Chicago Culinary and Cultural History

After visiting European sustainable farmer’s markets in 1998, Abby Mandel, chef, author and entrepreneur, returned to Chicago determined to create a similar market in her own city. Green City Market was her brainchild and began as a small startup with nine local farmers in the crosswalk next to the Chicago Theatre with a handful of farmers and only a few more shoppers. The Market quickly outgrew the location and moved to the south end of Lincoln Park, where it currently operates May-October, drawing thousands of visitors and featuring locally grown food and many of Chicago’s most renowned chefs. Four years ago, the Market continued to remain open November-December, first in Lincoln Park Zoo, and later moving to the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum.

Abby Mandel passed away in 2008, but her legacy lives on, spelled out abundantly with the Green City Market Cookbook. The book is a collection of recipes gathered from the Market’s customers, volunteers, farmers and Chicago chefs. (Rick Bayless wrote the foreward.)

Come join us as our trio of culinary leaders give the background of farmers markets in Chicago, the founding and importance of The Green City Market, their passion for the market, and how the cookbook came about including recipe sources and the testing sources. Copies of the cookbook will be on sale. (Approx. $25.)

Bios:
Elizabeth Richter serves on the board of the Green City Market and is co-editor of the cookbook. She is president of The Richter Group, a strategic communications consulting firm serving nonprofits. Elizabeth held executive positions at WTTW/Channel 11, and as an Emmy award-winning executive producer at WLS-TV, she recruited Oprah Winfrey to Chicago.

Sarah Stegner is the two-time James Beard award-winning chef who drew great acclaim to the Dining Room at the Ritz-Carlton in Chicago before leaving to open Prairie Grass Café in Northbrook, where she shows her love for, fresh ingredients from her community of local farmers.

Tracy Vowell is one of Sarah’s favorite farmers. A former chef at Frontera Grill, Tracy left to open Three Sisters Garden, a nine-acre farm in Kankakaee, where she and her partner, Kathe Roybal, focus on specialty foods like microgreens, pea shoots heirloom tomatoes and fresh beans.

* * *

Presented by
Elizabeth Richter, co-editor, “The Green City Market Cookbook”
Sarah Stegner, chef/co-owner, Prairie Grass Café, Northbrook
Tracy Vowell, farmer, Three Sisters Garden, Kankakee

Recorded Saturday, Sept. 20, 2014 at Kendall College, School of Culinary Arts

www.CulinaryHistorians.com

Greening of Green City Market: The past, present and future of a Chicago Treasure

Come on down to our tasty talk to hear one of Chicago’s rising pit masters give us the skinny on ribs. Jared Leonard will regale us with his rub on different aspects of BBQ history: its historical significance to American culture, its regional differences, and how BBQ has evolved in our toddlin’ town over the past 100 years.

Quoth Leonard: “Until the past decade, Chicago had 2 distinct styles of BBQ: Southside Chicago BBQ and Northside Tavern Style BBQ. The latter is a far cry from traditional BBQ rules, and is being ushered out of the city by a wave of new Southern-style REAL BBQ restaurants.”

He continues: “This new wave of BBQ to hit the Northside of Chicago is full of southern authenticity, and has people scratching their heads at the old sauced-up, boiled, fall-off-the-bone ribs served in old-time Chicago taverns.”

We’ve just given you the tip of Leonard’s talk. For a full slab of savory history (and to-die-for rib samples and a cornbread demo and tasting), come share the passion.

Speaker bio:
Co-founder of the Windy City BBQ Classic, Chicago’s only BBQ Pitmaster competition, Jared Leonard is the owner of Rub BBQ Company, at Lunt and Western, (rubbbqcompany.com) ‎where he dishes out authentic wood-fired BBQ. Leonard also teaches the art of BBQ at his 3-year-old establishment, and so far has taught more than 4,000 aficionados. “Teaching people about the history of BBQ and its many styles, that’s what keeps me going. This is what I was put on earth to do!”

Recorded live on July 13, 2013 at Kendall College.

www.CulinaryHistorians.com


Chicago's Bold BBQ History

Presented by
Paula Haney, Author, Chef/Owner
Hoosier Mama Pie Company, Chicago

We’re going to be rolling in dough as one of Chicago’s most renowned pie mavens gives us a hearty slice of Chicago’s sweet and savory pie history.

But wait, there’s more! Our pie mistress will also delve into the myriad pies of ancient times. She’ll then dish out her perspective on modern American versus British pie, and talk about the decline of pie companies and the rise of her tiny pie shop on West Chicago Avenue.

And for those who find pie making intimidating, Paula will share her secrets and show how she makes her perfect pie dough. (We’ll all be pie-eyed!)

* * *

Paula Haney is the chef/owner of Hoosier Mama Pie Company and author of the just-released Hoosier Mama Book of Pie. Making apple pies for her father was Paula’s first foray into pastry. Years later, working as a fine dining pastry chef, Paula became concerned that Americans were not honoring our own pastry traditions. She has dedicated Hoosier Mama Pie Company to the promotion of pie consumption and the preservation of our pie making heritage. Prior to creating HMPC, Paula was pastry chef of Trio in Evanston where she worked with renowned chefs Grant Achatz and Shaun McClain.

