Bacon: The best-kept secret in Washington

Summary

Post Reports: Bacon - The Best-Kept Secret in Washington

Published on November 27, 2024

Hosts: Martine Powers and Elahe Izadi
Podcast: Post Reports by The Washington Post
Episode Title: Bacon: The Best-Kept Secret in Washington

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Introduction: A Culinary Enigma in the Heart of Power

In this captivating episode of Post Reports, host Shane Harris delves into an unexpected intersection of culinary art and American political power. Taking a break from his usual coverage of national security and intelligence communities, Harris embarks on a decade-long quest to uncover the secrets behind a coveted candied bacon recipe, famously known as "Vangie's Bacon." This exploration serves as a lens to examine the intricate social fabric of Washington, D.C., where elite dinner parties have historically influenced national and international policies.

Notable Quote:

Shane Harris [00:02]: "This is a story about a sweet, meaty treat that has been at the center of American power for decades."

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The Mystery Unfolds: Ben Bradley’s After-Party and the Bacon Revelation

The journey begins in October 2014, following the death of Ben Bradley, the legendary editor of The Washington Post. While attending an article about Bradley's exclusive after-party, Shane Harris notices a brief, enigmatic mention of "bacon" among the sumptuous menu descriptions: "ham and biscuits, chicken, chocolate brownies, and bacon" [03:02]. This scant reference piques Harris's curiosity, leading him to consult with Carol Joint, his colleague and a seasoned observer of Washington's social scene.

Notable Quotes:

Carol Joint [02:04]: "No."

Odette Pereira [01:54]: "She's the key."

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Unveiling Vangie Bruce and Her Legendary Bacon

Harris's investigation reveals that "bacon" refers to a unique candied bacon recipe crafted by Odette Pereira, the personal cook of Evangeline "Vangie" Bruce. Vangie Bruce, alongside her husband David Ke Bruce, was a prominent figure in Washington's post-World War II elite, hosting elaborate dinner parties that brought together influential Democrats, Republicans, diplomats, journalists, and intelligence officers. These gatherings, often centered in Georgetown, were more than social events; they were crucibles where significant policies were debated and forged.

Insights from Historian Greg Herkin [08:28]:

"They got together very often on Sunday nights in what was called the Sunday Night Supper, and discussed the current events in American foreign policy."

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The Georgetown Set: A Nexus of Power and Policy

The episode underscores the pivotal role of the "Georgetown Set," a close-knit enclave of Washington's most influential individuals. Led by figures like the Grahams, Wisners, Dulles, Alsops, and the Kennedys, this group utilized social gatherings to build alliances, exchange information, and shape U.S. foreign policy. Central to these interactions was Evangeline Bruce's signature candied bacon, which symbolized inclusion and prestige among attendees.

Notable Quotes:

Sally Quinn [27:05]: "They needed a way to exchange information and to meet each other."

Roxanne Roberts [28:25]: "Dinner parties really were the nexus of this informal power Washington."

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Decoding the Secret Recipe: A Decade-Long Pursuit

Determined to replicate Vangie's Bacon, Harris faces numerous challenges. Despite extensive research and countless attempts to recreate the dish using publicly available candied bacon recipes, none match the distinctive balance of sweet and savory that made Vangie's Bacon legendary. His pursuit leads him to Odette Pereira, the sole custodian of the original recipe, who steadfastly refuses to disclose its secrets, honoring a vow of silence made to Vangie Bruce.

Notable Quotes:

Shane Harris [10:26]: "I have not stopped thinking about it."

Odette Pereira [10:43]: "It's the key."

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Facing Rejection and Finding Collaboration

After persistent efforts and a decade of dead ends, Harris teams up with Post producer Ted Muldoon and Odette Pereira herself to attempt a hands-on recreation of the elusive bacon recipe. This collaborative effort not only brings the recipe into focus but also offers a nostalgic glimpse into the bygone era of Washington's social elite.

Notable Interaction:

Shane Harris [35:26]: "Come on inside."

Odette Pereira [35:34]: "I've never been in Washington Post."

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Recreating Vangie's Bacon: The Process Unveiled

In a meticulously detailed demonstration, Harris, Muldoon, and Odette navigate the complexities of making Vangie's Bacon. The process involves layering dark brown sugar both beneath and atop the bacon strips before slow-cooking them to achieve the perfect caramelized balance. Odette emphasizes precision and sensory cues—color and aroma—to determine the bacon's readiness, highlighting the recipe's artisanal nature.

Step-by-Step Highlights:

1. Layering Sugar: "Put the sugar all over the tray, over the bacon."
2. Cooking Temperature: "Oven at 300 degrees."
3. Turning and Coating: "You have to turn it over and dredge it through the caramelized syrup."
4. Final Test: The bacon strip must stand upright when held vertically.

Notable Quotes:

Odette Pereira [36:34]: "You put the sugar all over there."

Shane Harris [42:37]: "This is what I remember from the first time I tried the bacon."

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Historical Context: Evangeline and David Ke Bruce’s Legacy

Harris provides a rich historical backdrop, detailing Evangeline Bruce's pivotal role as a diplomatic hostess alongside her husband, David Ke Bruce—a high-ranking OSS (Office of Strategic Services) official who later became a prominent diplomat post-World War II. Their international postings and social gatherings played a significant role in shaping U.S. foreign policy through informal diplomacy, with the candied bacon serving as both a culinary and symbolic cornerstone of their social influence.

Notable Quotes:

Evangelane Bruce [26:00]: "We were partners in every sense of the word."

Shane Harris [25:49]: "She grew up all over the world, moving between Italy, Sweden, France, Holland, Great Britain, China, Switzerland."

