When the ladies of the Junior League of Denver voted to include Mandarin Salad in the “Colorado Cache” cookbook, little did they know the mixture of canned oranges, celery and lettuce topped with sugared almonds and a tangy-sweet dressing would sell a million cookbooks.
As the book that spawned more than $6 million in sales marks 30 years in print, the original editor credits Mandarin Salad for its success.
“When the book came out we only printed 10,000 copies and they were gone in six weeks,” says Jaydee Boat, who oversaw the three-year project. “I think it’s because of the Mandarin Salad.”
In the late ’70s, Denver potlucks were not complete without the glistening green-and- orange melange. Its tart flavors and crunchy texture were a welcome contrast to the decade’s earlier salad star, the Watergate, a cloying clump of crushed pineapple, pistachio pudding and mini marshmallows.
The Mandarin was modern, fresh — sassy, even. Like Denver.
The 1970s — with their beef Wellington and cheese fondue — were coming to a close, and Colorado cooks were ready for lighter, fresher flavors, like those looming on the Western horizon: Wolfgang Puck with his California Pizza and Alice Waters with her organic greens.
Denver was shrugging off its cowboy clothes and into suits, both “leisure” and “power,” to dine at Cafe Promenade and Josephina’s in Larimer Square. Movers and shakers drank at the Lift and the Colorado Mine Co. in Glendale. Boettcher Concert Hall opened and the Denver Film Society formed. Westword was a year old, giving voice to the emerging scene.
And the Denver Junior League published its first cookbook, after three years of committee meetings and recipe testing. Some dishes were sophisticated, others homey; all were altitude-tested and — unlike other community cookbooks of the era — not one called for cream of mushroom soup.
“At that time most of the women weren’t working, so they had time to fix three recipes for dinner,” says Boat. Most of the league members were homemakers, she said, but they certainly threw themselves into the task of writing and publishing a cookbook.
“One day, the dessert group had 14 different brownies,” Boat recalls. “They tasted those 14 brownies and somebody would say, ‘My aunt has a recipe better than that,’ so they went and got that recipe, and that’s the one in the book.”
The triple-testing system worked. Had the recipes not been reliable, the book would not have gone on to 33 printings. To mark the 30th anniversary and the group’s 90th, the league has re-issued “Cache” with a few updates and a more durable binding.
(About that binding. The original “Cache” came with a plastic binding teeth that gradually broke off, allowing the pages to fall out. Many are now held together with rubber bands. If that includes yours, a copy shop can rebind the book.)
Although she lived and ate “Colorado Cache” for three years, Boat says she still looks up recipes in her third copy (she wore out the first two). “The Denver chocolate sheet cake is my family birthday cake,” she says. “I made it for my son’s birthday last week.”
The foolproof sheet cake and all the other favorites are in the new edition, which was updated to clarify quantities and reflect brand changes, says Stephanie Duncan, 35. She grew up with “Cache” and the league’s second book, “Creme de Colorado,” and helped test recipes on “Colorado Colore,” the league’s fourth book.
“When I graduated from college, ‘Cache’ was still the No. 1 wedding gift,” says Duncan, who makes the granola recipe in “Cache” for her young children.
As chairman of the fifth and newest Denver Junior League cookbook now in the testing phase, Duncan credits the projects for creating solidarity within the diverse charitable organization, now with 1,800 members.
Nearly 150 are working on the new book, “Colorado Classique,” which will reflect our times, just as “Cache” did 30 years ago. It will feature a vegetarian chapter, and each recipe will have nutritional content. It’ll be printed with environmentally safe dye on recycled paper.
“Cooking certainly is different now,” says Boat, who predicted that Denver Post readers would vote for the Mandarin Salad as their favorite, then and now (and was right). “You couldn’t go to anyone’s house without having it. Now, my daughter serves it — and she’s 33. And men like it because it’s sweet.”
“Colorado Classique” to be published in ’09
The Denver Junior League will publish its fifth cookbook, “Colorado Classique,” in June 2009.
“It took two years to make the decision, to do all the research — ‘Should we do this? Is this the right thing? Is there demand for it?” says league president Dana Rinderknecht.
The answer was yes: Denverites want another Junior League cookbook. The previous four have earned $6.4 million for the group’s community health, literacy, child advocacy and training programs.
“There are tastings and testings all over the metro Denver community right now,” says Rinderknecht.
“Colorado Classique” will contain nutritional content for all its recipes and will feature landscape photos by John Fielder.
The junior league’s previous cookbooks, “Colorado Cache” ($20), “Crème de Colorado” ($25), Colorado Collage” ($28) and “Colorado Colore” ($30), are available at area bookstores or at . Kristen Browning-Blas