Recorded live on September 28, 2013 at Kendall College School of Culinary Arts.

www.CulinaryHistorians.com

The Life of Pie: Chicago's Crusty History

Join us as Kari Underly, a third-generation master butcher, and author of the “The Art of Beef Cutting,” as she talks about: 

. The rich history of the Chicago stockyards and the influence and importance of our city to the world of meat processing;

. The evolution of the trade, where it started and where it's going;

. The changing face of the butcher, including the role of women in the meat business;

. The trend to whole animal butchery and the challenges it brings to both merchants and consumers.

Kari will also give insight into the evolution of new cuts to the industry and the role she played in developing them. And, she will introduce us to some cuts we may not be familiar with—we’ll have a chance to taste some of her favorites.

* * *

Kari Underly’s book, “The Art of Beef Cutting”, was nominated for a James Beard Foundation Award and International Association of Culinary Professional’s Award in 2012. She is the Principal of Range, Inc., a Chicago-based meat marketing and education firm. Kari was instrumental in developing and introducing several popular cuts to the industry, including the flat iron steak, and chuck eye country style ribs. She travels the country conducting meat training seminars for corporations, associations, butchers, farmers, and students. Kari will open Muscolo Meat Academy in September. The school will provide butcher certification and train students in meat cutting, preparation, and merchandising.

Recorded live on March 21, 2015 at Kendall College School of Culinary Arts

www.CulinaryHistorians.com

Chicago Has Something to Beef About: Cutting Remarks from a Woman Butcher

Presented by Mindy Segal, Cookie guru, Restaurateur, Author

Join us as James Beard Award-winning pastry chef Mindy Segal discusses the evolution of the modern cookie. Mindy will take us from the invention of Toll House chocolate chip cookies in the 1930s, to the innovations happening currently in her kitchen at Hot Chocolate in Chicago’s West Town neighborhood. She will also discuss how her Jewish roots have influenced her baking, as evidenced by the chapter that’s devoted to rugelach and kolachkes in her just-published “Cookie Love!”

Mindy will also talk about what inspired her to open Hot Chocolate, her popular eatery that encompasses a dessert bar and full restaurant. But wait, there’s more: Mindy will include a cookie-making demo to keep us all crisp with our baking skills. And of course, she will share samples.

Biography: Pastry chef Mindy Segal specializes in American cuisine, where she adds a contemporary twist on classic desserts. She was awarded the James Beard Foundation award for Outstanding Pastry Chef in the Country in 2012 and was nominated for the category the previous five years in a row. She has been featured in The New York Times, GQ, The Wall Street Journal, Food & Wine, and O, The Oprah Magazine. Mindy has made television appearances on Today, The Martha Stewart Show and The Food Network.

Recorded live at Kendall College on Saturday, July 18, 2015.

One Smart Cookie Shares Crumbs of History

The hot dog is undoubtedly more American than apple pie and Chicago has for many years been the hot dog capital of the United States. Dr. Rich Bowen is author of Hot Dog Chicago (1983) a book that offered reviews of 150 hot dog stands. He will discuss the hot dog scene of that era, the longevity of so many of the hot dog stands reviewed in the book, the current scene including the many nouveau hot dog restaurants that have recently appeared, and will highlight the uniqueness and preeminence of the Chicago-style hot dog. Rich will also discuss another made-in-Chicago food phenomenon, the Italian beef sandwich. 

Rich Bowen is Professor of Psychology at Loyola University of Chicago and co-author of Hot Dog Chicago: A Native’s Dining Guide (Chicago Review Press, 1983). He is also co-producer of Red Hot Chicago, an Emmy-nominated documentary that premiered on WTTW, Chicago in the fall of 1985. He was also featured as a spokesman for the Chicago hot dog in the PBS documentary A Hot Dog Program (1999, presented by WQED, Pittsburgh). In addition to hot dogs in Chicago, Rich has expertise in human vision and visual perception, perceptual processing in dyslexia, and graph literacy and analysis.

This program is hosted by the Chicago Foodways Roundtable. 

Recorded live at Kendall College on June 13, 2015.

http://www.CulinaryHistorians.com

Hot Dog Chicago:  circa 1983 and Thereafter

While the Chicago-style hot dog has gained international fame, no one has put more relish in our town’s wienie history than Douglas Sohn. His encased meat emporium, Hot Doug’s (2001-2014), was arguably THE most celebrated hot dog stand between New York and California, located on Chicago’s northwest side. Food authority Anthony Bourdain declared Hot Doug’s as “one of the thirteen places to eat before you die.”

