The Harvey House Cookbook: Memories of Dining Along the Santa Fe Railroad

I added this to my other books about Fred Harvey and the Harvey Girls. I love old cookbooks!

The history part of the book is interesting, although not nearly as good as some other books on the topic such as "Appetite for America: Fred Harvey and the Business of Civilizing the Wild West--One Meal at a Time". What I really hoped to get from this book was a sense of how the recipes developed and took advantage of ingredients that were available, but there's little of that. And while the introduction mentions adapting recipes to modern ingredients (and translating obsolete terms), there's little of that. It would have been much more useful and interesting if it reproduced the original recipe, then followed by a modern adaptation for at least some of the recipes.

As a retired railroader who worked on the Santa Fe in many locations highlighted in this book, I found the history of the Fred Harvey restaurants to be a great read. The highlights of how the "Harvey Girls" changed the west was fascinating ! The recipes were well presented with easily understood directions. To learn more about the topic, I recommend rail and history "buffs" contact the historical societies and/or chambers of commerce in towns along the Santa Fe (now BNSF) main line. Many of the Harvey House sites are still present - open as museums or available for viewing on historical weekends / festivals.

Nice book interesting to people interested in coming, the history of dining on trains, and trains on general. The real background to the Harland film.

I bought this because I am a former SAnta Fe Railway employee. I thought this may have more recipes created on the rail cars. Nevertheless, this is a great cookbook with lots of stories and history.

As an ATSF Rail buff, the Harvey House has a special place in the rail history. I got the book for this reason and don't actually intend on making the recipes. I looked them over and it could be done pretty easily but I mostly bought for the history aspects. That is exceptionally well done. Nice pictures also.

I enjoyed reading the Harvey House Cookbook. I have written a novel about a Harvey girl in Kansas and am in the process of getting it published and am working on another one. It was interesting to read the recipes they used. Although I had read most of the history of the Harvey Houses, it was good to have a review. I love an new information I can get about that era.

Excellent history of Santa Fe rail dinning and very good recipes for great meals.

It's not likely I'll make any of the stuff, very rich and high in fat. Still it is interesting to read how they cooked when taste was king and cholesterol unknown. I enjoyed the story of Fred Harvey and his company too, but wish it was one section, not spread out in bits.