Culinary Historians of Chicago

The Secret House Fungi in the Built Environment Presented by Keith Seifert Department of Biology, Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1S 5B6 We often overlook the built environment as a biological system, partly because we design our shelters to protect us from the climate and competing organisms. Houses and other buildings contain several sub-environments, which vary from location to lo...

Savoring Appalachia Susi Gott Séguret When asked which cuisine most typifies America, chefs are bound to tell you it stems from the South. From the luscious belly of our nation, the mountains where sweet corn is grown and the rivers where trout flashes its rainbow colors, all the way down to the Mississippi Delta, the South has a gift for capturing both our hearts and our taste buds. If the South...

Fool’s Gold: A History of British Saffron Sam Bilton Saffron has allured us with its golden hues throughout time. It was the darling of the Medieval kitchen, the saviour of the apothecary’s chest and gave cloth a regal glow. Unlike many spices, such as cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves, saffron can be successfully grown in England. From the middle ages through to the eighteenth century there was a thriv...

The Pie Must Go On — An American Pie Story Presented by Catherine Lambrecht Pies are as American as pizza is American: we took a great idea, adapted it to our needs and ran with it. They used what they had available locally and made the most from it. In the Northeast and Midwest, it was apples; in the South it was molasses pies, in Florida the Key Lime Pie and the Southwest came nut pies. Apple pi...

What Ewe Always Wanted to Know About Lamb Farming In The U.S. Presented by John and Sukey Jamison, owners, Jamison Farm, Latrobe, Pa. From Scott Warner, president, Culinary Historians of Chicago: As a kid, I was always hesitant when it came to eating lamb chops; too often they were greasy and usually had an unpleasant “lamby” taste. In the last few years however, the lamb chops I’ve been buying fr...

The Invisible 6,000 Year History of Sourdough Eric Pallant For at least 6000 years, people have summoned sourdough starter seemingly out of the air and combined it with milled wheat, water, and a dash of salt to produce The Staff of Life: Bread. Join us as Professor Eric Pallant slices into a 6,000-year journey through history. We will see why bread was the greatest invention of all time (not the...

Show and Tell Like the “Show and Tell” of our school days, show us what you have to offer that is mushroom related. If not, just join us to hear the collectors’ stories. Many things can trigger memories or lead to the discovery of forgotten history or unique cultures and customs: – A photo, letter, or postcard discovered in an old family album that re-opened childhood memories and family history....

To Ukraine with Love Come join us as Anna Volyshyna, author of Budmo, Recipes from a Ukranian Kitchen, gives us a poignant and luscious tale of her homeland’s culture and cuisine. Anna will provide a buffet of topics, including Ukraine's geographical location and how it shaped Ukrainian culture; the role of religious holidays in Ukrainian cooking; and modern versions of traditional Ukranian dishes...

Street talking Indian Street Food Ranjana Bhargava Mention the words street food and most of us Chicagoans think of food trucks parked downtown at lunchtime with vendors selling a variety of freshly prepared ethnic foods. Our program today takes us to India where street food has abounded for years, but with a different twist — no trucks. What you’ll see are vendors with open carts preparing food r...

Feeding Fascists The Politics of Women’s Food Work Diana Garvin, PhD Feeding Fascism explores how women negotiated the politics of Italy’s Fascist regime (1922-1943) in their daily lives and how they fed their families through agricultural and industrial labour. Darvin looks at women’s experiences of Fascism by examining the material world in which they lived in relation to their thoughts, feeling...

The Ten Commandments of Pizza Peter Reinhart In celebration of his newest book, Pizza Quest: Peter Reinhart’s Never-Ending Search for the Perfect Pizza, the award-winning authority returns for his third visit to the Culinary Historians of Chicago. Peter will reveal his “Ten Commandments of Pizza,” and give an overview of the 35 featured pizza recipes inspired by many of the greatest pizza makers i...

Andrew S. Methven Emeritus Professor of Biological Sciences Eastern Illinois University While most people are scouring the woods for morels in the Spring, there is a treasure trove of other fungi that are often overlooked or ignored in our haste to find food for the table. This talk will focus on some of the fungi, including morels and false morels, which are encountered in Midwestern forests in s...

The Making of a Chicago Master Chef And Chicago’s Food Evolution Presented by Chef Michael Maddox Former Chef/Partner Le Titi de Paris Chef Instructor at College of DePage What shapes a master chef, especially a chef who has been a key ingredient in Chicago’s evolution into a world class culinary destination? Come join us as Chef Michael Maddox dishes on the many culinary influences in his life, f...