Sohn ran his crowds-lined-round-the-corner establishment by manning the cash register and writing down every order. Customers went into wienie ecstasy over the cornucopia of hot dogs and fresh-cut fries, all dished out up with a healthy dose of Sohn’s bunside manner. One of his sausages, concocted of foie gras and duck meat, gained him a $250 fine and headlines during the Chicago City Council’s short-lived ban on selling foie gras. Goose liver aside, Sohn also gained endless publicity with write-ups in the likes of Bon Appetit and the New York Times, and incessant local print and TV coverage.

Then, at the peak of his savory success, Sohn cut the mustard and closed Hot Doug’s in 2014, leaving legions of aficionados dogged as to why.

Well ponder no more. Sohn will be here to give us the real skinny. In his own words: “I will talk about how I ended up in the hot dog business, the curious and unforeseen events that occurred in the 14 years of owning Hot Doug’s, and what went through my mind when I decided to close a rather successful restaurant.”

***

Bio: A graduate of the culinary program at Kendall College, Doug Sohn has worked as a vendor at both Wrigley Field and Comiskey Park in the 1980s; was a frequent server/bartender/prep cook for All on the Road Catering in Park Ridge in the 1990s; and cooked in restaurants, catering companies and corporate dining facilities before becoming a cookbook editor. One day a friend of his ate a bad hot dog, inspiring Sohn to open Hot Doug’s, the Sausage Superstore, in Chicago in 2001, and the rest was culinary history. Sohn documented his success with “Hot Doug’s: The Book,” published in 2013.

Recorded live at Kendall College on September 26, 2015.

www.CulinaryHistorians.com

Hot Dog! It's Hot Doug!  Bunside Chat with Chicago's Wienie King

Chicago began as a frontier town on the edge of white settlement and as the product of removal of culturally rich and diverse indigenous populations. The town grew into a place of speculation with the planned building of the Illinois and Michigan canal, a boomtown, and finally a mature city of immigrants from both overseas and elsewhere in the US. In this environment, cultures mixed, first at the taverns around Wolf Point, where the forks of the Chicago River join, and later at the jazz and other clubs along the “Stroll” in the black belt, and in the storefront ethnic restaurants of today.

Chicago was the place where the transcontinental railroads from the West and the “trunk” roads from the East met. Many downtown restaurants catered specifically to passengers transferring from train to train between one of the five major downtown railroad stations. This also led to “destination” restaurants, where Hollywood stars and their onlookers would dine during overnight layovers between trains.  At the same time, Chicago became the candy capital of the US and a leading city for national conventions, catering to the many participants looking for a great steak and atmosphere. Beyond hosting conventions and commerce, Chicagoans also simply needed to eat—safely and relatively cheaply.

Chicago grew amazingly fast, becoming the second largest city in the US in 1890. Chicago itself and its immediate surrounding area was also the site of agriculture, both producing food for the city and for shipment elsewhere. Within the city, industrial food manufacturers prospered, highlighted by the meat processors at the Chicago stockyards, but also including candy makers such as Brach’s and Curtiss, and companies such as Kraft Foods. At the same time, large markets for local consumption emerged.

The food biography of Chicago is a story of not just culture, economics, and innovation, but also a history of regulation and regulators, as they protected Chicago’s food supply and built Chicago into a city where people not only come to eat, but where locals rely on the availability of safe food and water. With vivid details and stories of local restaurants and food, Block and Rosing reveal Chicago to be one of the foremost eating destinations in the country.

Recorded live at Kendall College on January 23, 2016.

This program is hosted by the Chicago Foodways Roundtable. 

http://culinaryhistorians.org/chicago-food-biography/

Chicago: A Food Biography

Jelly Belly’s Vice Chairman Bill Kelley will unwrap the roots of the Goelitz candy empire, which began as a storefront in Belleville, Illinois.  While now headquartered in California, their legacy candy corn has been made in North Chicago since 1913.

Bill Kelley grew up in Wilmette and worked for Goelitz Confectionary Company in North Chicago during vacations.  The Goelitz family history of candy making dates back to 1869 when Bill’s great-grandfather, Gustav Goelitz, bought a candy wholesale and manufacturing company in Belleville, Illinois.

Recorded live at the Grayslake History Center on December 5, 2015.

http://culinaryhistorians.org/goelitz-family-jelly-belly/

The Goelitz Family: Jelly Belly

Michael Gebert, Editor


The world of Chicago food media is rapidly changing. Michael Gebert is a Chicago based writer who has found new opportunities to tell stories of Chicago's rich culture. He'll talk about the changing media landscape, how to find opportunities to share your voice within it, and the role of lists and guidebooks, from Michelin to his own, in helping people discover what their local food scene is about.

As editor and publisher of his own online magazine, Fooditor, he's just published the new edition of his guidebook The Fooditor 99, a local's guide to the best places to eat in Chicago right now. 

MICHAEL GEBERT is a Chicago-based food writer, video producer and the editor of Fooditor.com, recognized as the most in-depth publication on food in Chicago. He’s written for local publications like the Reader and Time Out Chicago, for national publications including Air Canada’s En Route and Saveur, and as a frequent guest on radio and local food events. He won a James Beard Foundation award for the Reader’s Key Ingredient chef video series.

