Foodie Tom Harte marks 25 years on telling tales about delicious eats

It was Christmas 1965 when Tom Harte's wife, Jane, announced that, because she now had a full-time job to support the family while Tom was in graduate school, that year she would not be making Christmas cookies.

Deciding it's not Christmas without cookies, Harte found a book of recipes and made them himself.

"That's one of the first things I remember cooking." Harte said.

But it was certainly not the last, and since then Harte has been teaching himself recipe after recipe and, starting in 1997, he began sharing them with Southeast Missourian readers in his column "A Harte Appetite."

How long can one person talk about food? For Tom Harte it's been 25 years, and he said he believes he still has plenty to say.

A typical watercress sandwich as served at a tea room across the street from Jane Austen's house in Chawton in England's Hampshire District where watercress is traditionally grown.Tom Harte ~ Special to Southeast Missourian

"I probably have another 25 years' worth of columns in me," Harte said. "But whether I live long enough to write them, that's the question."

Harte not only writes about food. He talks about food, too. Listen to his radio version of "A Harte Appetite" Tuesdays on KRCU. He also serves up "The Cafe Concerto" weekdays over the lunch hour.

From the start

When he was first approached about writing the column, Harte wondered, "How will I ever come up with something to write about?"

Turns out, that wasn't a problem. For years Harte and his wife were part of a monthly supper club.

"We'd dabble with what we thought was 'haute' cuisine at the time," said Harte. "And then I ended up getting into the cheesecake business."

By "cheesecake business" he means My Daddy's Cheesecake, which he co-founded in 1987. The idea was formed during a supper club meeting when the participants made cheesecakes. Everyone thought the cakes were good enough to be sold in a shop. One thing led to another, and the group formed My Daddy's Cheesecake.

"I like to think of myself as the Col. Sanders of the cheesecake world." Harte said. "My picture is still up in the store, and my face is on the coffee cups and on the front door."

Harte loves to share recipes through his column, but more than that he loves to provide some history and, if possible, he enjoys going to a place where a food item originated. He especially appreciates discovering controversies over food.

"I went to Vienna," Harte said, "to see what all the fuss was about with the Sacher torte. You know, there was a lawsuit about who had the rights to call their chocolate torte the original Sacher torte. The Hotel Sacher serves it, but also Mr. Sacher worked at Demel's, which is the other big pastry shop in Vienna. So, of course, in my selfless pursuit for my readers, I went to Vienna, tried them both, and had to come up with which I thought was the better one."

The hotel won both the lawsuit and Harte's vote.

Native Angelino Thomas Harte III introduces his grandfather, Tom Harte, to the delights of Bingsu, the Korean version of a snow cone, while visiting Oakobing Dessert Shop in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Koreatown.Photo by L. Fulton

On a trip to Machu Pichu, he had to try the local grain called quinoa. He liked that well enough, but he couldn't bring himself to try the national dish of Peru -- Guinea pig.

"I just wasn't courageous enough to try it," Harte said. "The only thing that put me off is that when they bring it to you and you see it, it still looks like a Guinea pig."

But, of course, the thing Harte likes to do most with food is eat it.

"People ask me why I like to cook, and I tell them it's because I like to eat," said Harte. "I eat, therefore I cook."

When deciding on a meal to prepare, Harte starts at the end and works backward.

"Desserts are my favorite thing," he said. "In fact, when I go to a restaurant, I look at the dessert side of the menu first, then go back and see what else there is. Sometimes I see a dessert recipe, and I'll think that's what I want to have for dessert. Now, let's figure out what else I'll have."

With a full library of cooking books to choose from, Harte still reaches for the classics.

"It's very hard to beat the 'Joy of Cooking,'" Harte said. "Even Julia Child said it's the book that every cook should have. Almost any cooking question you have, you find in there."

Harte will even reach for his own book from time to time. "Stirring Words: Reflections and Recipes from a Harte Appetite" was published in 2006 and has more than 200 of his favorite recipes. The book is available at bookstores everywhere, and Harte says he sells them out of the trunk of his car.

In his book, Harte quotes Carol Haddix, food editor of the Chicago Tribune as saying, "Any recipe that makes someone want to cook is good. The rest is just details." After the Christmas cookies in 1965 one of the next recipes Harte had to try came from Child.

"I can remember distinctly sitting, watching on black and white TV, watching her make something called a Queen of Sheba cake. As soon as the show was over, I went to the grocery store and got the ingredients and made it."

After 25 years of writing a food column, Harte said the best compliment he's ever received is when a reader told him, "I hardly ever cook, but I read your article all the time."

"That was meaningful to me," said Harte. "I do that, too. There are cookbooks that I like to just sit down and read like a novel."

Harte said he's never put a recipe in the paper he hasn't tried himself, and his best advice to readers is: "Make sure you have all the ingredients and avoid having to make a frantic trip to the store. I've done that a time or two myself I have to admit."

Finally, when asked about his most memorable meal, Harte has a stock answer.

"The one I had yesterday."

Mexican Chocolate Soup is one of the desserts adapted from Alice Medrich's "Pure Dessert" book.Southeast Missourian file