The Father of Fast Food

Stephen Fried's Appetite for America

by A.D. Amorosi

Journalist Stephen Fried's past books have dealt with fidelity, beauty and religion; fast food should've been a cakewalk, comparatively speaking. Yet the author didn't take the easy road for the meticulously researched Appetite for America: How Visionary Businessman Fred Harvey Built a Railroad Hospitality Empire that Civilized the Wild West, an exploration of businessman Fred Harvey's immense influence on our country's hospitality industry.

"The idea was for it to work as a business book, a history book, a foodie book, a cultural history and something I'd read for pleasure," says the former Philly Mag editor from a train tour taking him from Chicago to L.A. — the original Santa Fe railroad route beloved by Harvey. It's along this stretch that the British-born businessman built his Harvey Houses, elegant trackside restaurants noted for quality food, a polished, international culinary approach and female employees — all things unheard of in post-Civil War America.

"His company was the leading hospitality firm in the country, probably the world, from the 1880s through the 1940s, operating in over 60 cities," says Fried of Harvey's sprawling presence — restaurants, lunch counters, dining cars, hotels. His was the first real nationally recognized brand in the United States.

When you look at the recipes, and consider how taken Americans of all generations were with Harvey's food, it's hard not to wonder whose fault it is that the fast-food nation Harvey essentially founded — so stylized and culinarily conscious — went to hell. Trains would typically stop at Harvey Houses for only 30 minutes, giving the "Harvey Girls" (his carefully selected all-female serving staff) and the kitchen about 20 minutes to prepare and serve full-course meals, sometimes to hundreds of patrons. It was all cooked to order — salad dressing made by hand tableside, fresh-baked bread, fresh-made desserts.

"What Fred realized in the 1870s [was] it isn't about whether or not the food is fast," says Fried. "What matters is whether it is good, made fresh with the absolute best ingredients, and served with an idea that the customer really deserves the best service possible."

So if Harvey was able to consistently uphold such standards close to 150 years ago, what's stopping today's fast food giants from doing the same? Nothing, at least in Fried's view. "Since trends we admire in American cooking — proliferation of regional cuisines, Americanization of different international styles — were started by the Harvey company," he says, "it just goes to show that all our fast and franchised food can be, basically, as good as these companies want it to be."

(a_amorosi@citypaper.net)

Stephen Fried reads from Appetite for America Wed., April 21, 7:30 p.m., free, Free Library, Central Branch, 1901 Vine St., 215-567-4341, freelibrary.org.