Palace
Prom le
Thoroughly Modem Shirley
WHAT KIND OF PERSON SPENDS HER ENTIRE WEEK DOING 1 8 1 H-CENTURY HOUSEHOLD Cl IORES?
“Everyone am identify with fotxl and cooking," Shirley
Willis says, “because everyone eats,”
As the person in charge ol all
the activities in the Tryon
Palace kitchen — chief cook
and bottle washer, you might say—
Shirley Willis spends her workdays
immersed in the past. By day you may
find her in front of a blazing hearth,
preparing a feast lit for a royal
governor from authentic Colonial
recipes. Or out back huddled over a
steaming kettle blackened with
indigo, dyeing freshly spun wool. Or
researching 1 8th-ccnt ury basket¬
making patterns and techniques.
And when she's not at work?
“1 do a little gardening, ami that’s
about it." Willis says. “And the
computer, i love the computer.”
All of which goes to show that
being an eccentric or anachronistic
person is not necessarily a
prerequisite tor having an eccentric,
anachronistic job. Willis may
dedicate a good portion ol her
waking hours — as all Tryon Palace
craftspeople do — to thinking, acting
and otherwise living as a servant in
the year 1 770 would, but it's all done
for the decidedly modern purpose of
creating an entertaining and
educational experience tor the
Palace's 21 st-century visitors.
The authenticity Willis creates is one
reason so many people say the crafts
activities they see in and around the
kitchen are highlights of their visits to
Tryon Palace.
“Visitors love if, and 1 think it has to do
with the tact that everyone can identify
with food and cooking,” she says, "because
everybody eats.”
Willis first began working as a Palace
cook 1 8 years ago, back when so little was
known about Colonial-era kitchen
practices that the person who hired her
told her to do her own research and find
her own recipes.
You could, in fact, call her a pioneer in
the field. Among her innovations: the
creation < >t amazingly lifelike faux lot xls
that Tryon Palace 1 listoric Sites &
Gardens now displays in its historic homes
to give them an authentic lived-in aura.
“Shirley Willis brought historical
foodways programs to Tryon Palace at a
time when our 18th-century kitchen
interpretation was in its infancy,” says Sara
Spalding, curator of interpretation. “She is
always excited to incorporate new recipes
and research into her daily routine. She has
also been instrumental in planning
ii movative crafts demonstrations and
hands-on activities for school groups and
special events. And Shirley’s skill at
creating realistic-looking faux
к
>ods
based on period recipes allows visitors
to feel as if a house's historical
inhabitants have just excused
themselves from the dinner table.”
Over the years, Willis added to her
expertise in the field by studying
historic domestic skills in places as
diverse and as highly regarded as
Colonial Williamsburg, Old
St ur bridge Village, and Plimoth
Plantation. Fouryears ago. Willis
made the leap from cook to maji ndomo
of the entire Palace kitchen wing,
which put her in charge of not only the
kitchen staff but also the craftspeople
who work in and around the building
as well. Her title today is domestic
skills programs manager.
“ I started out supervising t (tree
people, and then eventually more
responsibility was added on and more
people to supervise as the programs
grew, and pretty soon I was
supervising the entire building and
being responsible for staffing," Willis
says. "So now I’m still doing research,
but I’m doing it in a lot of different
areas, like weaving and spinning.
“I also have some very good people
who know what they’re doing, and
that helps. They're all willing to do
research. So we all work as a team.”
Last time she counted, Willis says, she
was now supervising “somewhere in the
neighborhood of 1 5” craftspeople.
A las, being a supervisor means doing,
as Willis puts it, "less and less of the tun
stuff and more of the not-fun stuff.” Still,
she readily acknowledges that doing 1 8th-
ccntury household chi ires all day really can
be a fun way to spend your day.
At work, that is.
And when the workday ends?
“I do use cast iron cookware at home. I
wouldn't trade it for anything,” Willis says.
“But 1 use it on a gas range." ♦
ace 3
Spring 2002 'A