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Reflections on the Evolution of Washington’s Social Diplomacy

As the episode progresses, Harris reflects on the transformation of Washington's social dynamics. The once unifying, bipartisan social gatherings that fostered consensus and collaborative policy-making have given way to a more polarized and fragmented political environment. The loss of such convivial settings raises questions about the current state of informal diplomacy and the potential consequences for effective governance.

Notable Quotes:

Roxanne Roberts [33:09]: "There is virtually no respect for each other as human beings or fellow patriots."

Shane Harris [34:57]: "I think today you have to wonder if the best version of that diplomacy and its promise is actually lost."

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Conclusion: Preserving Culinary and Diplomatic Legacies

In a heartfelt conclusion, Harris successfully tastes the recreated Vangie's Bacon, affirming its unparalleled flavor and the significance it holds within Washington's elite circles. The episode not only uncovers a delicious culinary secret but also serves as a poignant commentary on the evolving landscape of political and social interactions in the nation's capital.

Closing Remarks:

Shane Harris [44:02]: "This story was reported by me, Shane Harris, and produced by Ted Muldoon. It was edited by Maggie Penman and Mernita Jablonski."

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Epilogue: A Recipe to Remember

As Thanksgiving approaches, Harris plans to share Odette Pereira's resurrected bacon recipe at his own dinner parties, honoring both the culinary tradition and the intricate tapestry of Washington's power structures that it represents.

Final Thought:

Shane Harris [44:48]: "I'm making this recipe for Thanksgiving, and I plan to serve it at dinner parties at my house, too."

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Special Thanks: Ariel Plotnik and Ariella Markowitz
Archival Footage: David Ke Bruce, Harry S. Truman Library and Museum
Production Team: Ted Muldoon, Maggie Penman, Mernita Jablonski

Happy Thanksgiving!

Transcript

[Shane Harris]

So we are taking a break from the news today to bring you a different kind of story. This is a little culinary mystery that I've been chewing on for a long time, and I hope that you enjoy it as you are preparing for your Thanksgiving dinner, or maybe you're traveling to and from your holiday gatherings. This is a story about a sweet, meaty treat that has been at the center of American power for decades. It's about politics, loyalty, and finally, giving credit where credit is due. From the newsroom of the Washington Post, this is Post reports. It's Wednesday, November 27th. My name is Shane Harris. I'm now a staff writer at the Atlantic. But in October, I wrapped up seven years as a national security reporter for the Washington Post. And in that job, I covered the intelligence community, especially the CIA. And over the years, my colleague Ted Muldoon on the Post audio team would always ask me this one question.

[Ted Muldoon]

Okay, Shane, so if you had all the time in the world to report on one thing that's been like burning a hole in the back of your reporter's notebook, what would it be?

[Shane Harris]

And the answer was always the same. So this episode has become the last story that I worked on at the Washington Post. The mystery that I never had time to get to. The bottom of. A top secret recipe for candied bacon. I mean, just saying, it sounds so serious.

[Ted Muldoon]

It's real good.

[Greg Herkin]

I understand they met when they were both working for the oss, The Office of Strategic Services, the precursor to the CIA.

[Shane Harris]

What I'm looking at is who can tell us how to make Vangie Bruce's bacon?

[Odette Pereira]

Odette.

[Shane Harris]

She's the key.

[Odette Pereira]

She's the key. Oh, my God.

[Roxanne Roberts]

You're.

[Shane Harris]

I'm way into this, Roxanne. Like, we're not coming back without the answers. So you probably wouldn't tell me the recipe, would you?

[Carol Joint]

No.

[Shane Harris]

It is a recipe that along the way is going to take us back to an era of Washington when powerful people on different sides of the aisle talking about lawmakers, socialites, cabinet officials, presidents, diplomats, spies, all used to sit down together over dinner or mingle with cocktails and try to solve the world's biggest problems. For better or for worse. This all started for me 10 years ago. Okay, so setup is, it's October 2014, and Ben Bradley, the legendary editor of the Post, has just died. And I'm reading an article in the paper, not about his funeral, but about the after party to his funeral. So, like, Ben had an after party, and it was like an A list party.

[Ted Muldoon]

And where are you in Your life.

[Shane Harris]

Where are you working? I am working as the senior writer for Washingtonian magazine. So I had worked. I've been working as a journalist in D.C. at that point for about 14 years, writing on national security policy and politics. And I'm reading a story about the party by Roxanne Roberts, who used to write the Post's Reliable Source column. And I mean, everybody, Ben's funeral is a huge event. The after party is a huge event. And like, everybody wanted to go to the after party. Like, I think the after party was more exclusive than the funeral. And she's writing this column that is very much like, with that kind of vibe, but also it's framed as this kind of last hurrah where Sally Quinn, who is also a Post writer, who was Ben's wife, is giving Ben Bradlee this final send off. Because Ben and Sally famously threw parties, especially big dinner parties that were often quite exclusive. They very much serve this function of social cohesion and influence among a very influential set of people in this town. And so I'm reading it, and the column is describing the food that's being served underneath these tents, I guess, on the back lawn. And it says, like, you know, there were ham and biscuits, there was chicken, there were chocolate brownies and bacon. And just says, and bacon, period. And there's no description of the bacon, which makes me think, like, okay, well, there's bacon strips being sent around. Or like. So I go over and talk to my friend Carol Joint, who I was working with at Washington at the time. I either called or walked across to your office and said, carol, what's the thing with bacon? Yeah. And she is my trail guide for all things social and strange about Washington. And I think you said to me, oh, you don't know about bacon.

[Odette Pereira]

And I was like, shane, what do you mean? What's this thing about bacon?

[Shane Harris]

There is so much I did not know about bacon. As Carol explained to me, bacon meant candied bacon.

[Odette Pereira]

It's not a breakfast food, and it goes beautifully with cocktails.