Recorded live at Kendall College on December 9, 2017.

http://culinaryhistorians.org/fooditor-com-eat-chicago-drink-chicago-read-chicago/

Chicago Foodways Roundtable

Fooditor. Eat Chicago. Drink Chicago. Read Chicago

Presented by Justin Diglia, Executive Chef
Joe’s Seafood, Prime Steak & Stone Crab, Chicago

It’s probably safe to say that all of us who attend the Culinary Historians of Chicago programs are ardent foodies. We enjoy discussing food and how it connects us to culture and to life itself. And we enjoy the magic that Chicago’s chefs put on our plates. Yet how many of us really know what motivates a person to go into a field where the work is grueling, the hours are daunting, and the pay can be puny?

Come join us as one of Lettuce Entertain You’s star chefs, Justin Diglia, bares his culinary soul and exposes the passion that propels people like him to toss themselves into the bubbling stew of a chef’s life. Chef Diglia will also highlight the history and success of “Lettuce,” one of the nation’s most respected and innovative restaurant groups founded by iconic restaurateur Richard Melman.

Here are a few “appeteasers” from Chef Justin’s talk:
 “Chefs work 50-60 hours a week, holidays, and eekends, and the pay sometimes isn’t that great. You never get in this industry for the income. You get in this industry for the love of food.”
 “The dining experience isn’t about the chef’s ego. It is about the guests enjoying themselves.”
 “Chefs in the 70’s/80 got away with screaming and throwing stuff and just being disrespectful to their staff. But chefs today are expected to be more professional and more educated. I always recommend if someone wants to go to culinary school that’s fine, but they should continue their education in business and get a minimum of a bachelor’s degree.”
 “Chicago-based Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises (LEYE) changed forever the way Chicago dines. With more than 100 locations, mostly in Chicago, LEYE is known for its great food and systems. At Joe’s, we host several consultants a year who come in and see how we operate.”

Biography: Growing up in a small Ohio town, Justin Diglia’s interest in hospitality didn’t stem from dining in splashy restaurants or eating the food of award-winning chefs. Rather, it was the time he spent in the kitchens of his Italian family that initially inspired his culinary ambitions. Justin attended Sullivan University In Louisville, Ky, where he graduated with a double major in Culinary Arts and Business Administration. Following graduation, he took a position as executive sous chef at Vincenzo’s, an old world Italian restaurant in Louisville. Justin moved to Chicago in 2011 where he joined Joe’s as a sous chef, rising to executive chef in 2016. Today, Justin oversees the daily operations of one the nation’s busiest steakhouse kitchens.

Recorded live at Kendall College on December 2, 2017.

http://culinaryhistorians.org/mind-chef-secret-lettuce/

Culinary Historians of Chicago

The Mind of a Chef and the Secret of Lettuce

Presented by Coeditors Carol Haddix and Colleen Sen,
and contributors Judy Hevrdejs and Scott Warner

Everyone knows that Chicago is the world’s greatest food city – and we now have a book that tells you why: The Chicago Food Encyclopedia. Edited by Carol Mighton Haddix, Bruce Kraig and Colleen Taylor Sen, this 300- page volume is a free-ranging portrait of a culinary paradise, with nearly 300 entries written by 70 of the city’s leading academics, journalists, and industry experts. 

Coeditors Carol Haddix and Colleen Sen will describe the genesis of this project, and some of the pitfalls and surprises they encountered along the way. To give a flavor of its contents, three of the contributors will talk about their entries: John Carruthers on Lunch Counters, Judy Hevrdejs on Czechs and Bohemians, and Scott Warner on Chef Louis Szathmary and his famed restaurant, The Bakery.

Copies of the Encyclopedia will be available for purchase and signing by the editors, with proceeds used to fund the Culinary Historians of Chicago. And, there will be a tasting of some iconic Chicago foods.

Bios:

Carol Mighton Haddix is the former food editor of the Chicago Tribune. She is the editor of many Chicago Tribune Cookbooks as well as Chicago Cooks: 25 Years of Food History with Menus, Recipes, and Tips from Les Dames d’Escoffier.

Judy Hevrdejs retired as a food and features writer at the Chicago Tribune.

Colleen Taylor Sen’s books include Curry: A Global History; Feasts and Fasts: The History of Food in India; Turmeric: the Wonder Spice; and (with Bruce Kraig) Street Food: Everything You Need to Know About Open-Air Stands, Cars, and Food Trucks Across the Globe.

Scott J. Warner, a freelance food writer, is president of the Culinary Historians of Chicago and a member of the International Association of Culinary Professionals.
……..
Bruce Kraig, PhD, coeditor (not present), is President Emeritus of the Culinary Historians of Chicago, and is Professor Emeritus of history and the humanities at Roosevelt University. His books include Mexican-American Plain Cooking, The Cuisines of Hidden Mexico, Hot Dog: A Global History, Man Bites Dog: Hot Dog Culture in America, and A Rich and Fertile Land: A History of Food in America.

