In recognition of Women’s History Month, IFMA The Food Away from Home Association is looking back at six women whose pioneering work earned them the association’s coveted Gold Plate Award, an honor synonymous with foodservice operator of the year.
We present them chronologically, beginning with our first female Gold Plate honoree who received the award in 1961.
Our first installment focuses on the innovator whose desire to change America’s dining habits led her to the top restaurant job at Neiman Marcus, the upscale Dallas department store, in the 1950s.
Not familiar with Helen Corbitt and her rich legacy? Read on.
Helen Corbitt blazed a path with her work at Neiman Marcus
Texas Monthly anointed her “the tastemaker of the century,” the individual who rescued palates during the dark culinary times when an iceberg wedge was as far afield as many consumers dared go. The publication characterized those days as “B.C.”, or “before Corbitt,” when fruit salad meant canned pears topped with mayonnaise and grated cheese.
Helen Corbitt was the first woman to win the prestigious Gold Place Award from IFMA The Food Away from Home Association. She earned the honor in 1961 for uplifting the foodservices of Neiman Marcus’ flagship Dallas store. There, as models circulated through the dining room sporting the latest fashions on sale elsewhere within the store, the transplanted New Englander convinced oil-rich Texans to forego their beloved chicken-fried steak for poached seafood with chanterelles.
Her breakthrough dish: Black-eyed peas mixed with vinegar, oil, onion and garlic. She called it Texas Caviar, though some fans preferred the label Cowboy Caviar. It proved so popular that the department store started selling it by the can.
Customers were so taken with Corbitt’s baking that the department store branded her chocolate-chip cookie as the Neiman Marcus Chocolate Chip, a signature that completed many a meal. Establishments throughout Dallas and all of Texas tried to knock off the recipe, with mixed results, according to customers from those days.
“She was a creative pioneer who came here reluctantly and learned to love us,” Texas Monthly remarked in a 1999 special issue celebrating the Lone Star State’s prior 100 years.
Corbitt had come to Texas in 1940 to teach restaurant and catering management at the University of Texas, having learned the trade while working as a dietician in a New Jersey hospital. According to the lore, she felt so out of place in the Lone Star State that she didn’t unpack her suitcase for six months.
But her comfort grew, and job opportunities were plentiful. She jumped from one to another until she ended up at The Driskill, a hotel in Austin popular with state politicians, including a firebrand named Lyndon Baines Johnson. His wife, Lady Bird, became a fan and, when LBJ became president, she often had the White House chef use Corbitt’s recipes.
Neiman Marcus tried for years to recruit her. The department store served Dallas’ oil-rich elite, yet its restaurant failed to match shoppers’ newfound sophistication.
Once she came onboard, Corbitt quickly rectified the situation, starting with small steps such as adding white grapes and slivered almonds to the restaurant’s chicken salad. Fresh asparagus would follow, as would lamb entrees and anchovies.
She also brought some whimsy to the place. One of her touches: the restaurant’s signature dessert of a trifle-like portion of cake and whipped cream served in a tiny flowerpot. It was a particular favorite of Lady Bird’s.
Corbitt herself was a novelty for the times. In the late 1950s and well into the ‘60s, women were often turned down for credit cards in their own name. They couldn’t serve on a jury in most states. Corbitt found herself running a high-volume operation, catering to one of the wealthiest clienteles in the nation. She would hold that job for 14 years.
Her achievements helped pave the way for the eight other women who would win Gold Plate Awards. Although the next one wouldn’t claim the prize until 1985 (Elizabeth Bender, Dayton Public Schools.)
Helen Corbitt died in 1978 at age 71. Forty of those years were spent in Texas.
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