[Shane Harris]

Now, a lot of people might be familiar with candied bacon. You might even know it by the name pig candy or hog candy. But this wasn't any candied bacon recipe. This is a recipe with a unique story and a Legacy in Washington, D.C. and as it turned out, it was only something that an elite group of people in D.C. would know about. The reason why Carol knew about the bacon was that she had written professionally about parties and society for years, the kind of events where rich and powerful people would get together, rub elbows, drink Champagne. Try to look very important. At the time that I worked with her, and she told me about bacon. She was the author of this regular column on Washington for a site called New York Social Diary, which I approached.

[Odette Pereira]

Like it was the police beat. And I got to go to all these parties. I mean, everybody wanted me at their parties because they wanted to be in New York Social Diary.

[Shane Harris]

So it was at one of these kinds of parties in Washington that Carol was actually attending as a friend, by the way, and not as a reporter, was where she first learned about bacon. This was in the late 1990s.

[Odette Pereira]

I had my own epiphany with bacon, too. It was not like I was to the bacon born, you know, it was like I had very dear friends, and they'd have great parties.

[Shane Harris]

Carol's friends were of the bacon born, as she put it. They came from this wealthy and powerful family in Washington, D.C. called the.

[Odette Pereira]

So I went to this party around the corner not knowing what to expect. And as I'm standing there with all kinds of people coming and going and everybody very glamorous, I see one of the staff go by with a tray with these little squares, you know, And a woman across the way goes, oh, you're serving the bacon. This is so great. And I'm like, she's serving the bacon. What's with the bacon? So I start following the bacon through the party, and I grab one, and it's just insanely delicious. It's bacon, and it's savory, but it's a little bit sweet, and it's crunchy, but it's not too sweet. It doesn't taste like candy. It tastes more savory, and it's got this incredible texture. So I keep following this server through the party and getting another piece of bacon.

[Shane Harris]

Finally, Carol found her friend, and she.

[Odette Pereira]

Asked, what's with the bacon? And she said, well, that's Vangie's bacon. She would always serve this bacon. And so we have the same person who made the bacon for her make the bacon for us.

[Shane Harris]

The bacon recipe being served at the party belonged to the mother of the guy who was throwing the party. Her name was Evangeline Bruce, or Vanjie for short.

[Odette Pereira]

Vangie's Bacon.

[Shane Harris]

Vangie's bacon was once light legendary in D.C. in her day, Vangie Bruce and her husband, David Ke Bruce, were among the most influential and powerful people in Washington. David was an ambassador who served all over the world. He was a very prominent diplomat. The Bruce has belonged to this Camelot era of Washington, just after World War II. When the most powerful people in the country, Democrats and Republicans, people who did not necessarily agree with each other, would sit down together at dinner and sometimes quite literally with, were deciding U.S. foreign policy.

[Greg Herkin]

Well, it was a collection of journalists, publishers, and spies and diplomats who lived in a small area, basically an enclave of Washington, D.C. called Georgetown.

[Shane Harris]

That's Greg Herkin, who is an American historian and author of a book called the Georgetown Set, which focuses on people like Evangeline Bruce.

[Greg Herkin]

They got together very often on Sunday nights in what was called the Sunday Night Supper, and discussed the current events in American foreign policy. And oftentimes, because they were journalists and publishers and spies and diplomats, had a disproportionate influence upon American foreign policy.

[Shane Harris]

The heyday of this group of people, this Georgetown set, was really in the 1950s and the 60s, but their influence and the parties they threw rolled on into the 70s and the 80s as well. The Georgetown Set included some of the most notable people of the era. You had people like the Grahams, who had once owned the Washington Post, families whose members were associated with setting up the CIA. People like the Wisners and the Dulles. You had the Alsop's. Joe Alsop, a hugely influential journalist, threw some of the most famous Sunday suppers that Greg Hurkin was talking about. The Kennedys were a fixture in this mix. And of course, you also had the Bruces. These people threw parties like no one throws parties anymore. And when Vangie Bruce threw a party, she served bacon. It was her thing. It was like a kind of marker. And if you were eating Vangie's bacon, you were somebody, you belonged. So this was all the backdrop for that famous bacon that I asked my friend Carol about. She remembered trying it at her friend's party and following the tray around all night, eating more of it. Now, Vangie Bruce had died in the mid-1990s, and her husband had died years before that. So I asked Carol to try calling her friend to get the recipe.

[Odette Pereira]

And she said, well, that was made by Odette Pereira, who worked for Vangie, and she was her cook, Odette Pereira.

[Shane Harris]

The potential true source of the bacon recipe.

[Odette Pereira]

And I said, well, do you know how to reach her? And she said, let me see if I have a phone number. I called it. I got Odette, and she was this very lively person and knew exactly what I was talking about and told me she was still making the bacon. I said, what's the secret?

[Shane Harris]

Odette refused to tell her she would not give Carol the recipe. Evangeline Bruce had made Odette swear that she would never reveal it. And almost 20 years after Vangie had died, Odette was keeping her vow of silence.

[Odette Pereira]

But she said she'd make it for me, and she made me bacon and brought it to the house. And I think you even ordered some from her, too.

[Shane Harris]

Well, you got some for me, I.

[Odette Pereira]

Got some for you. Okay.