Recorded at Kendall College on October 28, 2017.

http://www.culinaryhistorians.org/chicago-food-encyclopedia-debuts

Chicago Food Encyclopedia

Presented by Carrie Nahabedian

By Scott Warner, President, Culinary Historians of Chicago: 
It’s not too often that a James Beard Award-winning chef stops me on the street and says she’d like to speak to the Culinary Historians of Chicago. But that’s what happened when I was walking near Carrie Nahabedian’s acclaimed River North eatery Naha; the famed chef and I spotted each other and stopped to chat. Carrie, who had delivered a poignant talk to our group years before on her Armenian food background, told me she had another subject that she was passionate about: Chicago’s restaurant history. She said she’d been collecting books and articles on the subject for years, and wanted to share her story. What a tasty offer! We gladly booked her. Please join us as Carrie presents a cornucopia of Chicago food tidbits covering:
· The history and evolution of Chicago’s restaurants.
· The French influence and the proliferation of exceptional chefs.
· Chicago’s luxury hotels and how they influenced the culinary scene in our city and abroad.

Biography: Growing up in Chicago, Carrie says she was most influenced in her cooking by her mother, and also by Julia Child. She later described watching Child as "like watching an artist painting". Carrie started her culinary career with a three-year apprenticeship at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Chicago. She then moved to Atlantic City, New Jersey, to become assistant chef to the garde manger at the Resorts Casino Hotel when it first opened. She moved back to Chicago to work at Le Perroquet before moving on to a variety of restaurants in Europe. Carrie returned to the United States where she became the first woman to work at Chicago's Le Francais. In 1989, Carrie became sous chef at the Four Seasons Hotel Chicago, and was soon promoted to executive chef. She stayed within the Four Seasons Hotels chain, eventually moving California to ultimately become executive chef at the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills, Carrie returned to Chicago in 2000 to open NAHA ultimately winning a James Beard Award and seven consecutive Michelin stars.

Mayor Richard M. Daley named September 22, 2009 in honor of Carrie, the same day that she was inducted into the Chicago Culinary Museum's Chefs Hall of Fame. Carrie opened Brindille in 2013 along with partner and cousin Michael Nahabedian; while NAHA served to highlight her Armenian roots, Brindille's refined Parisian fare celebrates hers and Michael's favorite spots in Paris.

Recorded at Weiss Memorial Hospital on August 18, 2018

http://culinaryhistorians.org/chicago-became-national-food-shrine-master-chef-dishes-delicious-history/

How Chicago Became a National Food Shrine: A Master Chef Dishes on Our Delicious History

By Russell Lewis
Executive Vice President and Chief Historian, Chicago History Museum
Founding Member, Culinary Historians of Chicago

Do join us as the Chicago History Museum’s Russell Lewis gives us a slaughtering presentation on Chicago’s legendary Union Stockyards and its impact on the city and the nation. (Think: “Hog butcher to the world.”) And how did the stockyards help put the sizzle in Chicago’s steakhouse reputation?

Here’s what Russell has to say:

“To watch an animal from the pen to the tin is an extraordinary experience. You see it killed; it falls; a conveyor carries it away. It is flayed while you wait…. Death is so swift, the evidence of tragedy so soon gone, that one feels no shock that flesh loses its character. Cattle are being handled like brass, so swiftly that life becomes merely a raw material. That is Chicago.” British journalist Walter Lionel George’s description of Chicago’s Union Stockyards, written in 1920, captures the essence of the city’s meatpacking industry—it was highly organized and brutally efficient, and it was synonymous with Chicago’s identity. Indeed, more than any other business, meatpacking reflected how industrialization became rooted in Chicago in the nineteenth century and transformed the city and the nation.

Situated at the center of the United States and linked to every corner of the continent by a vast rail and water network, Chicago was an ideal place for industry to grow. But location alone does not fully explain the formation of America’s quintessential industrial city. Three additional factors spurred Chicago industries, particularly meatpacking: innovation, scale, and new markets. Meatpackers developed a disassembly line that altered traditional labor and made the processing of meat a highly efficient operation. The Union Stockyards was itself a powerful innovation (competing companies sharing holding pens and rail facilities was unprecedented), and it also allowed operations to take place on an enormous scale never imagined. And lastly, meatpackers, particularly Gustavus Swift, realized it was not enough for industrialists to modernize their business ventures, they also had to create new markets for their products.

The fame of the Union Stockyards as a massive modern industrial enterprise spread, attracting tourist from around the world who yearned to see this harbinger of the future. Families carrying picnic lunches, convention delegates, school children, and honeymooners all came to see what was billed as one of the wonders of the world. Amid pig squeals and bellowing cattle, animal pens as far as one could see, buildings awash in blood, and a distinct smell of life and death, tourist were not disappointed, and the Union Stock Yards became etched into their memory. 
* * *
Biography: As Executive Vice President and Chief Historian of the Chicago History Museum, Russell Lewis is responsible for the day-to-day implementation of the museum’s mission to creatively explore and showcase Chicago’s history and culture, and to preserve, manage, build, and make accessible to the public, the Chicago History Museum’s collection of more than 22 million documents and objects. He has been a member of the Chicago History Museum’s staff since 1982. He is also a founding member of the Culinary Historians of Chicago, and for many years graciously hosted our programs at his museum.

