Miriam Williams: Hemingways' Personal Chef

Miriam Williams: Hemingways' Personal Chef. . , Miriam Williams, pictured left, said "[I was] [o]nly in my late teens when I went to cook for Miss Pauline[....] [She] interviewed me and when she asked about my cooking experience and I said 'just a little home cooking' I could tell she liked me and wanted me, even if my experience was limited.", Mrs. Williams recalled Hemingway's favorite dishes, which Pauline and housekeeper Ada Stern patiently taught her to prepare during her first year at the mansion. She said Hemingway loved baked fresh fish, black beans laced with salt pork, and Bermuda onions and garlic. His choice of vegetables was either broccoli with hollandaise sauce or string beans., Good French wines were always served with dinner in the formal dining room, but dress was casual. Miriam usually served after-dinner drinks on the patio. She learned as well how to tend bar for Hemingway's many parties., (captions) , (left) Miriam Williams was a lovely, self-composed woman, born in Key West. She was a true islander, and of mixed-race heritage: her mother was an African-American Key Wester, and her father was a Chinese, one of a small colony of Asians who lived in Key West in the early 1900s. , (center) Pictured above: Miriam's son Theodore "Fats" Navarro (age one), who became a nationally famous trumpeter. , (right) Fat's was considered an "ace" in any of the local bands he played with at Sloppy Joe's Saloon, high school dances, African-American funerals, and private parties, working for fifty cents an hour plus tips. In the 1930s, that was considered "good money," and local bandleader harry Chipcase, who played with Fats, recalled, "[T]he tips were good when Hemingway came to town."