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| Jim Edwards (center, in chef's hat) was the executive chef from 1966 to '72 at the French Lick Sheraton, which is now French Lick Springs Hotel. Jim's son Harvey Edwards (below) has plenty of memories of his dad's time in the kitchens here, especially since Jim was also a college student at the time and attending Northwood Institute in the West Baden Springs Hotel building. In this photo, Jim and his staff are showcasing ornately decorated salmon, hams and cakes that they would enter in contests. |
Give Harvey Edwards a few minutes, and he can tell you how
things are done big.
These days for Edwards, that involves booking functions as the vice president of sales at Patoka Lake Marina. (Which, incidentally, is a fantastic idea for a day trip at Patoka Lake's outdoor attractions or winery if you’re visiting French Lick Resort this summer.) Back in the day, it meant balancing school and work when Edwards was busy seven days a week while attending Northwood Institute in what is now West
Baden Springs Hotel. And thinking even bigger, has Edwards ever told you how
much bacon and eggs he cooked each morning for French Lick Springs Hotel guests
when he worked in the kitchen there almost 50 years ago?
“Every morning at 5:00, I had to be there to start the
bacon. You know how much bacon we fixed every day? It came in 12 to 14-pound
boxes, and we would do anywhere from 12 to 20 boxes a morning. That’s a lot of
bacon,” Harvey said with a chuckle, and the routine was the same for cooking
eggs atop the gigantic flat-top griddles. “I did the fried egg station, and the
man next to me did the scrambled egg station. Every morning we had to break
eggs to cook. Enough to feed 1,000 people … we had a lot of eggs,” Harvey added
with a wry smile.
Harvey is eager to share all the recollections he has stored
in his mental rolodex since he wants to keep alive the history and tradition of
food service. It’s a trade that runs in his family, after all, as Harvey’s
father Jim served as the executive chef at French Lick Springs Hotel between
1966 and 1972 when it was a Sheraton-owned facility. Jim Edwards held the same position at the Sheraton Biltmore in Oklahoma City prior to that, and not only did he
possess a flair for cooking, but he did so with a remarkably efficient food
cost — meaning his kitchens produced food for the least amount of cost and most
profits.
“That’s why Sheraton wanted him to move up here, because
they wanted to see they could keep this place a profitable situation, because
it was such a big, magical place,” Harvey explained.
It wasn’t perfect, but that’s where Jim Edwards flexed some
of his influence when he got here.
In 1969, Harvey said, the profits from Jim’s kitchen went
toward installing air conditioning in the kitchen. “And it was still hot,”
Harvey joked, but any relief was welcome with ovens cranked up to serve as many
as 1,000 people at a time. And Jim enacted another significant change not long
after he first arrived in 1966 and first stepped foot in the kitchen, which was
located where the pool complex is today.
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| When Jim Edwards arrived at the French Lick Sheraton in 1966, the hotel was still using coal ovens to cook food for hundreds of guests every day. |
“The kitchen, it looked like a barn. I mean, it was huge. One
of the stories I remember the most, when dad first came, they had coal ovens. 1966. Coal ovens,” Harvey repeated for
emphasis, as modern ovens were the norm by then at other industrial kitchens. “So
to cook, they had to start early that morning, building coal, building heat to
fix the breakfast. They had people coming in at 4:00 a.m. fixing all this coal
and getting the ovens going before the cooks came in.”
It just so happened that the head of the local gas company
was an Oklahoma boy just like Jim, and the two put their heads together to get
a gas line installed over the winter so that new gas ovens were ready to use
the following spring when the hotel’s busy season fired back up.
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| Jim led the creation of a gingerbread village for the hotel during the holiday season. |
Jim kept on establishing himself as a rock star in culinary
circles. Consider this résumé: He won the Golden Toque (regarded as the highest
honor an American chef can receive), was instrumental in starting the culinary
program at Sullivan University, and was invited to Washington D.C. for a
commendation from John F. Kennedy for his emphasis on hiring people with
special needs to work in his kitchen.
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| The dining area at Northwood Institute (below) was far more modest than the elegant settings at the French Lick Sheraton (above). The dining room in the top photo is where 1875: The Steakhouse is located today. |
He finished his schooling at Northwood Institute, where he
collected two degrees in business administration and hotel and restaurant
management. His schedule kept him moving. Days in the classrooms and test
kitchens and banquet rooms at West Baden. Weekends and summers working in the
live kitchen at French Lick. Early mornings on cleanup duty.
“Part of my tuition was I came in at 5 in the morning and I
cleaned restrooms. I had to be in there early enough to get everything clean
before (the students) started their day,” said Harvey, who also pointed out how
Northwood had bathrooms that were communal style just like a traditional college
dorm. “Then I would come down here and work in the kitchen (at West Baden) and
then go to class. Then on weekends I worked at the (French Lick) hotel in the
kitchen for dad.”
Of course, there was still time to be a college kid, too.
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| Northwood Institute graduation ceremonies in the early 1970s. |
“We made that into a union station. Everybody would
congregate there. That was our place to hang out instead of hanging out in
town. We didn’t have a lot of money; we were innovative enough to do a lot of
things in there to make it where you had a snack bar and a jukebox and play
records. That’s what we did.”
A college then; a National Historic Landmark hotel today.
Harvey marvels at the timeline of events he’s witnessed at both of French Lick
Resort’s hotels.
“I got to see a lot of changes, a lot of things happening.
That’s why the history of this is so exciting to me, to see all the different
changes over the years of how bad it got, how great it is today, and see the
re-innovation of the business coming back around.”