[Shane Harris]

So Carol brings over this bacon to my house in this, like, tin, and I open it up, and it's these shards of, like, shellacked meats. Like, you can tell it's bacon, and it is coated in this shiny candy exterior. And when I bite into this, it is like Dorothy seeing everything in color. I mean, it is, like, fatty and savory, and it's a little bit chewy, but it has this amazing crunchy exterior. It is. It's the perfect balance between salty and sweet and savory. You eat one piece of this, and you just want to eat another, and then you want to eat another. Like, you can absolutely see why Carol is just following this tray around through the party all night. This is now 10 years ago that I first tasted Vanjie's bacon. I have not stopped thinking about it. Now, all this time, mind you, I am covering the Donald Trump administration. I'm, like, writing about the CIA. I have a job. And I would put the bacon story down for a while, and I would try to come back to it, and then, like, life in the world would just sort of get in the way. I mean, I have cracked a lot of stories. I have still not been able to figure out how to replicate this candied bacon recipe. I mean, I go online, I would Google the words candied bacon, and there are a ton of recipes and tutorials on how to make candied bacon. And I would try all of them. Nothing tasted like Vanjie's bacon that I had tried all those years ago. And I know how to cook. Like, I know what I'm doing. I could not nail this. And it suddenly felt like everywhere I went, candied bacon was just on a menu. I was being haunted by bacon, and none of it was as good as Vanjie's bacon. Now, over the years, I would bring this up with people in the city who had been to her parties, and they remembered this bacon. There is actually a Vanity Fair article that mentions this. It's a profile of Evangeline Bruce written in the 1990s, and it opens up with this sweeping scene of all the guests at her house for this brunch on a Sunday. And there's a congressman and there's A network TV anch over here. And the article describes these freshly shucked oysters being set out on a white linen tablecloth and, like, trays of miniature steak tartare floating around the party. And then there's a quote that they're also serving the famous Bruce bacon. And it says in parentheses, unfailingly crisp, sweet, and greaseless, which it's. So that is Vanjie's bacon. Now, sometimes when you're reporting a difficult story, if someone isn't ready to give you some information, you give them some time. Ten years seemed like long enough to try again. What I'm looking at is who can tell us how to make Vangie Bruce's bacon?

[Odette Pereira]

Odette.

[Shane Harris]

She's the key.

[Odette Pereira]

She's the key.

[Shane Harris]

Think she'll ever give us the recipe?

[Odette Pereira]

I don't know. I mean, I suppose the argument to be made is it deserves to be known.

[Shane Harris]

And let me just say, I am very accustomed to making difficult phone calls, trying to get information out of people who are paid to keep secrets. But when I sat down in the audio booth with Post producer Ted Muldoon to call Odette, I was really stressed. Sit.

[Ted Muldoon]

Deep breath.

[Shane Harris]

We do it. Okay.

[Ted Muldoon]

You're so nervous.

[Shane Harris]

I'm nervous.

[Ted Muldoon]

You do national security coverage.

[Shane Harris]

I know, but this is like. I mean, what if she's gonna be like, piss off, you weirdo. Why are you calling me? I know. I don't want to buy a subscription to the Washington Post. All right, let's see what happens. All right. Okay.

[Carol Joint]

Hello?

[Shane Harris]

Hi, my name is Shane Harris. I'm a reporter with the Washington Post. I'm trying to reach Odette Pereira.

[Carol Joint]

She's not here.

[Shane Harris]

Oh, okay.

[Carol Joint]

Later.

[Shane Harris]

Okay. Could I leave a message for her?

[Carol Joint]

Yeah. What do you need?

[Shane Harris]

So I'm working on a story about someone who I think that she used to work for named Evangeline Bruce. Yes, and I was hoping to talk with her about that. I'm working on a podcast, and believe it or not, it's actually about a special recipe that Evangeline Bruce used to serve at parties that I think Ms. Pereira used to cook.

[Carol Joint]

Listen, can you hold this for a minute? It's myself. So that is myself. I don't know who it's called, but I can go back, talk to you, because I'm in another phone for something. Okay, can you just hold it for a minute?

[Shane Harris]

Yeah, hold on. Odette is myself, if that wasn't clear. This is Odette on the phone, even though she initially disguised her identity. Not the first source to do that in My experience. So Odette puts me on a brief hold because she was on the other line with somebody else.

[Carol Joint]

Okay, you hold it. Thank you.

[Shane Harris]

Yeah.

[Carol Joint]

Oh, yeah. Yes. I cook for 35 years for Evangeline Bruce.

[Shane Harris]

Oh, my God. So I've been looking to talk to you for a long time, actually. I have been working on a story about, believe it or not, all things candied bacon. Evangeline Bruce and the candied bacon.

[Carol Joint]

Bacon.

[Shane Harris]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Carol Joint]

The fame bacon.

[Shane Harris]

So I explained a bit about how I learned about the bacon, and then Odette explained a bit about how she first started cooking for Evangeline Bruce.

[Carol Joint]

I learned cook when I came to the states in 72.

[Shane Harris]

Where did you come from?

[Carol Joint]

I came from Portugal.

[Shane Harris]

Odette had lost her parents when she was quite young, and she followed her sister to the States. When she first got here from Portugal, her sister got Odette a job at the Italian Embassy as a cook, even though Odette didn't know how to cook at the time. So she started learning on the job by experimenting with different recipes.

[Carol Joint]

I'm very curious, and I like to start to do something new all the time, and they like this.

[Shane Harris]

How did you first start working for Evangeline Bruce?

[Carol Joint]

Well, Mrs. Bruce, this is in the 70.

[Shane Harris]

Around 75, Odette became Evangeline's personal cook, which, of course, included cooking for her dinner parties full of rich and powerful people.

[Carol Joint]

Always all the states, like Vice President, Mrs. Reagan, all the people who work with the presidents. Wow.

[Shane Harris]

So, like, people from the White House and like really powerful political figures.

[Carol Joint]

Oh, yes. Oh, yes. Yes. Oh, yes. Sometimes have the. The security comes for see the cooking and stay in the kitchen looking what I cook.

[Shane Harris]

So, like, the Secret Service would come watch you cook?

[Carol Joint]

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

[Shane Harris]

Odette especially loved whenever the first lady, Nancy Reagan, would come over. She, of course, was the wife of then Republican President Ronald Reagan. And after the meal, Nancy would often come back and visit with Odette.

