Just Catering history

Edward Habenstein was born in Saxony, Germany, around 1844 and came to the US with his parents when he was young.

At the opening of Smith’s new restaurant in 1867, the entire city government was present and former mayor Josiah Quincy gave a speech.

He specialized in fancy desserts, as is demonstrated by a portion of an 1883 souvenir menu shown here (courtesy of Henry Voigt — The American Menu).

Perhaps Starrett was unaware of the startling collapse in 1884 of one of the earliest for-profit ventures, The New-York Catering Company.

Stay at the Massasoit House until you are 34, in 1886, then open your own catering company specializing in ice cream manufacturing.

Rising at 4:00 a.m. she spent several hours before she left for the classroom each morning supervising the Home Delicacies crew which numbered about 50 by 1899.

Harriet married poet William Vaughn Moody in 1909 and after his death the following year began to befriend other poets, often putting them up at her places in Chicago, New York, and Cummington, sometimes for months-long stays.

In 1911 Harriet established a branch of the Home Delicacies Association in London.

She built a culinary reputation long before she opened Le Petit Gourmet in 1920 in Chicago’s Italian Court at 615 North Michigan Boulevard.

But her luck changed and in 1929 financial exigency required her to sell out.

The American Hotel Association reported in 1943 that 330 hotels nationwide had women chefs.

An interesting development was the opening of the first unit of the fried chicken delivery chain Flying Chicken in Albuquerque in 1946.

An account of women’s progress is given in Ann Cooper’s “A Woman’s Place Is in the Kitchen: The Evolution of Women Chefs” published in 1998.

By the end of 2018, A.J. joined forces with the team over at Hangar 21 to reimagine their helicopter hangar and transform it into a versatile venue.