Sumptuous Dining in Gaslight San Francisco 1875-1915

A historical culinary exploration of San Francisco's dining culture during the Gaslight Era (1875–1915), this volume blends period recipes with narrative history, profiling the restaurants, saloons, and personalities that shaped the city's celebrated food scene. Authored by Frances de Talavera Berger and John Parke Custis and published by Doubleday in 1985, the book draws on archival research to recover lost recipes and culinary traditions from what it frames as a golden age of San Francisco gastronomy. The format combines recipe content with social and cultural history, making it suitable for food historians, enthusiasts of American culinary heritage, and home cooks with an interest in Victorian and Edwardian cooking. Its focus on a specific city and era lends it value as both a regional culinary document and a piece of popular food history.