The Mysterious Doña Lola of Argentina
Sitting in front of me I have El Arte de la Mesa by Lola P. de Pietrana, a hefty volume of a thousand pages. And it presents a little culinary mystery that I’d love help in solving.
Here’s the background. One of my minor hobbies is compiling a list of “kitchen bibles,” the great comprehensive cookbooks of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Think Mrs Beeton for England or The Joy of Cooking (though there are many others) for the US.
Every country that was thought itself to be modern had one or more of these. They were usually written by women, usually had hundreds or thousands or recipes, usually introduced their readers to international as well as national cooking.
I love them because they register a country on the brink: on the brink between being a colony and a nation, on the brink between the dominance of the cuisine of the aristocrats and the cuisine of the upper middle class, on the brink between regional cuisines and national cuisines, on the brink between traditional kitchens and kitchens with iron ranges, or electric or gas stoves, piped water, electric light.
Now Argentina is not a country over-blessed with cookbooks, and more of that in another post. This time, though, I bought a reprint of Doña Lola. It’s published by Emecé and I’d unite with librarians, bibliographers, and just plain old culinary detectives in scolding them for their lack of information. What we learn is that this is the fourth edition, published in a massive run of a whole 2000 copies, of a book that they acquired in 1974.
I think, though, it has to be older. It drips of the prosperous Argentina, the all-but-British colony of the early twentieth century. The introduction to the first edition, by Doctor Antonio Luis Beruti, is also undated but the style, with its references to the Roman cookbook that goes by the name of Apicius, also harks to the same period. At a guess I’d date it between 1900 and 1930.
These kitchen bibles, introducing the prosperous upper class to international cooking while promoting the nation, are a window into the anxieties and aspirations of a newly prosperous late nineteenth-century world. Doña Lola’s book is as stately, as ostentatious, as cosmopolitan in its recipes as the houses of the wealthy late nineteenth-century suburbs of Recoleta and Palermo are in their architecture.
So the immediate questions are: When was this book first published? And who was Doña Lola? I’ve done the obvious searches on the web and in libraries, but cookbooks are ephemera and especially if they are published in far off Argentina.
And, a teaser, here we find a recipe for “salsa rosa.” Sandwiched between the hollandaise and the bearnaise, it’s white sauce or béchamel with a couple of tablespoons of ketchup per cup of sauce. You can buy pre-prepared salsa rosa by Knorr in any corner store in Buenos Aires today. It’s offered as one of the possible sauces for your pasta in every middle level restaurant, along with filete and bolognese. It’s just a whizz for livening up your pasta.
Ideas anyone?
Well, I have one clue. It is in Doña Lola’s name. The name “Lola” ia a hypocoristic (diminutive ) of “Dolores”. I also found a reference to “Dolores Clotilde” who supposedly wrote under the name “Lola P. de Pietrana” and was active in the 1950’s and died at the age of 73 but don’t carve any of this in stone because the evidence is pretty shaky.
Thanks Bob. I’ve lived in Mexico all this time and still had not realized that Lola was the nickname for Dolores. Incredible. I’ve had a couple of comments from others too and want to collate them in the next couple of days.
Hi,
I found very little information, but the 6th edition was published in 1955 so you were right the book was older than 1974.
http://articulo.mercadolibre.com.ar/MLA-73618714-el-recetario-de-dona-lola-lola-de-pietranera-kraft-6-ed-_JM
In this address you will wind an interview made to one of Doña Lola’s daughter:
http://www.lanacion.com.ar/nota.asp?nota_id=213282
I am trying to get one of her books and it’s really difficult to find, though I live in Buenos Aires.
Best regards,
Cecilia
Cecilia, many thanks. I need to return to Dona Lola now that I have your information and more from another reader.
Allí conocí a una prima hermana de Olga, Lola Pietranera de Pietranera, ella escribió “Doña Lola, el arte de la mesa”. Vivía frente a casa y daba clases de cocina de dos a cinco de la tarde. Tenía dos ayudantes, Adela Baldi y Nieves. Con Lola aprendí los secretos de la buena cocina. “Giselle también recuerda a esas amigas que llevaron a doña Lola a dictar clases de cocina. Habían visto su capacidad para hacer comidas para 200 personas o una torta de bodas descomunal. Entonces, la insistencia se transformó en trabajo. Comenzó a enseñar alrededor de 1955, con María Adela Baldi como joven ayudante y 14 alumnas dispuestas en gradas para que todas pudieran ver mejor. Al finalizar las clases, podían quedarse a tomar el té, invitadas por mamá. Hoy se hubiera muerto con el fast food y la cocina rápida.” ( Entrevista a Giselle Pietranera de Carcavallo, Revista La Nación, 16-7-2000)
Ana, Fabuloso. Ya tengo algo concreto sobre Dona Lola. Hiciste la entrevista o la encontraste en La Nacion? Voy a traducir esto para los mis lectores. Manana o manana pasado. Mil gracias.
Dear Rachel,
I was doing some research on El arte de la mesa;
recetario de Doña Lola, and came across your blog. I am also a historian who studies food. Perhaps our paths will cross at some point.
In any case, I wanted to let you know that I own the 4th edition of this cookbook by Doña Lola published in 1950 and learned from Maria Adela Baldi that it was originally published during the 1940s. I’m trying to figure out the exact date of the first edition so if you happen to know that or have any other information you could share I would be grateful.
All the best,
Rebekah
Rebekah, It’s a pleasure to know you. I do have more information, though not about dates. Iw was a lovely short description of seeing Doña Lola and for the life of me I can´t find it. Those are the problems of moving around too much.
I just found her book in my parents bookcase and was looking for some info on who she was and thus landed on your blog. I’m holding her twelfth edition from 1961 and it states that the first edition was in November 1945. I will dive into this cooking bible graciously!
Thank you, thank you, Maria. I’ll make sure I get this up on the blog.