If you love to cook and are easily seduced by the lore of the kitchen, recipes, photos and history of food, you’re bound to have a cookbook library. This penchant is Tom Dawson’s excuse for owning more than 150 cookbooks that are stashed in the kitchen, breakfast room, and the living and dining rooms of his house in Marquez Knolls, where he and his wife have lived since 1987. No doubt, there are a few more stacked on his bedside table. With no discreet date of when he declared himself a cookbook collector, Dawson says that he was always interested in food. He was born in Jackson, Louisiana (near Baton Rouge) and, even after moving with his family to New Jersey, he continued to spend summers and holidays in Jackson. Southern food’spicy, fresh and sauced’definitely influenced Dawson, whose collection remains loyal to cuisine from the South. ‘Food was always out there,’ he says, adding that his aunt Maida, his father’s sister, was the food editor at the Times Picayune in New Orleans. She was also the first woman to have her own TV show on local WDSU. ‘We were very much into food. One uncle had a vegetable farm, another had a dairy farm.’ The first cookbook Dawson remembers on his mother’s shelf”and the oldest in his collection”was the 1938 edition of ‘Searchlight Cookbook,’ which offered solid basic American food recipes. Originally printed in 1931 by Household Magazine and updated annually for more than 70 years, the books were distinguished by the tab indexes for each category. This book, as well as the ‘Joy of Cooking’ and ‘Fanny Farmer,’ were anchors in the Dawson kitchen. Dawson bolstered his background in hospitality at Cornell University’s renowned School of Hotel Administration. After graduating in 1956, he went to work for Hilton Hotels, where he had been hired for summer jobs. They pulled him into food and beverage at the Boston Statler Hilton, and his path in restaurant management and menu creation began. ‘I was sent to San Francisco to open the Hilton in 1964,’ Dawson says. ‘The day after we opened the 1,000-room hotel, the Beatles arrived on their first visit to the United States. The place was a madhouse, with ‘Today Show’ crews in the lobby. I developed the menu, which included my own creation’Beatle Burgers: four little hamburgers, topped with lettuce, onion and catsup, served on a small plate. We sold over 2,000 the first day!’ Ambitious, and lucky to be in the hospitality business at that time, Dawson was offered a number of promotions that included leaving the Hilton for Radisson, where he was assistant to the president and conducted several hotel development surveys while also presiding over food and beverage. ‘In those days, every hotel had a coffee shop and a super club, which included entertainment,’ Dawson says. ‘I booked the entertainment for the Empire Room at the Waldorf and the Persian Room at the Plaza. In the waning days of the supper clubs in the early 1960s, we could afford a 12-piece orchestra, and book Barbra Streisand or Eartha Kitt for $5,000 a week.’   By the time Radisson had been bought out, Dawson had moved on to work for Continental Airlines, where he stayed for a dozen years, and then with Intercontinental Hotels until he left the industry in 1985. He worked as a real estate broker in Pacific Palisades until he retired from Sotheby’s in January. Despite living the epicurean life, Dawson retained his love for home cooking, reviving favorite recipes and inventing new ones. ‘My favorite recipes are heavily Louisianan,’ says Dawson, who can always muster an appetite for homemade scrapple, biscuits and cane syrup. For years, he and his wife, Barbara, hosted a scholarship dinner for Cornell alumni at their house featuring Southern country food. His cookbook collection does favor Southern fare, with such titles as ‘Southern Cooking’ by Edna Lewis and Scott Peacock (‘really dated, but really good,’ he says.) and ‘River Road Recipes,’ published by the Junior League of Baton Rouge. Non-Southern favorites include an autographed copy of James Beard’s ‘American Cooking.’ He owns two copies: the prized autographed one and the one he messes up in the kitchen. ‘I like Julia Child’s ‘The Way to Cook’ because it has cross references. If you look up hashed brussels sprouts, you learn how to hash everything else too.’ And then there’s ‘Foods of Old New England’ by Marjorie Mosser. ‘I am especially fond of the Chicken and Sauerkraut recipe. You can hate them both, but love this dish.’ Dawson judges a good cookbook on two criteria: clarity and time. ‘There shouldn’t be a rush to judgment,’ he says. ‘That just leads to mistakes.’ He is disciplined in his approach to trying out recipes. ‘I make them for the first time exactly how they say, but it’s amazing how many you stumble across that are missing something. The second time, I adjust for our tastes.’ Every once in a while, Dawson has a craving for an old favorite. He salivates over the memory of the deviled roast-beef bones he enjoyed at the Bull and Bear bar at the Waldorf in the 1970s. Three years ago, when New York Times reporter Julia Moskin wrote about people’s love for old cookbooks, she interviewed Dawson. ‘She said that she’d like to have the photographer shoot me with the original Waldorf-Astoria cookbook that contained the recipe,’ Dawson explains. ‘I didn’t know where my Waldorf cookbook had gone, and the restaurant no longer serves them, so I tried to track down a copy of the original from 1964. I searched online and, fortunately, came up with a bookseller in Long Beach who found a copy, and one day before the Times showed up, the owner messengered the book to my house.’ While he can resist buying every new cookbook that comes out, Dawson subscribes to the premier food magazines, including Savior, Cook’s and Gourmet. He also prowls the garage sales his wife organizes for clients. ‘Now that I am retired, I help Barbara with appraisals and setting up the merchandise, and have first dibs on the cookbooks.’ One person’s discard is another man’s treasure.

