Hash fudge and a fish for Picasso
Alice B. Toklas, born in San Francisco in 1877, authored one of the bestselling cookbooks of all time, which gained popularity partly due to stories of her 39-year relationship with Gertrude Stein and a recipe for hash fudge, making Toklas an icon of 1960s counterculture. The cookbook was published in 1954 and is semi-autobiographical, including observations on French and American food cultures, culinary tales involving famous friends, and stories of wartime life. Toklas met Stein in Paris in 1907, and they hosted a renowned literary and artistic salon. During WWI, they drove delivery trucks, and in WWII, they waited it out in the country. Stein died in 1946, after which Toklas published her cookbook. Toklas’ literary output includes two cookbooks and a memoir. The hash fudge recipe in her cookbook, contributed by Brion Gysin, recommended using wild cannabis sativa or indica. After Toklas’ death in 1968, she entered popular culture, highlighted by the movie “I Love You Alice B Toklas” and the naming of craters on Venus after both Toklas and Stein.