Over the next seven decades the seasonal eatery gained iconic status, serving nearly 1,000 half-chickens (a.k.a. “broilers”) a day for two weeks in late summer. Satisfied customers have included at least one U.S. president: Bill Clinton, who gave it a thumbs-up during a visit to the fair in 1999. What has drawn this flock of fans? A signature offering that the Washington Post once described as a “grilled chicken recipe so brilliant it’s got an Ivy League name.”
Cornell Chicken—a staple at backyard and community barbecues in New York and beyond—was the brainchild of Baker, a member of the American Poultry Hall of Fame who served as a professor of food science at Cornell from 1957 to 1989. Baker grew up on a fruit farm near Lake Ontario, majored in pomology (fruit science) on the Hill, then earned a master’s in marketing from Penn State and a PhD in food science from Purdue. When Baker joined the CALS faculty, he was tasked with aiding the state’s poultry farmers by increasing chicken consumption, which then lagged far behind beef and pork. Eventually, he transformed the industry nationwide by innovating dozens of foodstuffs including “turkey ham,” poultry hot dogs, and—most famously—the now-ubiquitous chicken nugget. But he was particularly proud of his early-career barbecue chicken recipe—which, despite the name, he actually developed during his time at Penn State.
