seen on buffet tables or even in Betty’s refrigerator and every recipe in the book is connected to a specific scene in Mad Men. The recipes in the book came from many sources including restaurants which were featured in the show such as Steak Tartar from Sardi’s, Oysters Rockefeller from The Grand Central Oyster Bar, and Irish Coffee from the Pierre Hotel, or, if the establishment no longer exists, from cookbooks these establishments published such as The Stork Club Bar Book.
Oyster Rockefeller from the Grand Central Oyster Bar, Credit: Nina Gallant
Many food scenes in Mad Men are set in the home so we turned to cookbooks from the era such as Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook (1963), which we often see in Betty’s kitchen, for inspiration, or period cookbooks the characters likely would have used as when Joan Holloway prepares a crown roast in the tiny kitchen of her New York apartment. Our crown roast recipe comes from The Small Kitchen Cookbook (1964). Newspapers and magazines from the 1950s and 60s, including advertisements, were another source of recipes: ads seemed especially appropriate since Mad Men is about advertising after all. We spent months getting a fascinating glimpse into the history and culinary culture of the Mad Men era — carving roasts and shucking oysters, mixing Royal Hawaiians — as well as our research for the book.
Pineapple Upside Down Cake, Credit: Nina Gallant
If you’re throwing a Mad Men party to welcome the gang from Sterling Cooper back, you can find a host of tips for your cocktail or dinner party on our web site. To create the right mood we suggest having past episodes of Mad Men playing silently on your television(s) in the background; it will make Roger, Don, Betty, Peggy and Pete seem like guests in your home! Encourage guests to come in their skinny ties and pearls, put on some period appropriate music, and break out the Old Fashioned glasses and the swizzle sticks.
Mad Men-themed Party Photo, Credit: Jax Cafe, Minneapolis
The Unofficial Mad Men Cookbook was Judy’s idea: she’d written three cookbooks with recipes tied to works of literature. Always interested in how food is used to tell a story or help establish time and place, she found herself similarly fascinated by the food and drink of Mad Men, you can recreate by entering the cookbook giveaway on AllFreeCopycatRecipes.com. She enlisted her husband Peter, the author of three previous books (none cookbooks, however) to collaborate not only because he’s a writer but also because no one cleans up a kitchen more efficiently.
Visit AllFreeCopycatRecipes.com for more information on how to win a copy of The Unofficial Mad Men Cookbook. For more information on the cookbook, visit UnofficialMadMenCookbook.com, or follow The Unofficial Mad Men Cookbook on Facebook or on Twitter.
Additionally, you can also learn about Mad Men events nationwide, and enter the authors’ “Dine Like a Mad Man†Sweepstakes.
Thanks again to Judy Gelman and Peter Zheutlin, co-authors of The Unofficial Mad Men Cookbook, for contributing this guest post!
Enter AllFreeCopycatRecipes’ giveaway today for your chance to win your very own copy of The Unofficial Mad Men Cookbook!
Good Luck!
P.S. Check out some Mad Men fashion tips from our friends at FaveCrafts.com.
P.P.S. Check out what our staff reviewers had to say about The Unofficial Mad Men Cookbook.
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