Mr. Lewis has a BA in historical archeology from the University of Florida and an MA in American culture from the University of Michigan.

Recorded at Weiss Memorial Hospital on September 15, 2018.

Chicago's Meaty History: From Our Stockyards to Our Steakhouses

When the 18th Amendment was enacted in 1919, the fifth-largest industry in the United States became illegal. While many parts of the country (including, famously, many north-of-Chicago suburbs) were already legally “Dry,” Prohibition changed the political and moral landscape of the nation, introducing intrusive federal law enforcement, a new kind of organized crime, and the “scofflaw.” In this talk, Bill Savage will discuss how the politics of Temperance, and the battle between Wets and Drys, exposes rifts in American identity (and American food-and-drink culture) that still resonate today. Using George Ade’s The Old-Time Saloon as a guide, he will explore Prohibition historian Daniel Okrent’s not-so-rhetorical question: “How the Hell Did that Happen?” 

Bill Savage teaches American literature at Northwestern University and the Newberry Library of Chicago, with special emphasis on Chicago writers and the dynamics of urban spaces, including saloons then and now. He edited and annotated Ade’s The Old-Time Saloon (University of Chicago Press, 2016) and Chicago By Day and Night: a Pleasure Seeker’s Guide to the Paris of America (with Paul Durica, Northwestern University Press, 2013), a guide to night life during the 1893 World’s Fair. Books will be for sale, cash or check.

This program is hosted by the Chicago Foodways Roundtable with the Highland Park Historical Society and Highwood Historical Society.

Recorded at Santi's Garden on September 20, 2018.

High and Dry on the North Shore

Steve Dolinsky and Chef DeRuvo will prepare Davanti’s traditional Neapolitan pizzas for people to sample as they regale us with Chicago and Italian pizza lore.

In his new book, Pizza City, USA: 101 Reasons Why Chicago is America’s Greatest Pizza Town, Chicago’s eminent food journalist and impartial pizza judge extraordinaire, Steve Dolinsky, embarked on a self-described “Pizza Quest,” methodically taste-testing 185 different pizzas all over Chicagoland before coming up with his 101 best. He’ll share the secrets unearthed during that quest, including the fact that the Windy City offers a stunning 10 distinctive categories of pizza.

Steve Dolinsky and Chef DeRuvo will also discuss:
What makes Chicago Pizza City, USA?
What are the essential ingredients to great pizza? What do locals prefer? How are the best pizzas made?
What is true Neapolitan pizza? What is D.O.C.?

Join us to learn more about Chicago is “America’s Great Pizza Town.”

Steve Dolinsky has won 13 James Beard Awards for his TV and radio work. Currently, he is the Food Reporter for ABC 7 – Chicago. His “Hungry Hound” reports air on the ABC 7 News at 11 a.m. on Fridays and 10 p.m. on Saturdays, covering a range of food and drink-related topics. He is the Co-Creator/Host of The Feed Podcast with Chef Rick Bayless (which garnered a Beard award in 2015 for best podcast).

Before joining ABC 7, Steve was Executive Producer and Host of “Good Eating.” The weekly, half-hour show aired on CLTV, the 24-hour cable news channel owned by The Tribune Company. He produced and hosted 52 shows per year for 8 years, garnering six Beard Awards for his work there.

Chef Peter DeRuvo, current Corporate Executive Chef at Davanti Enoteca and the Francesca’s Restaurant Group, graduated from Johnson & Wales in Providence, Rhode Island where he studied the culinary arts and hotel and restaurant management. In 1993, DeRuvo began his culinary career as a Chef at Al Forno an Italian restaurant in Providence, where he obtained immense learning skills and philosophies about cooking that would sustain him throughout his entire career.

DeRuvo made his way to the Bay Area to cook under Chez Panisse alum Chef Paul Bertolli and Paul Canales at Oliveto in Oakland, where he was able to fine tune his cooking techniques. While living in the Bay Area, DeRuvo was introduced to olive oil producer, Albert Katz where a brilliant friendship formed. Katz sent DeRuvo to Tuscany, Italy where he spent a year gaining vast knowledge of the entire olive oil industry where he tended to the olive groves at Montecastelli, a well-known producer of Italian wines, olive oils and balsamic vinegars. Exploring the world of olive oil in the land of plenty, DeRuvo continued to cook at two star restaurant Casalta Ristorante with Chef Lazzaro Cimodoro. DeRuvo continued his studies of olives traveling throughout the South of France to cities such as Nice and Monte Carlo.

When he’s not bringing his unique approach to Italian dining as Francesca’s Restaurant’s Corporate Executive Chef, you can find him spending time traveling, golfing, reading and of course, eating.