St. Chrys’ Table: Birth of a Community Cookbook Culinary Historians member Libbet Richter will interview team members: Jonathan Boyer, Isabel Carpenter, McLaurin Files, and Janet Russo During the first summer of COVID-19, the Women of St. Chrysostom’s (WOSC), a fellowship group at an Episcopal church on Chicago’s north side, talked about ways to connect and build community. Creating a cookbook was...

Friendly or Deadly? A View Into the Hidden Lives of Fungi Fungi are all bad, right? Well…not exactly. You might be surprised by how much you benefit from fungi in your everyday life. Learn what those mushrooms in the woods, or even on your pizza, are doing in nature and what those splotches of color you see on trees and rock are. By providing a window into the hidden lives of these fascinating and...

Black Women in the Kitchen Presented by Sephira Bailey Shuttlesworth PhD A note from Scott Warner, President, Culinary Historians of Chicago: This past fall I had the joy of attending the International Association of Culinary Professionals Annual Conference held in Birmingham, Alabama. The conference offered a buffet of glorious foodwriters and speakers, all accessible and sharing. Among the most...

Women, Philanthropy, Recipes, and Social Progress: A Reexamination of Primary Resources These presentations were made at the Illinois History Conference at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in October, 2021. Since this is ongoing research, there will be additional information learned after this event. “The Mary Ethel Crofton Cookbook,” circa 1895 and earlier, Nicole Stocker, Muse...

Historic Chicago Bakeries Come join us as author Jennifer Billock explores the sweet and doughy history of Chicago from pioneering bakers to today’s cake makers. At one time, more than 7,000 bakeries dotted Chicago’s streets. Today stalwarts like Dinkel’s, Roeser’s, Weber’s, Pticek, and Ferrara continue a legacy that shaped Chicago’s food traditions: a poppy seed bun for hotdogs, and paczki and ze...

Slicing into Chicago’s Pizza History Steve Dolinsky Doesn’t everybody love Pizza? Well, even if you don’t, you might want to tune into our program when award-wining food reporter Steve Dolinsky delivers a luscious serving of pizza history. Here’s what’s on Steve’s menu: - The three waves of pizza in Chicago – Post WWII, 1970s and then the pandemic. - How oven technology helped shape the types of p...

Thanksgiving: The Great American Holiday Presented by Penelope Bingham Nine out of ten Americans eat turkey on Thanksgiving, and most do so around a family table. Food and tradition are the heart and soul of this most-loved, most-observed holiday. Thanksgiving has become the origin myth of America and the expression of deeply held American cultural ideals. As it considers the evolution of Thanksgi...

Talk Turkey to Me! A Good Time in the Kitchen Talking Turkey & All the Trimmings Presented by Renee Ferguson “It’s all about an all-American meal—turkey and dressing—and the queen of all things Thanksgiving is cookbook author Renee Ferguson.” Chef Bobby Flay/Food Network Renee Ferguson is a cookbook author and former Butterball turkey cooking expert who has fielded thousands of questions from stre...

A Tale of Two Food Journalists: ‘Jane Eddington’ of Chicago Tribune, 1910-1930 and Alma Lach of Chicago Sun-Times, 1957-1965 ‘My Dear Miss Eddington’: Reader Letters and Early Twentieth Century Food Media Presented by Emily Martin, University of California, Berkeley Reader letters to early twentieth century women’s print food media were quite common, though few such letters have survived. This pap...

Let’s Eat: Celebrating with Food: Thanksgiving and Korean Chuseok Let’s Eat! Celebrating with Food explores food, culture and history from the American and Korean viewpoints. Learn where people got their ingredients, how technology has changed food preparation, and explore how one ingredient, cabbage, can become very different dishes (sauerkraut and kimchi). We will compare how the harvest holiday...

The Pilgrim Kitchen The Harvest Celebration of 1621: Plimoth Patuxet Museum, Plymouth Massachusetts Presented by John Ota As part of the research for his book, The Kitchen, John Ota travelled to Plymouth, Massachusetts where he cooked a meal over an open fire with Pilgrim Foodways historian Kathleen Wall. On the 400th anniversary of the Harvest Feast between the New England colonists and the Wampa...

The Culture of Mushroomers: What Sparked Your Interest? What sparked your interest in fungi? There are as many different paths to mycology as there are mushrooms on this Earth. Several members have been invited to talk about their paths to kick off the dialogue. Presenters were: Stephanie Kowalyk Greg Mueller Patrick Leacock Nicole Omiotek Catherine Lambrecht Susan Kayser We will try to fit in as...