The JFK Presidential Torte Now Available on Goldbelly

I’ve not ordered anything yet on Goldbelly, but they seem to be the portal for anything cake or pastry in the US.   You can get piecakens for Thanksgiving, Ina Garten’s fabulous carrot cake, King Cakes from every famous bakery in New Orleans for Mardi Gras, Ferrara Bakery in NYC’s famous tiramisu and just about any famous cake in the United States.

One cake has just become available for delivery anywhere in the U.S. from Goldbelly and it is the Presidential White Torte from Montilio’s bakery in Boston.   The recipe has been in this Boston bakery’s family for over 70 years.   It’s made with three layers of rich white cake injected with raspberry preserves and raspberry frosting, topped with sweet vanilla buttercream.

However, Goldbelly incorrectly calls it a cake, rather than a torte, as it is should be called.    And of course as a foodie, this incenses me.   More on this later.

The reason it’s called the Presidential Torte is that future President John F. Kennedy and Jackie enjoyed this cake as their wedding cake in 1953 and then again at JFK’s Inaugural Ball in 1961. Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush also opted to serve this cake at their Inaugural Balls.   This most certainly peeved off Roland Meisner, the renowned French executive pastry chef who served the White House for over 24 years from 1980-2004 from the Carter administration to the second Bush administration.

My maternal grandfather was famous in Northern Kentucky for the wedding cakes he and my Uncle Jerry crafted in the 1950s and 1960s.    But they were just delicious multilayered dense white cakes with artistic icing sculptures of swans, flowers, bells and birds, but no jammy filling.

In 2019 I visited Newport, Rhode Island, and saw the church, St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church, where in 1953 over 800 guests saw the JFK and Jackie Bouvier, the American royal couple tie the knot.  Then I took an afternoon sailing trip over several Narraganset lagers and saw the seaside grounds of the Bouvier family ‘summer house’ called the Hammersmith Farm, where their reception took place and the said cake was served to a lot of drunken guests.

Since 1947, Montilio’s Baking Company has been crafting some of the Boston area’s most beloved cakes. This third-generation family-owned-and-operated bakery and cake shop has four locations near Boston. At each location, Montilio’s Baking Company still makes their French and Italian pastries and wedding cakes the old-fashioned way, by hand, using only simple ingredients. Many of these recipes haven’t changed in more than 70 years, and they say you can taste the decades of tradition in every bite.

A torte is a rich, multilayered, cake that is filled with whipped cream, buttercreams, mousses, jams, or fruit. Ordinarily, the cooled torte is glazed and garnished.  But, like Cincy local media have bastardized the history of our local chili and goetta, Boston area media have called this Presidential Torte a cake, not a torte, as the bakery accurately calls it.   This dumbing down of food terminology for Americans is a huge pet peeve of mine.   It often spawns food mythology, that it has been my goal to bust over the last decade or more of my food writing career.

The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum broke a single-day attendance record when in 2017  5,386 visitors celebrated the centennial anniversary of President Kennedy’s birth.    To accommodate such a large birthday party, the museum had to provide a pretty large cake. With that in mind, the institution turned to Montillio’s for one fit to serve more than 1,000 people.

“We have done a lot of work for the Kennedys through the years,” George Montilio told the Globe. “I was asked to do the cake and I said, ‘That’s great!’ It’s tradition and it’s such a great event to celebrate JFK’s legacy.”    It was Ernest Montilio,  George’s father who baked cakes for Kennedy’s inauguration in 1961 and the wedding in 1953.

The cake for JFK’s 100^th birthday — which featured a replica of the museum and its shoreline on one side and a portrait of JFK on the other —  was 8 feet tall, 7 feet deep, and weighed 440 pounds, with the frosting weighing an additional 100 pounds.    It took three days for multiple bakery employees to complete this mammoth birthday cake.

To create the cake, Montillo used 180 pounds of sugar, 120 pounds of flour, 80 pounds of eggs, and 60 pounds of shortening. The frosting, meanwhile, was comprised of 30 pounds of butter, 30 pounds of shortening, and 40 pounds of confectionary sugar.

So, did Montillo’s invent the fruit filled layers between white cake – wedding tortes- that became so popular when mid century white cakes just didn’t cut it?   Well, no, the Austrians invented the fruit filled layered tortes.   Vienna is famous for its iconic Sachertorte, rich layers of chocolate cake filled with apricot jam and covered in a shiny chocolate glaze.  