[Carol Joint]

She's all the time she comes, she say, come to say thank you. One time she's there, and she take. Let me take her picture with my kids.

[Shane Harris]

Odette still remembers the first time that Vangie asked her to try to make the candied bacon.

[Carol Joint]

She find out in London in some place. I think it's in Queen's House. I think.

[Shane Harris]

In the Queen's House, you say?

[Carol Joint]

I think it's in the Queen's House.

[Shane Harris]

Like as in Buckingham Palace.

[Carol Joint]

Yeah. Oh, yes.

[Shane Harris]

That's where she said she remembered eating it.

[Carol Joint]

Yes, I think she said it's in the palace. I think but she didn't know how they do it.

[Shane Harris]

Bacon literally fit for a queen. But Evangeline didn't know how to make it. So one day, Odette says Vanjie comes to her and asks her to replicate this allegedly royal bacon recipe.

[Carol Joint]

And she just tell me, odette, I don't know. I know it's bacon and sugar. You have to find out. And she tell me, you have to try. I been for a week, every day for Tracy, the right bacon, what she.

[Shane Harris]

Eats in London for a week. Odette made batch after batch of bacon. And Vangie would come in and she'd try it and she'd say, no, this isn't quite right yet.

[Carol Joint]

You have to try again more. And I will try one day say, oh, yes, this is exactly what I ate it and said, Odette, you keep the secret.

[Shane Harris]

Now, this is important. According to Odette, there is a reason to keep this recipe secret. Everyone loved it and everyone wanted it. People would come over to the house, they would expect it, they come to the brunches. She told me that Princess Margaret, as in the Queen's sister, actually came and ate the bacon. And like, I don't know if this bacon really came from Buckingham palace, but, like, somebody who's been there quite a lot ate this bacon and loved it. So. So you probably wouldn't tell me the recipe, would you?

[Carol Joint]

No, I can tell you. It's bacon and sugar.

[Shane Harris]

That's it?

[Carol Joint]

Yeah, you can try it.

[Shane Harris]

Do you still make it on request?

[Sally Quinn]

Oh, yeah.

[Shane Harris]

Like, could you make me some?

[Carol Joint]

Yeah, if I have time. If I don't know. What do you need? Maybe for the winter.

[Shane Harris]

Maybe for the winter or something?

[Carol Joint]

Yeah, yeah, I can make it in the winter. You can call me late in the winter and I'm sure I can do it.

[Shane Harris]

Okay. So I was not able to get the bacon recipe out of Odette either. But I did come away from our call with two promising leads. One, Odette was willing to make the bacon for me again. This would be the first time I've tasted it in 10 years. Maybe with a sample, I could do what she had originally done and, I don't know, try to reverse engineer it. Two, according to Odette, I might have a lead on the original recipe. It might belong to Queen Elizabeth, which would be a very exciting development. Right. My instinct would be correct. This bacon recipe went straight to the top. After the break, my 10 year quest for bacon continues. All right, so Odette is not giving up the recipe, but I'm not giving up on her. So I'm Going to give her some more time to see if she might be ready to talk later. And in the meantime, I started looking into Evangeline Bruce some more to try and figure out how she might have ended up eating bacon and Buckingham Hallis in the first place. Now I have reached out to Buckingham palace for a comment on whether or not bacon has ever been on the Royal family's menu and whether Evangeline Bruce might have tasted it. There. I am, shockingly, still waiting for a reply. Evangeline Bruce did move around in some very rarefied circles throughout her life. So it's possible she was the daughter of an American diplomat. She grew up all over the world, moving between Italy, Sweden, France, Holland, Great Britain, China, Switzerland. Later on in her life, she married David KE Bruce.

[Greg Herkin]

I understand they met when they were both working for the OSS Office of Strategic Services, the precursor to the CIA during the war.

[David Ke Bruce]

I was born in Baltimore, Maryland on February 12, 1898.

[Shane Harris]

This is David Ke Bruce. He died in 1977. And this is from an oral history that he gave just a few years before. It's part of President Truman's archive at various times.

[David Ke Bruce]

I was in the United States army during the First World War, from 1917 to 1920, during the Second World War, from 1942 until 1945.

[Shane Harris]

Bruce became a high ranking official during World War II in the office of Strategic Services, which, as Greg Herkin mentioned, was the precursor to the Central Intelligence Agency. You know, the agency that I cover for a living.

[David Ke Bruce]

I was eventually director of the European center of Operations of the Office of Strategic Services.

[Shane Harris]

At the height of World War II, David was running operations in the European theater for the oss. So you can think of him as like acting as an American spymaster fighting the Nazis. The OSS was supporting resistance efforts behind enemy lines in occupied France. They were sending people in via parachute to set up roving bands of intelligence operators to try and foil Nazi plans. And David was Evangeline's boss. While they were both working at the London office of the oss. This is how their love story began, According to Evangeline's 1995 obituary in the New York Times. One day her boss began questioning her about the languages that she spoke. I suppose you speak Italian? He said. She said, yes. German? She nodded. French again, yes. While you certainly don't speak Japanese and Chinese, he said. Well, she said, it happens that I do, sir, because my father was stationed in both countries. With that, David KE Bruce invited her to lunch. So Evangeline became David's assistant and in that job, she did some really interesting things, working with spies behind the lines in Europe. For instance, she was called upon to forge passports and papers for these spies who would often move around on bicycles. And she had to develop these elaborate backstories in case they were ever stopped by the Nazis. And someone wanted to know, why are you carrying a bicycle registered in one place when you're riding to another? She once told a Washington Post staff writer that it all seemed very romantic at the time. Now, after. After the war, David became one of the most important diplomats of the 20th century. He was deeply involved in the Marshall Plan, which helped to rebuild Europe. He held all sorts of important posts.

