Cook This Up!

My favorite part about running a Dorothy Parker web site? Connecting with people with some tangible link to Mrs. Parker. Some have been her great-nieces, various writers, assorted researchers, or such as today’s dispatch, from Ms. Lorraine Gibson.

Her grandfather, the late Warren Dixon, was a chef to the stars during the Depression. Lorraine sent us her grandfather’s recipe for “Sirloin Steak ala Dorothy Parker” in his own handwriting. Wow! What a find! Before the recipe, which sounds delicious, some background provided by Lorraine.

Mr. Dixon was a master chef, and the recipes in his book date from dishes he prepared in 1934-37. Some of the others were prepared for Hollywood Golden Age actors Eddie Cantor, Miriam Hopkins, Leslie Howard and Herbert Marshall, who all, like Mrs. Parker, are tied to the Garden of Allah.

The recipe is brief, and in long swirling handwriting. “I didn’t know him very well,” Lorraine says, “He died in Los Angeles in the 1960s. I believe he may have either prepared these dishes in a well-known restaurant or he may have been a chef in someone’s home. I wish I could tell you more. He went to school at Frank Wiggins Trade School and mentioned a “serving maid” in his writings. I have around 1,000 recipes he wrote and compiled them, along with my father’s, in a cookbook.” You can see it at the Stagecoach Inn Cookbook, and order a copy of the cookbook too.

“Sirloin Steak ala Dorothy Parker”

By Chef Warren Dixon

(Click Here to see the actual recipe image)
Small, thick, juicy sirloin steak
Tomatoes, halved
Mushrooms
Narrow discs of summer squash
Butter
A small, thick, juicy sirloin steak grilled along with halved tomatoes, mushrooms and narrow discs of summer squash, which have been boiled lightly in salt water and covered with pats of butter.

Thanks to Lorraine for sharing part of her family’s history with Dorothy Parker fans. Now who wants to cook up some sirloin??