But Austria has dozens of other tortes, each with its own, usually imperial history, to choose from.   There’s the Zitronentorte (lemon filled), the Maronitorte (sweet chestnut) the Mozarttorte, Topfentorte (quark cheese filled), Dobostorte, Esterhazytorte (buttercream filled), Malakofftorte (rum or maraschino cream filled), and tons of others.    Interesting that it took an Italian bakery in Boston to popularize an Austro-Hungarian inspired torte in America.

My Winter Soup Identity

Above Image: The Governor’s Braised Short rib sandwich and Kimchee Tomato Soup.

As we’re nearly over the midwinter hump, the winter soups are out in full force to warm us in this bone chilling weather.      Don’t get me wrong, I do love a good cold summer tomato or watermelon gazpacho, or a spring spargel (white asparagus soup) – Or for that matter a Fall Butternut squash soup.  But I live for a hearty winter soup or winter stew.    

The funny thing is that I’m not a soup slurper.   I know in some cultures it’s actually considered a complement to the cook to slurp your soup loudly.   But alas, I’m a misphonic and I’m hyper sensitive to slurping and eating noises, so I am a quiet chewer and soup eater.

There’s nothing more energizing to me on a cold snowy Sunday than to make a huge pot of soup for the week.  I have had success with Louisiana gumbo, German sausage and barley soup, and an Indian stew of chickpeas in spice broth called Aloo Choley.   I made Chicken paprikash last year, which was good too.   The creamy paprika laden broth and shreds of chicken is very satisfying.

After King’s Day or Epiphany on January 6, my soup mind turns to finding the best local gumbo.   In a Cincinnati Chili town, finding a good gumbo is not easy, but there are some successes.  My favorite local gumbo is the one at Jimmie’s Ladder 11 on Brown Street near the University of Dayton.   It’s probably the best, heartiest, deepest flavored gumbo I’ve ever had, even in New Orleans.    A runner up is Swampwater Grill’s version.   And you can go antiquing before or after your meal there.    A third runner up is Hyde Park’s Carl’s Deli gumbo, which has a hearty amount of sliced andouille sausage. 

The best soup from a long closed restaurant was Honey in Northside’s celery root soup.   It was the perfectly pureed cooked celery root with creme fraiche, a drizzle of EVOO and bacon bits.    And it was served with the best sourdough dippin bread you can image, from the also closed Shadeau Breads in Over-the-Rhine.

I also miss the Oxtail Soup from Mr. Jim’s Steakhouse at the old UC Tangemann Center.   My brother Tom turned me on to this soup when we would have  lunch together in the one year our terms overlapped there.

I’m a bit of a Hot ‘N Sour soup aficionado, so I have to get a bowl wherever I see it on the menu.  Some good one’s are at Szechuan Chili in Sharonville and Green Papaya in Mariemont.    I also like a good egg drop soup, or wonton soup too.

One soup I haven’t tried, but its number 1 on my bucket list is The Pickled Pig’s matzoh ball soup.

French Crust at Findlay market has a new soup every week with their Bar Tray Lunch specials.  I’ve never had a bad one and they’ve ranged from Cream of Bell Pepper, to of course French Onion Soup.

I’m all in for a good seafood soup, like a true San Francisco cioppino or a New Orleans seafood bouillabaisse.   Trader Joe’s made an excellent frozen cioppino with shrimp, mussels, clams and fish that rocked my world, but they discontinued it about a year ago.  I have never been so disappointed.    I also love a good seafood bisque or lobster bisque.

I’m a fan of Italian Wedding soup or Pasta fagioli and am always on the lookout for them.   I’m not embarrassed to say that the Olive Garden makes great versions of both.

There are several soups around town that I also like a lot for winter warming.   I want to live in a pool of The Governor’s kimchee tomato soup.     I love a good tomato soup, but their addition of pureed spicy kimchee and garlic bits really send their version over the top.   I could dip shoe leather in it and be satisfied, but I prefer a nice sourdough bread for the dippin.

There’s of course the legacy Hungarian Mushroom soup at the National Exemplar in Mariemont.  It’s creamy with great sliced mushies and packs a load of umami.

There’s an Izzy’s around the corner from my office in Fairfax and I love their sour cabbage soup.   I could slurp down multiple bowls of that at one sitting.

I love a good beet borscht, which can be had at Samarkand Food Market near the King’s Auto Mall.  It’s a lesser known hidden gem.

There’s the few restaurants around town that still make their own mock turtle soup, like Ron’s Roost on the west side, which when made well is super tangy and delicious.    And I am a weird one that will order a bowl of Cincinnati chili without the pasta and load it with onions, beans, oyster crackers and shredded cheddar cheese, and shower it in hot sauce.