Deviled Roast-Beef Bones

(From the ‘Waldorf-Astoria Cookbook’)   Deviled roast-beef bones are prepared in this manner. When the roast rib of beef has been sliced and you have used your portions of meat, the remaining bones can be kept the next day or even put in the freezer. Then you take them out and cut the bones so that the piece of meat remains on each side of the bone; in other words, you can cut close to the first bone, skip over the second bone and cut close to the third bone. That gives you a bone in the middle with a wide piece of meat on both sides of it. The usual portion for a woman would be one of these bones, for a man two of these particular cuts of the bone.   A few hours before you plan to cook the bones, take them from the refrigerator and bring to room temperature. Mix together 1 cup prepared mustard and 1 tablespoon brown sugar. With a pastry brush, or your fingers, paint the entire surface of each piece of meat and bone with this mixture. Place on a rack over roasting pan and sprinkle liberally with fine dry breadcrumbs. Place in a preheated 450′ F oven for about 20 minutes or until golden brown.   Some of the roast-beef gravy that you might have prepared for your regular roast can be used with these bones by adding a tablespoon of prepared mustard to every cup of gravy that you have left and heating well. The bones should be served piping hot from the oven with this sauce and it should be permissible, after you have taken away most of the meat with your knife and fork, to pick up the bone to enjoy the succulent close-to-the-bone meat.

When the Palisadian-Post caught up with Palisades High School music teacher Josh Elson, he was about to embark on a Memorial Day weekend trip to the Bay Area with his 30-plus concert choir students.   ’We’re very excited about the trip,’ Elson said. ‘The students did all of the fundraising, through bake sales and putting on an additional concert. This is our first trip. I don’t think Pali Choir has ever been on tour before.’   Elson, 34, is reaping the results of his hard work since arriving on campus in August 2006, after receiving a master’s degree in choral conducting at Cal State Northridge.   ’The choral program was nonexistent when I came,’ said Elson, who set about creating awareness for his new elective by walking around campus and passing out fliers. ‘By the end of October, I had about 45 kids, split between two classes.’   ’It’s been really positive,’ said Elson of his multi-tiered choir program. ‘The quality has improved over time.’   In addition to teaching Advanced Orchestra, Beginning Choir, Advanced Concert Choir, and a history class on world music, Elson also conducts what he call the ‘A.M. Orchestra,’ a volunteer class that begins at 7 a.m., before the school day.   A singer himself (as well as a piano and guitar player), Elson has been involved with the last three spring musicals. ‘I started with ‘Once On This Island,’ then worked on ‘Thoroughly Modern Millie’ and ‘Honk.” Along the way, he collaborated with wife Mollie on a production of their own: daughter Magnolia, who is now 16 months old. Once in the Bay Area over Memorial Day weekend, the PaliHi Choir performed a 90-minute mix of Italian a cappella, Brahms, contemporary French pieces, the Harry Belafonte tune ‘Turn the World Around,’ the ‘Spring Awakening’ number ‘I Believe,’ and an original written by Elson titled ‘Crossroads,’ which he describes as a reflective song written with commencement in mind.   ’The choir will be performing at various places in San Francisco: in the East Bay, at a church, at a retirement center and at Fisherman’s Wharf,’ Elson said before leaving for Northern California. ‘Since this is the first trip of this kind, all the students and the parents are very excited and enthusiastic.’   Next up: the PaliHi Choir will perform in Mercer Hall on Tuesday, June 2, at 7 p.m. The suggested donation is $5-$10.   The choir will also take part in a broader concert involving Pali-Hi’s entire music department at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, June 3, featuring music from such films as ‘Fantasia,’ ‘Forrest Gump’ and ‘Lord of the Rings.’

