ALICE ROSS COOKING STUDIO

Some years ago, Alice Ross turned the carriage house on her property in Smithtown, New York into a cooking classroom she calls "a center for the exploration of living food history."

The fire in the 10-foot hearth crackles and roars warming the studio. The open hearth is a replica of one found in a Smithtown house built in 1706. The studio also is outfitted with a Victorian wood stove, an outdoor wood-fired brick bake oven, an old-fashion hand operated water pump, a smoke house, and a collection of antique cooking accoutrements.

	Antique copper, brass, and iron pots, pans, and griddles, along with brilliantly wrought tools, hang from the rafters of the studio. Some of the utensils were created by master craftsmen working with original tools to achieve historical authenticity. Among these craftsmen is her son Peter, an accomplished blacksmith , who shares Alice's facination with living history. Museum docents, history buffs, researchers, chefs, teachers, and people just looking for a new food experience cut a path to her studio door to be instructed in the historical ways of preparing food.

The Studios house an exceptional library of food-related books, new and antiquarian, where students may search out an old recipe or research their own projects. The collection covers kitchen equipment and technology, kitchen gardens, food preparation and meal patterns, as well as regional, class, and ethnic foodways. Bibliographic materials are available for all sessions, or by appointment.