[Greg Herkin]

David Bruce would become a roving ambassador to several countries, including in London. He was in Paris.

[David Ke Bruce]

He was at Bond, American Ambassador to France, Under Secretary of State, Special United States Observer, United States Ambassador to the Federal Republic of Germany, United States Ambassador, the Great Brittany for the United States delegation.

[Shane Harris]

And everywhere David went, so did Evangeline.

[Greg Herkin]

Evangeline traveled with him and was at these embassies, not as a hostess. She hated the term hostess, by the way, but as someone who could aid his career.

[Shane Harris]

She told vanity fair in 1995 about her husband and his work. Quote, I know it's a tired old cliche, but we were partners in every sense of the word. Diplomats don't just sit in a room and have talks. They get people together in embassies and throw parties. For the work of diplomacy to happen, there has to be this convivial setting, this social place where everyone comes together. So these parties were incredibly important. Evangeline was the one responsible for creating that scene. It was her responsibility. And it was in her capacity as the wife of the American ambassador, socialite and diplomatic entertainer, that Evangeline would have allegedly had the opportunity to try bacon at Buckingham Palace. The Bruces and people like them are the establishment. It's at dinner parties and cocktail parties in their home and in others like them, where powerful people who make decisions about the fate of the nation get together and drink and eat.

[Sally Quinn]

That was one of the ways that people communicated the most, was at the parties.

[Shane Harris]

That's the journalist and author Sally Quinn. She's the widow of Ben Bradley, the former executive editor of the Post, who I mentioned at the very beginning of this episode. Sally was also well known for throwing parties, and she was really part of the next generation. After that original Georgetown set.

[Roxanne Roberts]

She.

[Shane Harris]

She started throwing parties in the 70s and then into the 80s and 90s, and she's still very much a fixture on the scene today. Bringing people together for dinner at her home in Georgetown.

[Sally Quinn]

Even though they're meant to be fun, they were always working parties. I'm talking about the embassy crowd. I'm talking about journalists, White House people, people on the Hill. You know, they needed a way to exchange information and to meet each other. You know, and you sit next to somebody that you didn't know and you get up from the table and know perfectly well that I, as a reporter, for instance, sitting next to somebody in the administration, could call them the next day and get them on the phone and vice versa.

[Shane Harris]

Because you'd spent time together. Yes.

[Sally Quinn]

Establish a relationship. And it was non denominational. I mean, Republicans, Democrats were all together all the time. And I had a lot of Republican friends and really close friends.

[Roxanne Roberts]

Dinner parties really were the nexus of this informal power Washington.

[Shane Harris]

That's Roxane Roberts. It was her column about Ben Bradlee's memorial party that turned me on to bacon. Roxanne has been covering Washington's social and political and philanthropic power brokers for the post since 1988, which means she has been to a lot of these cancer parties.

[Roxanne Roberts]

The reason that my beat was so interesting to me is that everybody else was writing about what happened from 9 to 5 and I was writing about what happened from 5 to 9 or 10 or 11, where people who came together, many with different ideologies, without any of the kind of bitchiness and cruelty that exists now, would sit down and they would argue and they would drink. And as people got to know each other as human beings, rather than a policy position, they were in a better place to then trade votes, negotiate during the day. The fact of the matter is that it is impossible even for a president to do anything alone in this town. And everybody needed other people, whether it was advice or friends of friends, you needed other people to be able to accomplish something big.

[Shane Harris]

If you look at the big policy decisions that were being made in Washington of yesterday, particularly following the end of World War II, this town really functioned and found consensus in a way that seems unthinkable today.

[Greg Herkin]

It's kind of remarkable that in the space of a year, the Marshall Plan was voted and accepted, the Truman Doctrine was voted and accepted, the whole containment strategy toward the Soviet Union was established. Things got done pretty well and pretty rapidly.

[Shane Harris]

All the things that Greg Hurkin mentions here, the Marshall Plan, the Truman Doctrine, these were the defining actions that created the post war democratic world order. This is the system of agreements and alliances like NATO that makes the west and chiefly the United States the world's leader. For the next 80 years. And these decisions that are going to determine the fate of the US World order for the next century are being hashed out around a dinner table in Georgetown.

[Greg Herkin]

One time, Susan Mary Alsop said that to a gathering. What are we going to do about the Italian election? This is in 1947.

[Shane Harris]

What are we going to do?

[Greg Herkin]

Yeah, what are we going to do? Because we are the ones who should advise on this. Alan Dulles was always invited to these.

[Shane Harris]

Parties, Allen Dulles, again, director of the.

[Greg Herkin]

CIA, with the hope that Alan would spill some secrets. And Alan Dulles knew that very well. So he would launch off on a big story and go on for some time until he got to the interesting part where the secret was. And then he'd look at his watch and say, oh, look at the time. We have to leave.

[Shane Harris]

So it was in this context where women like Evangeline Bruce would need to plan the menu. And sometimes their recipes were treated like state secrets.

[Odette Pereira]

They would keep their own recipes.

[Shane Harris]

That's Carol Joint again, my trusted guide through social Washington.

[Odette Pereira]

Other hostesses would covet, you know, so and so's beef stew or so and so's chicken this or so and so shrimp that, or how did you get that salad dressing. You know, there was a certain elitism in who your chef was, who your cook was, and the secrets that they kept of your special recipes.

[Shane Harris]

So Washington hosts often served a trademark dish or something that they were known for. And for Evangeline Bruce, it was the secret candied bacon recipe that she'd asked Odette to spend that week perfecting. According to Odette and others that I tracked down, Vanjie's recipe was the first one to make candied bacon trendy in Washington. It became widely imitated and remained popular well into the 80s and the 90s. I've met lots of people who have their own bacon recipe, and it's bipartisan. Dick Cheney serves a bacon that's actually made with chili pepper in it.