Music at St. Matthew’s presents the world premiere performance of Tarik O’Regan’s ‘The Eyes of the Stars,’ commissioned by the St. Matthew’s Guild, at 8 p.m. on Friday, June 5, at St. Matthew’s Church, 1031 Bienveneda Ave. Scored for chamber ensemble and vocal soloists, ‘The Eyes of the Stars’ is based on the luminous poem of the same title by the Anglo-Welsh poet Edward Thomas, best known for his gripping World War I-era poetry. Two-time British Composer Award-winner O’Regan was born in London in 1978 and educated at Oxford University. He completed his postgraduate studies at Cambridge. His 2008 recording for the Harmonia Mundi label, ‘Threshold of Night,’ debuted at number 10 on the American Billboard charts and received two Grammy nominations for Best Classical Album and Best Choral Performance. O’Regan divides his time between New York City and Trinity College at Cambridge, where he is fellow commoner in the creative arts. He previously held the Fulbright Chester Schirmer Fellowship in Music Composition at Columbia University and a Radcliffe Institute Fellowship at Harvard. His compositions have been performed internationally by the BBC Symphony Orchestra, London Sinfonietta, Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir and Los Angeles Master Chorale. The program will also feature a performance of ‘Statuesque’ by composer Jake Heggie. Heggie, whose operas include ‘Dead Man Walking,’ the lyric drama ‘To Hell and Back’ (libretto: Scheer), and the musical scene ‘At the Statue of Venus’ (libretto: McNally). ‘Statuesque’ will feature mezzo-soprano Rose Beattie, who has graced such stages as the Walt Disney Concert Hall, UCLA’s Royce Hall, the Freud Playhouse and who, in 1999, performed on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial for ‘America’s Millennium.’ The Choir of St. Matthew’s Parish and vocal soloists will perform choral and vocal music by Morten Lauridsen, Arvo P’rt and Randall Thompson, and members of St. Matthew’s Chamber Orchestra will present Stravinsky’s Three Dances from ‘The Soldier’s Tale.’ Tickets are $25 for adults; $10 for students are available at the door, beginning at 7:30 p.m. Contact: 310-573-7422; visit the Web site, www.stmatthews.com/musicguild.

Villa Aurora and the Consulate General of Germany-Los Angeles will present music from the 1940s by Arnold Schoenberg, Stefan Wolpe and Viktor Ullmann. The musicians will be pianist Eric Huebner and violinist Mark Menzies on Friday, June 5, at 8 p.m. at the Villa, 520 Paseo Miramar.   Schoenberg and Wolpe, both Jewish, escaped the horrors of Nazi Germany to settle on opposite shores of the United States; a geographic polarity that can also be said to parallel the aesthetic sensibilities separating them and their influence on young American composers. Schoeberg and his family lived in Brentwood until his death in 1951. His son, Larry, a Palisades resident, taught math for many years at Palisades High School.   Ullmann, who was murdered during the Holocaust, had studied with Schoenberg and wrote the last of his seven piano sonatas in 1944 at Theresienstadt, where he perished.   The program opens with Ullmann’s 1922 tribute to his teacher. And while Wolpe’s ‘Battle Piece’ was composed as his contribution in the struggle against fascism, Ullmann’s Sonata No. 7 was dedicated to his children, all of whom’including the composer’succumbed to it. Schoenberg’s Fantasie for Violin with Piano accompaniment was composed in the late 1940s for the occasion of his 75th birthday.   Pianist Huebner, a former Los Angeles resident and Crossroads School graduate, made his debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at age 17 and was recently referred to by critic Alan Rich as ‘the new superstar’ of the 2008 Ojai Festival, where he performed solo music by Elliott Carter and Gy’rgy Ligeti.   As a frequent guest pianist with the New York Philharmonic, Huebner has also performed with a number of the world’s leading conductors and has appeared as soloist with renowned orchestras. Since 2001, Huebner has been a member of the Antares quartet.   Recently appointed visiting assistant professor of piano at the University at Buffalo, Huebner recorded the piano music of Daniel Rothman (Albany Records), which was met with critical acclaim. He holds a B.M. and M.M. from the Juilliard School, where he studied with Jerome Lowenthal.   Violinist Mark Menzies’ extraordinary playing has been described by the Los Angeles Times as ‘riveting.’   For tickets ($15’$20), call 310-573-3603. Seating is limited and RSVP is required by June 3. Shuttle service to the Villa begins at 7 p.m. from street parking along Los Liones Drive, off Sunset Boulevard.