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A Brief Time with Betty Crocker
Sometime this year, Betty Crocker will be 100 years old. A fictional creature of many faces over the years, she was an enormous influence on my life.
When I was in high school, I won the “Betty Crocker Homemaker of
Tomorrow” prize. It was a rather ornate pin (see below) awarded to the
student with the highest score on a written test for knowledge of
homemaking skills. I was pleased and put it on my letter sweater to show
it off. Betty Crocker was as distant as the moon so far as I knew, but
Betty and I were destined to meet.
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In 1967 I finished the classwork for a Master of Public Health
Nutrition degree. My long-term goal was to become a Registered
Dietitian. (I finally completed the requirements and passed the exam in
1974.) A classmate told me that General Mills was looking for a
nutritionist. I decided to apply. I remember vividly that I wore a
neatly pressed white dress and immaculate white gloves. The gloves must
have done the trick, as I got the job.
It was an interesting point in time. Women were new in the
corporate workplace with the exception of secretaries and the home
economists who developed recipes in the seven kitchens. Each kitchen was
dedicated to a purpose or product line. There was a photography
kitchen, a cake kitchen, a flour kitchen, and so on. It was fascinating
to find that a minimum of 12 cakes was required for a product shoot. One
for the cake, one for the cut slice. No air bubbles in either. There
were stand-ins for arranging the lighting and positioning and the ones
for the actual photograph. It was tedious, meticulous work. I was glad
it wasn’t part of my job.
Marketing was reserved for males and they were graduates of
Ivy League colleges and Stanford. I don’t recall any from a state
school. They arrived prepared to do only two jobs – president or CEO. It
was in informal policy to assign them to menial tasks like photocopying
and delivering messages to bring them back to earth. Soon women began
infiltrating the ranks and things began to change. One is now a Senator
from Minnesota.
As it happened, my first task was a little unusual. The
company was entertaining food editors from across the country at a fancy
place in Chicago. The purpose was to introduce them to new products
and, of course, have a positive view of them. My boss asked me to look
up the ignition point of cotton balls. (400 degrees F.) This took a
little time as it was long before the days of Google. It seems that
models were hired to carry various products from table to table and an
ordinary pie was too heavy. Thus, the pie was to be made with
lightweight cotton and presented in a delicious-looking double crust.
The second assignment was very exciting. I was to go on the
company plane and host a table at the dinner. It was quite an
experience. I buckled in the small jet with a boxed cotton pie on my lap
that I was to guard with my life to prevent damage. There was no room
for it in the plane’s storage as those shelves were filled with liquor
and wines for the dinner.
Ah, the dinner. Sadly, I don’t remember the many course menu,
but a couple of things stood out. I was asked about one of the
appetizer ingredients. It was something I had never seen in my life. I
think it was an artichoke bottom, but no one had coached me about exotic
ingredients, so I nodded and smiled and said “Yes, it is interesting”.
One of the editors passed out with her head in a plate. I saw that she
was in no danger and let her sleep. Another slurred her thanks to “The
Admiral.” It was a shocking entrance to big city life for this hillbilly
girl.
My orientation required that I go through the training
procedures required for each home economist hired. The three-person
Nutrition Department was located in the kitchen area and since part of
my new job was to develop recipes for special diets, I needed to know
how to do so properly. My boss was a brilliant woman who bore an uncanny
resemblance to Betty Crocker portrait number 4. She was one of the most
brilliant, organized, and disciplined people I ever met. I look back
and think what a trial I was for her at times with some of my
off-the-wall ideas.
See portrait number 4 at bottom of page.
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The Nutrition Department was created to protect the company from
false claims in advertising and promotion. We reported to the Company
Medical Department, not marketing to maintain our independence in
judgment. A major part of my job was to research and write papers and
pamphlets that emphasized the nutritional value of products and where
they could be used in special diets as well as daily meals. To
accomplish this mission, we took an exhibit booth to several medical and
dietetic conventions each year. These travels were very educational for
me. I will always be grateful for the opportunities I was given to
learn and advance my professional career.
Part of the initial training was to bake cookies using each
of the seven varieties of flour the company made. Determined to be
efficient, I lined up the bowls and added ingredients to each. I had
never seen self-rising flour, so I added leavening to each batch. The
inevitable happened – my cookies blew up all over the oven. I was
embarrassed and spent the rest of the afternoon cleaning the oven.
Cooking in the kitchens was a sheer pleasure. In addition to
having someone do the shopping for ingredients and storing them, a
housekeeper was always available to wash the utensils and keep the
kitchen tidy. If you needed a lot of measuring cups, there was always a
clean one ready to use. The downside was that one side of each kitchen
was open for two purposes - twice a day food tasting panels and frequent
tours of the public led by smartly uniformed guides. The image of Betty
Crocker as a professional, proper lady and cook was always in our
minds. Once my hot pad slipped on a cookie sheet burning my fingers. I
put the pan down carefully and dashed out the back door of the kitchen
to nurse my wounds. Betty wouldn’t make such a stupid mistake.
I did develop recipes for dialysis patients who required a
very low protein diet at the time. For many years, General Mills had
manufactured a wheat starch product with the odd name of Paygel-P. It
previously had two purposes – an ingredient in salad dressing and as a
filler in oil well shafts. An enterprising doctor found that it might be
useful in special diets and we had a working relationship with the Mayo
Clinic and Emory University
Marilyn at the Betty Crocker lab
developing low protein recipes.
developing low protein recipes.
to develop foods that were more familiar than the gummy ones made with rice or potato starch. (photo).
I worked seven years at General Mills, but Betty and I
parted daily company after three years. I became part of a venture team
to establish a new business model and later became one of the first
women to work in quality assurance; an area that previously had been
staffed only by men. All of my jobs were rewarding, and I consider
General Mills the best place I ever worked, but those stories are for
another time.
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