Gilded Age Holiday Cookbook Talk and Tasting

Becky Libourel Diamond is coming to The Frick Art Museum Auditorium on Sunday, November 29, for a talk and tasting based on her book The Gilded Age Christmas Cookbook. It runs from 2 PM to 3 PM, and the best part is you get to taste holiday cookies from the era while you listen.

Diamond is a food writer, librarian, and research historian, and she spends the hour taking you back to the Gilded Age—the era when many of the holiday traditions we still celebrate in America today became mainstream. She traces the origin of sugar plums, made famous by Clement C. Moore's A Visit from St. Nicholas, and shares the backstories of now-ubiquitous customs like Santa Claus, the Christmas tree, and Christmas cards. It's not just Christmas, either: she covers Gilded Age Hanukkah and New Year's celebrations, as well as debutante parties, teas, and grand balls.

The event is part of The Frick Pittsburgh's holiday programming, held at the Gilded Age home and museum of Henry Clay Frick. The museum sits on a ten-acre campus that includes the restored Clayton home, the Frick Art Museum, the Car and Carriage Museum, and a working Greenhouse. Diamond has also written The Gilded Age Cookbook, The Thousand Dollar Dinner, and Mrs. Goodfellow: The Story of America's First Cooking School.

Tickets are $20 for members, $25 for adults, $15 for seniors (65+) and college students with ID. Members of The Frick Societies get in for free. The talk is at the Frick Art Museum Auditorium, 7227 Reynolds St., Pittsburgh, PA 15208, from 2 PM to 3 PM on Sunday, November 29.