“Men become cooks because they have a love for the calling,” wrote Harry Franklyn Hall in “Good Housekeeping” in 1903. The article he wrote described the passion and career progression of men (specifically) in the food industry and the stress one must endure as he gains skills and experience to become “an eighth-degree cook.” Despite the annoying implication that only men can “excel in the art of cooking” and “reach its loftiest height,” the article details the many techniques Hall personally mastered in the rise from dishwasher to famed chef. Together with the listing of his places of employment in his 1901 book “300 Ways to Cook and Serve Shellfish,” it is closest thing we have to a career autobiography of Hall.
“Philadelphia Colored Directory”, 1910