In the early 20th century, eating was still a formal affair, involving napkins, tables and rules of etiquette. Ice cream was served as a delicate sliver on a plate, then savored with a teaspoon.
America was on the cusp of an agricultural golden age as the first gas-powered tractors plowed fields and bumper crops spilled out of silos. People who gaped with wonder at the abundance at the fair may well have longed for a way to sample it immediately.
According to eyewitness accounts, Ernest Hamwi, a Syrian concessions vendor, invented a way to make that possible: he curled a waffle cookie and transformed it into a receptacle for ice cream.
This freed tourists to climb miniature Tyrolean Alps or witness the creation of the earth while slurping ice cream.
No plates. No spoons. It was a revelation.
But was Hamwi really the Henry Ford of utensil-free eating?
Anne Funderburg, a historian, has collected seven legends about the invention of the cone at the 1904 fair. A Turkish entrepreneur also claimed credit for the idea. So did two brothers from Ohio.
An Italian immigrant tried paper cones but, frustrated with the litter, switched to a cookie cup. According to Funderburg, it’s impossible to pinpoint who scooped the first cone because, she says, “the idea spread from one booth to the next.” Funderburg points out that the Germans pioneered a waffle cone in the 19th century, but “as far as Americans are concerned, it originated at the World’s Fair.” There, vendors called the new treat a “cornucopia.”
It was a fitting symbol for a nation so replete with food that pounds of butter could be molded into a life-size replica of Teddy Roosevelt on his horse....[...]
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