Dear Friend,

Perhaps you're planning a festive dinner for more than one hundred people. 

And since it's a once-in-a-lifetime occasion, there can be no slip-ups. 

The food and the atmosphere have to be something really special. 

Beginning in 1929, and for more than 50 years, people called City Public Service for just this sort of information, and more! 

Whether you were planning a special dinner party, cooking for the family or the multitudes or needed your oven temperature checked, the CPS Home Service Section dispatched a professional home economist, often to your home, with the latest training in kitchen technology to help the homemaker solve almost any home- or kitchen-related dilemma through the wise use of energy and know-how.

In fact, first supervisor of Home Service at CPS Albertine Berry stated in 1929 that she "intended to tell customers of all ages the right kind of kitchen equipment to use, how to conserve fuel and keep the meter from breaking speed records while doing it all in perfect safety." 

And for the next three years Berry shaped that vision, but it was Nell Read Carraway, the longest running supervisor of Home Service, who for 37 years bonded the section to the work of City Public Service.

During its most active years Home Service had 12-14 degreed and highly professional home economists who tested recipes in the CPS kitchen in the Spanish Patio-the same patio where hundreds of high school and college girls, brides and girl scouts were taught to cook. 

This book is compiled of tested recipes from the former CPS Home Service Section files.