The odyssey began with a letter from Pat Kearney of Quail Creek to Dave Cathey (Oklahoman Food Editor), supplying a set of recipes. Of course, Dave, being the chicken-dog reporter and culinary historian he is, jumped at this opportunity. Kearney’s Chi Omega sorority at the University of Oklahoma had a fundraiser to be produced within the Hilton Inn on Northwest Expressway to assist the chapter’s deliberate renovations in 1971.
Named the Gourmet Fare, the sorority contacted well-known eating places, clubs, and motel chefs from all over the metropolis and requested them to offer a signature recipe for a tasting and personal demonstration of a specialty dish. Common in recent times, an event of this type has changed into something uncommon. Guests even took home a program that covered all of the recipes.
The unexpected hassle becomes wrangling this array of cooks to be anywhere simultaneously, and getting a chef to write down a recipe is like herding a flock of geese.
But the Chi Omegas at OU were a group of creative and determined women. I recognize from personal experience how determined they were, as my sister, Dr. Kaye Sears, is an alumnus of that same chapter of Chi Omega. Kaye majored in Home Economics, like Pat Kearney.
Pat met with Dave and me and shared the recipe e-book she’d stored from the event. Paging through it, I identified the beginning of the various treasured recipes as my affiliation with the chefs, who were worried over time.
The lengthy-misplaced recipes evoked so many memories. Many are from lengthy, closed eating places and motels. Their creations are as numerous as John Frank’s Seafood au Gratin, Junior’s famous Caesar Salad, and my recipe from Larry and Jerry Wood’s Christopher’s for Sautéed Red Snapper Fillets with Snow Butter (a recipe I gleaned in New Orleans). The most exciting location for me was the treatment of fried shrimp labeled Indonesian Prawns via Dan Sloan.
I knew them as Box Office Shrimp from a practical mystery eating place in a domestic on NW 13th road, just west of Pennsylvania Avenue.
Secret because widely known consumers should drink with abandon.
I have even acknowledged this dish for many years; it was introduced to me by my longtime buddy, the overdue Lloyd Henry Cook. Lloyd served as a Chef at the University of Oklahoma’s Memorial Union for twenty years. After Lloyd retired from the Union, he assisted me and my past-due nephew Chip Sears in catering parties all over the kingdom, including a wedding in Pauls Valley featuring a suckling pig—a story all over again.
Lloyd never gave me the exact technique in all the years I knew him. Thanks to Pat Kearney, I found out how easy it is, but particularly, it’s miles.
So, nearly 50 years later, thanks to Pat, here’s how to make Box Office Shrimp. We tested the recipe with some local culinarians to get opinions.