[Roxanne Roberts]

The idea of people from across the aisle gathering with certain non political but very powerful people, influential people, that's changed. There's a reason the Georgetown dinner party has sort of been elevated to a unique and important thing, because it doesn't happen in the same way.

[Shane Harris]

Is Washington better off now not having people like Evangeline Bruce convening in that way? Is it more egalitarian? Is it more democratic? Or have we lost something, an important function that those parties served?

[Roxanne Roberts]

I am going to say that in column A, you have a bunch of wealthy white people for the most Part attempting to solve the problems of the world from a very elite perch. And you can find quite easily all the things wrong with that. On the other hand, you have a city full of people who are making both national and international policy that have decided to declare war on each other. They have no interest in working together. They see that as a sign of weakness. They have no interest in getting to know each other. There is virtually no respect for each other as human beings or fellow patriots. There's a lot of performance and theater and not much governing. So I would say, and I'm going to sound old, but at least these dinner parties, as flawed as they were, had a goal. And the goal was to make the country better. And I'm not sure that throwing a tantrum on the floor of the house in our new version of egalitarian politics is better.

[Shane Harris]

I think today you have to wonder if the best version of that diplomacy and its promise is actually lost. And, you know, I've had to wonder by this point if I'm ever going to be able to reverse engineer this bacon. After trying for so long so hard and learning so much about this era, I had a new idea that instead of asking Odette to just make a batch for me, I would invite her over to the Post as some of us attempted to recreate it together. Hi, Marina. Odette. Hi. I'm Shane.

[Carol Joint]

Very nice to meet you. Hi, nice to meet you, too. I'm Odette.

[Shane Harris]

Come on inside.

[Carol Joint]

I've never been in Washington Post.

[Shane Harris]

I met Odette and her daughter Marina Cucco outside the Post, and we went up to the food lab. That's where we met our Post food writer, Aaron Hutcherson. He was with us. I figured, hey, if Odette wasn't willing to reveal the recipe outright, you know, maybe she'd give us some tips, a little, you know, wink and a nudge here and there. So, all right, so we have bacon and we have brown sugar. You can put your purse down, make yourself comfortable if you want.

[Carol Joint]

Okay. You're just watching?

[Shane Harris]

Yeah. No pressure, no pressure. So Aaron starts cooking, and we start talking to Odette. Aaron's got a pack of bacon, a jar of dark brown sugar, an aluminum sheet pan, and then a baking rack in the pan to elevate the bacon over it. Odette starts reminiscing again about Evangeline eating candied bacon in London. But as she's telling the story, she's keeping an eye on Aaron as he starts to put the bacon on a rack to put it in the oven.

[Carol Joint]

Uh, you not do it the right.

[Shane Harris]

You don't use.

[Carol Joint]

You need to put sugar first.

[Shane Harris]

Sugar first. Okay.

[Carol Joint]

Yes.

[Shane Harris]

It was clear that Odette was not just going to stand by while bacon was being made. You don't need the rack.

[Carol Joint]

No.

[Shane Harris]

Okay.

[Carol Joint]

No.

[Shane Harris]

Odette makes Aaron throw the rack off to the side. So now do you put the brown sugar on the tray?

[Carol Joint]

Yes.

[Shane Harris]

So put the sugar all over the.

[Carol Joint]

All over the tray, over the place? Yeah.

[Shane Harris]

Yes.

[Carol Joint]

With your hands. Yes. You put it all over there.

[Shane Harris]

Before putting the bacon down, Odette has Erin cover the bottom of the sheet pan with brown sugar.

[Carol Joint]

Now? Yes. Now you put the bacon. There you go. There's a lot of sugar again in the top.

[Shane Harris]

So this is like a layer of brown sugar, a layer of bacon and more sugar on top of the bacon.

[Carol Joint]

Yes. Yes. Wow.

[Shane Harris]

So it's going to be like cooking in a sandwich of brown sugar almost.

[Carol Joint]

Yes, yes. Like a sandwich. Yes.

[Shane Harris]

Oh, wow.

[Carol Joint]

And oven, they can be higher. They can be around 300, depend on the ovens. You know, the gas I took with 300.

[Shane Harris]

So again, if you didn't catch this, there's a layer of dark brown sugar on the bottom, then a layer of bacon and then more brown sugar on top of the bacon.

[Carol Joint]

More and more. And you have to pat it down. Yes.

[Shane Harris]

So you're actually packing sugar around the bacon and pressing it down with your hands. Okay. See, Odit, I never would have imagined doing it this way.

[Carol Joint]

Well, so this is your. You never, ever give the recipe. Till I lie. Never allowed to give out the recipe.

[Shane Harris]

As long as she was alive.

[Carol Joint]

Now go to the oven. You have the oven on?

[Shane Harris]

Yes.

[Carol Joint]

Okay. Around 300. Yes.

[Shane Harris]

Okay. So that's pretty. That's like a low and slow kind of thing.

[Carol Joint]

Slow.

[Shane Harris]

Okay.

[Carol Joint]

Because they have to melt the. The sugar until they make the caramel. I see Sometimes take more than one hour.

[Shane Harris]

So you have to keep an eye on it.

[Carol Joint]

Yes, you have to keep eye on. And it's more than one hour. It depends how the they deal with. And soon they start to bulbing.

[Shane Harris]

Soon the sugar starts bubbling is what Odette says here. But it's becoming clear that this is really a feel thing for her. It also depends on the oven, since not all ovens heat the same way. In our recipe, it took about an hour cooking the bacon at 300 degrees. You're watching and waiting for the sugar to bubble and caramelize on that bacon. And Odette is watching for two particular the color of the bacon and the smell. She's really using her nose here to know when it's ready.