Program was recorded at Davanti Enoteca, 1359 W. Taylor St, Chicago, IL on October 24, 2018.

Greater Midwest Foodways Alliance

Why Chicago is Pizza City, USA

Presented by Dino Dean
Producer, The Black Foodies

Most of us adore barbecue. We just can’t seem to get enough of it. And just about all of us have imbibed in such iconic barbecue styles as Memphis, Texas and Kansas City. But did you know that Chicago has its own zesty style? Come join us as one of our town’s most passionate foodies, Dino Dean, whets our appetite for Chicago-style barbecue. Dino will tell us about the Great Migration of African-Americans to Chicago, and how their arrival influenced cooking over an open flame. Furthermore, Dino will proclaim that “sauce is the boss,” which will be sure to ignite discussion among barbecue aficionados. Dino says he’s all set to be grilled when he speaks about regional sauces, how they have influenced Chicago’s bbq scene and how bbq sauce, or lack thereof, can reveal a bbq connoissuer’s palate.

Dino will also discuss the journey and travels of The Black Foodies, the name of his YouTube channel, where he showcases festival hopping, recipes, and African-American restaurants and chefs. And he will bring some sweet samples from one of his favorite eateries.

Biography: Dino Dean is a lifelong Chicagoland resident and a lover of all things food. He and his wife, Coretta, also write a column for the Chicago Defender, titled ‘Let’s Eat,’ where they review local African- American-owned restaurants.

Recorded at Weiss Memorial Hospital on November 17, 2018.

https://culinaryhistorians.org/chicago-fire-windy-city-carved-niche-bbq-history/

Chicago Fire: How the Windy City Carved its Niche in BBQ History

Part One:
Food and German Identity
from the Third Reich to the Berlin Wall
Alice Weinreb, PhD
Associate Professor of History, Loyola University Chicago

Part Two: (starts at 46 minutes)
Beyond repletion: Discovering functions of German food in Chicago
Nadja Huthmann, M.A.
Cultural Anthropologist

Part One:
Food and German Identity from the Third Reich to the Berlin Wall

Alice Weinreb will be discussing research from her recently published book Modern Hungers: Food and Power in Twentieth-Century Germany (Oxford University Press: 2017).  The book focuses on the relationship between Germany’s food system and the two World Wars and the Cold War. In this presentation, she will focus on two different yet iconic foods – rye bread and bananas –  in order the understand the way in which food has been intertwined with German collective identity. Specifically, she will analyze the role of rye bread in constructing an “Aryan” racial identity during the Third Reich, and the importance of bananas for expressing capitalist and communist identity during the Cold War.

Alice Weinreb (PhD, University of Michigan, 2009; M.A., Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, 2003; B.A., Columbia University, 1999) is Associate Professor of History at Loyola University Chicago where she teaches courses in twentieth-century Europe, the history and politics of food in Europe, the Holocaust, and European environmental history.  Her book, Modern Hungers: Food, and Power in Twentieth Century Germany, was published with Oxford University Press in 2017. It brings together the history of state policies, famine and mass violence, and everyday food preparation and consumption, in order to trace the history and legacies of the two World Wars and the Cold War. Weinreb’s articles have appeared in Central European History, German Studies Review, and Zeitschrift für Körpergeschichte, as well as being included in several anthologies. Her second book will examine the postwar environmental movement in West Germany and the rise of a specifically German definition of a clean and healthy environment.

Part Two:
Beyond repletion: Discovering functions of German food in Chicago

 Nadja Huthmann will be talking about her fieldwork which she conducted in 2016 on German food and its meaning in Chicago. She was curious what role the preparation and consumption of German food plays in Chicago, mainly in terms of picturing oneself and others. Protagonists in this field study, often unconsciously, reflected on specific notions of heritage, identity, means of memories and discussed the role and reputation of German cuisine in American society. The researcher extracted seven functions of German food which she will represent in her talk.

Bio: Nadja Huthmann, a passionate traveler & food enthusiast from Germany, is interested in culture(s) and food from all over the world. She holds an M.A. in Cultural Anthropology and European Ethnology from Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität (Goethe University), Frankfurt am Main and is a certified trainer for Cultural Communication Skills from BVV (Bayerischer Volkshochschulverband). Huthmann is co-author in the Kulturanthropologie Notizen series, Volume 69, published by the department of Cultural Anthropology and European Ethnology in Frankfurt am Main. Her strong connection towards humans and their stories made her volunteer as an interviewer for a neighborhood development project for VSM (Verein für Sozialpädagogische Modelle) in her hometown Frankfurt am Main. Her outstanding sense of taste and smell gave her the opportunity to work in a food tasting panel for a couple of years, further increasing her interest into food-studies.