Dorothy Lane Market’s soup station is my jam.   The one in Miamisburg has a great curried chicken soup.  

I know its cliché to say, “My Mom made the best…,” but it’s true.   My mom made the best potato soup and split pea with ham.     She made a pretty good Empress Cincinnati Chili knockoff from a recipe she got from a coworker at Union Central Life on 4^th Street, who had allegedly got it from a worker at the Fifth Street Empress Chili location.  No version I’ve had has ever come close to the deep flavor of mom’s pea soup.    She also made a great simple beef stew with hearty chunks of browned and braised stew beef with braised carrots, white potatoes and white onion halves.    It was in a simple ,but deep brown sauce – no red wine needed as in Boef Bourguignon, only maybe some extra squirts of Worchestershire sauce.   Sometimes Mom would heavily butter some egg buns from our local Schultz’s Pastry Shop in Pleasant Run, and stuff with the hot stew beef to make the best winter Sammie.

I hope you’re enjoying your own Winter Soup Jam.

Kölsch Service Comes to Cincinnati

My first experience with Kölsch service was in Cologne (Koln) Germany last year.   We had stopped at one of the oldest Kölsch beer breweries in the city, Fruh, to experience the best local Kölsch and have some lunch.    There’s a famous fountain outside with a woman at the top, like our Genius of Water, surrounded by gnomes doing a variety of work.   It’s like our own Tyler Davidson fountain, which was designed in Munich, Germany, in 1871 and originally supposed to have similar gnomes on it, until that was replaced by four young boys wrestling with sea animals.

Cologne is also known for having one of the largest Mardi Gras carnivals and parades in Germany. But for us modern art geeks it’s also known as the place (in the Antoniterkircke or Anthony Church) where the stunning Ernst Barlach Floating Angel or Schwebender Engel hangs.  It was originally placed in the Gustrower church in Meckleburg, then removed as degenerate art by the Nazis, it and its plaster cast destroyed, but not before a friend of Barlach’s secretly commissioned a bronze casting and hid it during the war. It was then installed in Cologne and now serves as a beautiful war memorial. It’s a symbol of the enduring power of beauty and art.  

Kölsch service is the best service there is and is making it to the US this past year to microbreweries as a trend.    It comes to Cincinnati starting next Tuesday at Northern Row Brewery in Over-the-Rhine and continues every third Tuesday of the month for the year.

First, Kölsch is the native beer style of Cologne.  And it’s an easy drinking pale ale style brew.      Kölsch service is the epitome of German efficiency.   A  waiter, called the Köbes comes around and plops a fresh stange or tall glass of kolsch on your table, plops down a Deckel, or carboard coaster, and puts a tally mark on it.   Kölsch service continues unspoken.   As long as you want to drink, anytime the Kobes sees an empty he comes with his caddy of stanges of Kölsch, called a Kranz, replaces it with a fresh one and adds a tally to your glass.    This continues indefinitely until you put your coaster on top of your glass, signalling you’re done, or sloshed.    Then the waiter tallies up your marks on the coaster and bills you for the damage.

Above image: A Kölsch drinker at Fruh with his coaster on top of his empty glass signaling he’s done and needs his check.

The Fruh brewery is in the old town century of Cologne and has a large cavernous inside as well as a great outside patio with umbrella tables in front of the gnome fountain.      I ordered a typical dish that’s related to goetta called Himmel und Aad, which means heaven and earth.    It’s a dish of their local blutwurst or blood and grain sausage, a cousin of goetta, served over a mash of apples (the heaven) and potatoes (the earth) and crispy onions.      In the north this dish is called Tota Oma or Dead Grandma because of the blood sausage.   

Cologne’s history with kölsch service stretches back centuries to when people used to pass through the city a waypoint for those making religious pilgrimages across Europe.   Cologne itself has a massive cathedral that houses what are supposedly the bones of the three wise men who visited Jesus in the Nativity.. These religious visitors, generically called Jakob, sometimes stayed weeks at a time, serving at the bars to make a buck.   The word köbes derives from Jakob.

Above image: the heavily guarded sarcophagus in the Cologne cathedral holding the bones of the three wise men.

Above image: An historical mural of Kölsch drinkers and a kobe inside the Fruh brewery in Cologne.

Considered outsiders, these Jakob gained a somewhat mythical reputation for being mean or gruff, an interpretation of service that, according to some, you’ll still find in Köln. Although more in jest than anything.    The unspoken symbol of putting the coaster on top and not really even having to speak to the waiter may have developed because the visiting waiter may not have spoken the language or understood the local dialect.   Our Kobe at the Fruh Brewery was the epitome of snarky and barely spoke a sentence to us, even though I addressed him in German.   But the most important part of the Kölsch service is not the snarkiness but keeping the beer fresh and cold.

