A Life of Simplicity and Excellence
Book review by Donna Hecker with photography by Talitha Schroeder
In 2015, Holly Hill founder Chef Ouita Michel traveled down the road to Shaker Village, there as a guest chef to prepare a dinner of dishes from Classic Kentucky Meals, written by her friend Rona Roberts.
Today we know Shaker Village at Pleasant Hill, Kentucky, as a beautiful and idyllic window into the past. A place where travelers are welcomed with the same warmth and hospitality as the 19th century Shakers greeted those who came to their doors. A place fondly and familiarly known to Kentuckians as Shakertown.
But it wasn’t always that way – for the better part of the 1900s, the village’s stately buildings were in disarray and it was just another wide spot in the road between Lexington and Harrodsburg.
When a group of philanthropists and preservationists began the hard work of restoring Shaker Village in the 1960s, they turned to a remarkable woman, a well-known restaurateur, by that time in her own mid-sixties, having entered the world in 1901.
Elizabeth Cromwell Kremer, perhaps more than anyone, established Shakertown’s reputation as a destination worth seeking out. Her Trustees’ Office dining room reflected and enhanced the Shaker tradition of skillful cooking, finely crafted furnishings deceptive in their simplicity, and most of all – a warm welcome to visitors from the outside world.
Simplicity and Excellence: from Beaten Biscuits to Shaker Lemon Pie, was written by Deirdre A. Skaggs and Elizabeth’s daughter, Evalina Kremer Settle. It chronicles the life and story of Mrs. Kremer – from her childhood in Cynthiana, Ky. to her days as a University of Kentucky co-ed, and on through a long and prosperous restaurant career that began in NYC and came to an illustrious close at Shaker Village.
The book is laid out in chronological order and punctuated with recipes that illustrate Elizabeth’s life phases and career paths. As an added bonus, Simplicity and Excellence is bookended by tributes from present-day sister chefs and restaurateurs – Ouita Michel of central Kentucky’s Holly Hill restaurants and sara bradley of the freight house in Paducah, Ky.
Chefs Ouita and sara both pointedly emphasize the challenges that Elizabeth must have faced in the restaurant world as a young woman, and marvel at her success in handily overcoming them. Full of admiration for their predecessor in the culinary world, they enumerate the many ways in which Elizabeth’s example inspires them in their own careers.
Chef Ouita’s foreword finishes with her memory of the dinner she cooked at Shakertown. “It was served outside under a full moon, next to the kitchen garden. I’d like to think Mrs. Kremer was there in spirit. Thank you, Deirdre, for protecting and adding to her legacy so that we may all embrace the amazing life and work of Elizabeth Kremer.”
Published by the University Press of Kentucky, Simplicity and Excellence has recently been released and will soon be available online and in our Versailles Cooking Studio and retail space.
Related Content
Spreading Crudite Love
At a recent cooking class, Chef Ouita waxed lyrically about the value of creating a beautiful crudité display and reminisced about the relish trays that graced every table in the Trustees' Dining Room at Shaker Village. We've written up Chef Ouita's crudité tips and included one of her favorite dip recipes.
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