Recorded at Kendall College on September 23, 2017.

https://culinaryhistorians.org/german-food-german-identity-sides-atlantic-20th-century-germany-contemporary-chicago/

German Food and Identity from Both Sides of the Atlantic: 20th Century Germany and Chicago Today

75 Year Retrospective of French Restaurants in Chicago: 1924-1999

Alain Maes,
French Virtual Cafe
http://frenchvirtualcafe.blogspot.com


Since 2010, Alain Maes has published a five-part series on French restaurants in Chicago from 1924 until 1999. 

Part 1. 1924-1959. A few glorious years and then a big gastronomic desert
http://frenchvirtualcafe.blogspot.com/2010/03/

Part 2. 1960-1969. A new beginning for French restaurants in Chicago
http://frenchvirtualcafe.blogspot.com/2010/12/french-restaurants-in-chicago-1924-1999.html

Part 3. 1970-1979. The Fantastic Decade
http://frenchvirtualcafe.blogspot.com/2012/01/

Part 4. 1980-1989. A period of transition: Younger chefs in search of a new contemporary French-American style
http://frenchvirtualcafe.blogspot.com/2014/09/

Part 5. 1990-1999. The end of the “haute cuisine” period, and the confirmation of the bistro supremacy
http://frenchvirtualcafe.blogspot.com/2019/01/french-restaurants-in-chicago-75-year_27.html

Alain Maes was born and educated in France. In Chicago since 1970. American wife, a free-lance writer and journalist. Two sons and a grandson. Since my childhood during World War II in the Languedoc and Geneva, Switzerland, and especially since the late forties when my parents moved from Southern France to Reims, the capital of the Champagne producing region, where we started to eat a little more normally, I had lots of exposure to the secrets of good food and wines. My Swiss grandmother, aunts, and my mother were great ”cordons bleus” and taught me many of their cooking techniques and secrets. My father initiated me to the art of wine selecting and drinking when I was 17 and explained to me the various regional food specialties of the French provinces. And when I was old enough to accompany them to restaurants, my parents introduced me to the world, rules, and tricks of restaurant going. Since my student years in Aix-En-Provence and Paris, I never stopped trying to improve my culinary skills, to experiment with an ever-growing spectrum of new wines and different types of foods from all over the world, and to conduct a non-stop search for new exciting eateries.

Maes has been a wine consultant for the last 10 years, doing lots of French wine tastings at Binny’s, mostly in Highland Park and occasionally at some Whole Foods stores. He also helped a couple of French restaurants, such as Kiki’s Bistro to compose their special “themed” menus.

Recorded at Bethany Retirement Community on February 2, 2019.

www.GreaterMidwestFoodways.com

75 Year Retrospective of French Restaurants in Chicago: 1924-1999

Currying Interest in Indian Cuisine From its Arrival in America to its Rise in Chicago

Presented by Colleen Sen, PhD
Author, Culinary Historian

“The history of Indian food in America has been largely neglected, even though it is much older than Chinese American cuisine,” says Colleen Sen, PhD, one of our nation’s foremost authorities on South Asian food.

Please join us as Colleen regales us with a buffet of flavorful facts about one of the world’s greatest cuisines, and its long-simmering impact on our nation and our city.

A few tidbits:
· The first Indian cooks arrived a decade after the founding of the Jamestown Colony in 1607 as servants to British “Nawabs” who came to America after making their fortunes.
· Curry recipes were featured in most 19th century cookbooks.
· America’s very first ‘bad boy’ celebrity chef was an Indian, Ranjit Smile, who hit the New York culinary scene in 1899 and made front page headlines with his exotic dishes and his frequent run-ins with the law.
· Faced with tightening immigration laws in the early 1900s, Indian farm workers in the Sacramento Valley married Mexican women and created a hybrid Indian-Mexican cuisine, including “Hindu pizza.”
· In Chicago, the first Indian restaurant was the House of India (1963), followed by Bengal Lancers (1969) –15 years before the first restaurant on Devon Avenue..
· For a finale, Colleen will dish on Chicago’s current South Asian food scene.

BIOGRAPHY: Colleen Taylor Sen is a Chicago-based author and culinary historian focusing on the food of the Indian Subcontinent. She has written many articles and seven books, including Food Culture in India; Curry: A Global History; Menus; Feasts and Fasts: A History of Food in India (named one of the best food books of the year by Vogue and The Smithsonian Magazine); and, most recently, The Chicago Food Encyclopedia (with Carol Haddix and Bruce Kraig).

Currying Interest in Indian Cuisine From its Arrival in America to its Rise in Chicago

Culinary Historians of Chicago studies the history of food and drink in human cultures. Why we procure, prepare and serve the food we do has cultural, sociological, geographical, financial and political influences. We encourage participation from all walks of life: from academics to home cooks, chefs to grill masters, farmers to heirloom gardeners, food scientists to students. Our programs, and those of our sister organization Chicago Foodways Roundtable, are supported by research, fieldwork and scholarship, though geared to an informed popular audience. We welcome everyone to gather at our table to share food, drink and their life’s culinary experiences.

If you would like to contact us, please e-mail us at CulinaryHistorians@gmail.com

Chicago Culinary and Cultural History

CulinaryHistory