[Carol Joint]

It smells. You see it? They start to melt because you have. Well, I'm not supposed to tell you everything, but you have to turn over.

[Shane Harris]

Oh, you turn it over.

[Carol Joint]

You have to turn the bake over when they melt in the top when they run. You have to use your nose. Yes. Most people use a toothpick or something to see if it's ready. No, you have to just look and smell it.

[Shane Harris]

Okay, so this is important. If I were to point out one secret to Odette's recipe, this would be the big one. We've probably been cooking the bacon at this point for about 35 minutes. And Odette tells us to turn it over. And at this point, the sugar has entirely melted and it is mixed with the fat that has rendered off of the bacon. So everything has become this delicious smelling brown syrup on the bottom of the tray. Wow. This is absolutely like. It's like a caramel bread.

[Carol Joint]

You have to put this sugar back on there. Yes.

[Shane Harris]

Oh, I see. So you gotta like really get it all.

[Carol Joint]

Exactly. You have to do this.

[Shane Harris]

Aaron is picking up each strip of bacon with a pair of tongs and dredging it through the caramelized syrup as he flips it over. He then even used tongs to put some more syrup on top of the bacon, kind of ladling it over. The point here is to create consecutive layers of caramelized sugar, you need to repeat this flipping of the bacon, this process a handful of times.

[Carol Joint]

And I'm sure after you have to do another time and just keep doing it until it's the right. Yeah.

[Shane Harris]

So it is basically cooking in liquefied caramel. Right now, watching this process, I can see why it took Odette a week making batch after batch of bacon to perfect this technique. It is not obvious. So when Mrs. Bruce finally you got it finally the way that she liked it. How did you remember?

[Carol Joint]

Oh, I remember. You know, think after five days, every day. Oh my God. I just.

[Shane Harris]

How could you forget?

[Carol Joint]

I couldn't sit bacon anymore. I come in the kitchen, say bacon again.

[Shane Harris]

We repeated the bacon flipping process another couple of times over the next 25 minutes until it had exactly the color that Odette was looking for. This is like looking like that deep, deep, dark color that you really want.

[Carol Joint]

Yes, yes, yes.

[Shane Harris]

Almost burned.

[Carol Joint]

That's it. This is the bacon. Look like it exactly where they are.

[Shane Harris]

So we'll wait a few minutes for it to cool down.

[Carol Joint]

Yes.

[Shane Harris]

And then we will see the moment of truth.

[Carol Joint]

Mrs. Bruce, I'm sorry. If you somewhere look to me. Sorry. What? I can come and show these people how the bacon is supposed to go.

[Shane Harris]

Aaron took the bacon off of the pan sheet and put it on aluminum foil. Now, this part can be tricky because of the caramelized sugar. The bacon sticks to anything that you put it on. So definitely don't put it on parchment paper, because the parchment will rip off in, like, little bits on the bacon. Odette likes to put the bacon directly on her cold granite counter. Since then, it snaps off better after it's cooled. But if you're careful, you can put the bacon on foil afterwards. There is one last crucial test to make sure the bacon is, in fact, done. The bacon strip needs to stand up straight when you hold it vertically.

[Carol Joint]

Let me see it. Oh, yes.

[Shane Harris]

Is that right?

[Carol Joint]

See, it stands up. Here's a sea.

[Shane Harris]

That's it.

[Carol Joint]

That's it. What? I said that's it.

[Shane Harris]

Not all of the strips of bacon cooked evenly. The strips that were on the edges of the pan cooked faster. And then some of the other strips were still floppy and bent over during that test. So we just put those back in the oven for another round of caramel shellacking until they looked right. Should we try them?

[Carol Joint]

Yeah, you can try it.

[Shane Harris]

Okay. It had been 10 years since I ate this bacon, and I had promised so many people who have worked so long on this podcast that it was going to be amazing.

[Ted Muldoon]

I gotta say, I was a little.

[Shane Harris]

Skeptical myself, and I know Ted was skeptical just a little bit. This was the moment of truth. Oh, my God. That flavor.

[Carol Joint]

Yeah.

[Shane Harris]

Oh, that. This is what I remember from the first time I tried the bacon.

[Carol Joint]

Did you?

[Shane Harris]

Yeah.

[Carol Joint]

Yeah. This is why.

[Shane Harris]

Oh, my God.

[Carol Joint]

And it's not easy. Somebody do it.

[Shane Harris]

This is clearly not easy.

[Carol Joint]

Yeah.

[Shane Harris]

I don't know how you would convey this. Write this recipe down. Well, I have to ask you something, too, because everybody always talks about Mrs. Bruce and they always say, like, Evangeline Bruce's bacon or the Bruce bacon. I think, though, it's really Odette's bacon because you're the one who made it. I mean, this famous thing that is in books and it's in magazines, magazine articles, and people associate with her. But you made it. It's really the Debt's bacon.

[Carol Joint]

Yeah.

[Shane Harris]

Well, now everyone's gonna know it's Odets bacon.

[Carol Joint]

That's bacon. My name is Odette PR. I came from Portugal 50 years ago. When I came, no morning, no English, no nothing. Suitcase, my husband and my daughter in my arms. And now I'm so proud being America because I have eight grandchildren, three children, where they make me so proud. I learned so many things to myself. Not because they teach me, because I try to do it. And I do it.

[Shane Harris]

I'm making this recipe for Thanksgiving, and I plan to serve it at dinner parties at my house, too. And when I do, I will tell people. This is Odette's bacon, and there's a great story about it. This story was reported by me, Shane Harris, and produced by Ted Muldoon. It was edited by Maggie Penman and Mernita Jablonski. Special thanks to Ariel Plotnik and Ariella Markowitz. Tape of David KE Bruce courtesy of the Harry S. Truman Library and Museum. That's it for Post Reports. I'm Shane Harris. Happy Thanksgiving.