Kölsch, even though  it’s been a regional beer of Cologne for centuries,  was codified in 1997, and now protected as a geographical destination. Similar to how real champagne can only come from the Champagne region of France or real Oktoberfest can only come from one of the six original breweries in Munich, Germany. Technically, any brewery making a kölsch outside of Köln should be calling it a kölsch-style ale or something like that.  

In 1986, more than twenty-four kölsch breweries in Cologne banded together, signing something called the Kölsch Konvention.  The document , similar to Bavaria’s Rheinheitsgebot laid out the specifications for brewing a kölsch, including that these beers must be brewed in or only a short distance from Köln.

In the US there’s no rules for Kölsch service, and each brewery has its own slant to the service.   It will be interesting to see how authentic Northern Row’s is.

The Krewe of King Cake

While the rest of the world is dieting, New Orleans, on the Feast of the Epiphany January 6, started baking their local pastry, the King Cake.     It’s a round cake, iced and sugared with the three colors of Mardi Gras – green, purple and gold.   Each one has a tiny plastic baby Jesus hidden inside.   The tradition in Louisiana is the one who finds it in their piece has to buy the next cake for the office or group.    To me, it’s just a cinnamon version of our Cincy Tea Ring, with colored icing and a hidden plastic baby.   But it’s a very revered tradition in New Orleans that ignites Mardi Gras and Carneval Season.

The tradition comes from Europe, whose countries each have their  own traditions of the king cake.   Germany has its Dreikonigskuchen, France its gallete des rois, Netherlands its Driekonigsbrood – which has three beans hidden inside.   Spain has its roscon de reyes. Portugal has its Bolo-Rei, and England has its 12^th Night Cake.  The amazing pastry chef at The French Crust Café and Bakery at Findlay Market, Aidan, made his own delicious looking version of the French King Cake for order for Epiphany or Feast of the Three Kings this past weekend.

 I’d love to have king cakes from January 6 to Ash Wednesday here in Cincy, but the custom has just not taken off.    Local Bakeries Servattis and Busken only make king cakes the week before Ash Wednesday.  The Polish equivalent, the paczki,  jelly filled donut, comes out this week according to Busken.

In New Orleans and southern Louisiana, the King Cake is everywhere, and many have veered outside the lane to bring you a slightly or very different version.

There’s the croffle- a croissant waffle slathered in the three colors of icing.   A New Orleans ice cream shop has a King Cake ice cream sandwich that looks amazing.

Chris’s Specialty Foods offers a boudin sausage king cake, a grain sausage cousin of goetta that uses rice instead of pinhead oats, and pork liver.      Another king cake bakery  one-upped the original boudin king cake by slathering theirs in – OMG – pepper jelly, which is genius.

There’s the cannoli king cake, the muffaletta king cake, the éclair king cake, and even a sushi king cake.  I’m not sure how they all can be both, but I’m in for experimentation.   I guess as long as it has the three colors of Mardi Gras and is an oval shaped creation it can be called a King Cake.

Above image: Del Gardo’s King Cake Tiramisu, Northern Kentucky.

One of my favorite flavors is the King, offered by Cochon Butchery, filled with peanut butter and bananas and topped with bacon and toasted marshmallow, to honor Elvis’ fave, the peanut butter nanner sandwich.  Instead of plastic babies, they hide plastic piggies inside.

Haydel’s Bakery in the Garden District probably is the most popular and sells the most king cakes in New Orleans.   They also have collectable New Orleans themed feves, or little bisque characters hidden inside the cakes.   I have several of them – a New Orleans flamebeau, a praline vendor, and a hot dog vendor.

New Orleans food writer Matt Haines and photographer Randy Krause Schmidt published an awesome photo-essay book about New Orleans King Cakes that’s the OG with history behind the Crescent City’s beloved confection and all its known variations.     As a sign of the melting pot that is New Orleans the winner of the Best King Cake has consistently been from a Vietnamese Bakery called Dong Phuong. What’s the next Cincy variation on the King Cake?   Del Gardo’s in Northern Kentucky has created the King Cake Tiramisu which is available every weekend until Ash Wednesday.  Maybe Sebastian’s will make a King Cake Crube – a filled croissant cube that they have stamped as their signature.   Or perhaps Busken will come out with a King Cake Cheese Crown – which would make a lot of sense.   Maybe Tuba Baking would make a Goetta-stuffed-Swabian Pretzel  King Cake.    I’d be super-happy with all of them!