Page 28 - The Hunt - Winter 2019/2020

FEAST
for the
EYES
Faux food forms the lusciously realistic foundation of stunning holiday spreads at historic Brandywine Valley estate museums.
n the Brandywine Valley, holiday celebrations abound. But none are
as lavish as those found in historic estates, from the iconic du Pont family to prosperous early merchants. During the holidays, the homes are bedecked with lights, garlands and Christmas trees. Look a little closer, and you’re treated to a visual feast
of carefully crafted faux foods so
realistic and transportive you can almost hear the laughter and
clinking glasses of guests gathered for holiday celebrations through the years.
Here’s a look at four major displays.
FINERY & FRITOS
Today known as the Nemours Estate, Alfred I. du Pont’s 47,000-square-foot home has over 70 lavish rooms. During the holidays, it’s the dining room and its table that truly shine. Getting
it to that point takes significant effort. “We
have shopping lists and seating charts, but we don’t have any menus from this house detailing exactly what was served historically, so the foods on our tables are open to interpretation and a lot of creativity,” says Paula Phipps, the museum’s supervisor of interpretive programs.
When Phipps started over two years ago, director John Rumm tasked her with creating much of the faux food, which he hoped would create a welcoming environment.
Her displays include magnificently sculpted food from clay, paper and plaster, which
BY KAREN JESSEE
embellishes the main dining table and the social areas around the house. “We knew that a favorite snack here was Fritos, which came on the market in 1932. I couldn’t find a fake version online, so I had to figure out a way to make them,” she says. “I used thin sheets of Styrofoam, painted them, and heated them until they curled. It was the first thing I ever made.”
After the faux Fritos, Phipps created vegetables, condiments, main dishes, tea sandwiches, desserts and even champagne. Made of Styrofoam and clay, her pineapple upside- down cake is so realistic it’ll leave you drooling.
To easily replicate a shape, Phipps has created casts from myriad objects. “I used a dog’s toy to make a cast for the lamb chops, which can be displayed individually or as a rack of lamb,” she says.
Fried chicken is made of plaster using
latex molds of real pieces. A ham is made of a papier-mâché-covered plastic bottle that was painted and texturized. Ice cream and mashed potatoes come from a recipe of cornstarch and hair conditioner.
Phipps’ hopes for the future are ambitious. “I would like a steak, pig’s feet and more breakfast foods,” she says. And a turkey.
Visit nemoursestate.org.
OYSTERS & ALL
The sprawling childhood home of Henry Francis du Pont was elegant and festive year round, but never more so than at Christmas. More than 175 years later, the festivities
continue—but none of the food is edible. “This is our 40th anniversary of Yuletide
at Winterthur,” says Catherine Westbrook, the museum’s interpretation and collections assistant, of the annual holiday celebration.
Westbrook has made much of the faux food used in displays over the past 25 years. “Forty years ago, the food would’ve been real, sitting on period dishes,” she says. “The staff refrigerated and changed out the foods frequently, which also meant washing and drying table settings that were part of the historic collection. The potential for damage was considerable.”
With innovation, curators seemingly minimized the hassle by using freeze-dried foods, but even that had its limitations, as evidenced by the thawing and subsequent reconstitution of a freeze-dried piglet named Portia. “By 1990, Winterthur’s conservators banned fresh foods that could attract
moths and bugs,” says Deborah Harper, Winterthur’s senior curator of education and Yuletide tour coordinator.
Today, they make, order and store faux
food for the lavish displays. “The goal isn’t just to make food—the goal is to make the food look historically accurate,” says Westbrook. “Chickens of yore were smaller and scrawny and far from perfectly smooth. Apples and other fruits weren’t the colorful beauties we expect
in our grocery stores today, so we have to steer away from the contemporary sensibilities and be historically true to not only what foods were
being eaten, but what they looked like.”
26 THE HUNT MAGAZINE winter 2019-20
continued on page 74
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: COURTESY OF HISTORIC ODESSA, GREATER WILIMINGTON CVB (2) AND WINTERTHUR