Culinary Historians of Chicago

Thoughts on the Origins of Pizzerias in America and Chicago with Peter Regas PizzaHistoryBook.com In the past, the historical consensus was the first licensed pizzeria in America was opened in 1905 at 53 Spring St. in New York City by a young Italian immigrant named Gennaro Lombardi. However, in 2019 at the U.S. Pizza Museum in Chicago, Peter Regas challenged that consensus with a talk titled “Fil...

Mushroom Preservation: How to preserve, store and enjoy your foraged bounty for year-round use with Trent and Kristen Blizzard When the rains come the mushrooms often come out in abundance. If you do not want all those fresh mushrooms to go to waste, what can you do with them? Learn tips & techniques to preserve your fresh mushrooms from Trent and Kristen. Once preserved, you can enjoy them in the...

What's in a Name? Understanding nomenclature and name changes Presented by Patrick Leacock, PhD Our current system of naming started 267 years ago with Carl Linnaeus. He gave us Agaricus (gilled fungi) and Boletus (pored fungi) and nine other genus names for 89 species of fungi. Later Fries and Persoon and others published lots more scientific names. The proliferation of names got messy. So 177 ye...

Gordon Sinclair, Live! An interview with the Chicago culinary icon conducted by award-winning food writer and publisher Michael Gebert The following information appeared in The Chicago Food Encyclopedia, University of Illinois Press, 2017, and was authored by Barbara Revsine. Gordon Sinclair was working in public relations when a psychic predicted he would become a famous restaurateur. After worki...

An Onion in My Pocket, My Life with Vegetables Presented by Deborah Madison Thanks to her beloved cookbooks and groundbreaking work as the chef at Greens Restaurant in San Francisco, Deborah Madison, though not a vegetarian herself, has long been revered as this country’s leading authority on vegetables. She profoundly changed the way generations of Americans think about cooking with vegetables, h...

How Trader Joe’s Changed the Way America Eats Presented by Susie Wyshak Discover Trader Joe’s key role in introducing fun and unusual foods into the American diet decades ago, when the company was already encouraging the non-health food store shopper to try “better for you” versions of already-popular foods. Wyshak compares items featured in a 1982 flyer to how we eat now to show TJ’s importance i...

Women in the Kitchen, 12 Essential Cookbook Writers Who Defined the Way We Eat Anne Willan Women cookbook writers have had an enormous influence on the way we eat today. In her latest book, Women in the Kitchen: Twelve Essential Cookbook Writers Who Defined the Way We Eat, from 1661 to Today, Anne Willan profiles twelve of these women–from Hannah Woolley in the mid-1600s to Fannie Farmer, Edna Lew...

Sweet Greeks: First Generation Immigrant Confectioners in the Heartland Presented by Ann Flesor Beck Gus Flesor came to the United States from Greece in 1901. His journey led him to Tuscola, Illinois, where he learned the confectioner's trade and opened a business that still stands on Main Street. Sweet Greeks sets the story of Gus Flesor's life as an immigrant in a small town within the larger hi...

Commercial Cordyceps Breeding Presented by William Padilla-Brown Over the past 2 years a select handful of individuals have been developing breeding techniques for commercial Cordyceps militaris strains. Follow each step from the forest to the lab and cultivate an understanding of the breeding process for this beloved fungi. WILLIAM PADILLA-BROWN Founder of MycoSymbiotics, William Padilla-Brown is...

No Ketchup! Why Dennis Foley Ate 50 Hot Dogs in 50 Days Presented by Dennis Foley “The basic Chicago dog has its own ingredients,” said Dennis Foley about the “Magnificent Seven” of mustard, onions, relish, tomatoes, pickle (or cucumber), sport peppers and celery salt that should top a dog with snap in a steamed bun. The Chicago-style Hot Dog is fit for kings and commoners alike. In Dennis Foley’s...

What a Waste! Here’s what the world is doing to recover, reduce and recycle food waste Presented by Andrew Smith Culinary Historians, Author, Editor Don’t hold your nose! We’re not going to trash-talk you. Instead we’re going to offer you some savory food for thought when Andy Smith, one of our nation’s most esteemed culinary historians lifts the lid on a vital issue: food waste. Join us as Andy s...

Western Burn Morels Trent and Kristen Blizzard Morel mushrooms are famous for thriving in Western forests the year after a wild fire. Join us and learn how to locate and collect these edible fungi. Locating ideal burn morel terrain starts online with topographic and satellite maps. Other factors that affect your likelihood of hunting success include weather, forest type, elevation, aspect, season...

Detangling the Wood Wide Web: Assessing Functionality of Common Mycelial Networks Willow AbshireSims What lies beneath our feet when we walk through a forest? A massive web of mycelium runs underground, connecting trees by the roots in a network commonly referred to as the “Wood Wide Web”. But what do we know about this “Wood Wide Web”? Perhaps more importantly: what don’t we know, and where might...

An Invasion of Gastronomic Proportions: My Adventures with Chicago Animals, Human and Otherwise Presented by Mike Sula, Senior Writer, The Chicago Reader Mike’s favorite stories were about the people on the edges of the city’s food system; the oddballs, the uncelebrated, the immigrants cooking for their own—and especially the people willing to break the law to put food on the table. There was Shir...

Fat Rascals: Dining at Shakespeare’s Table Presented by John Tufts Actor, Author If you ever wanted to see Shakespeare sizzle, now”s your chance. Join our “Zoominar” as actor/cook John Tufts dishes up an historically savory stew of Elizabethan and Tudor Culinary delights that the Bard himself whetted our appetites for in his iconic plays. A nationally acclaimed Shakespearean actor (you may have se...

Illinois Mycological on iNaturalist Patrick Leacock, PhD Join us for a Zoom session with local mycologist Patrick Leacock. We will be looking through and discussing recent observations posted to the popular app and website: iNaturalist.org. Mushrooms, polypores, boletes, and chanterelles are some of the fungi being found this summer. The club project is here: Mycoflora of Chicago IMA member observ...

A Path to Knowing All the Mushrooms of Illinois with Stephen Russell Stephen will discuss his efforts to create a statewide biodiversity survey of macrofungi from Indiana and how these efforts can be applied to neighbors in Illinois. Primary topics will include integrating citizen scientists, online forays, specimen collection, and how anyone in Illinois can get important specimens DNA sequenced f...

The Rule of Rum Presented by Cynthia Clampitt Food historian Cynthia Clampitt shares the reason rum arose where it did and when it did, as well as how pirates got involved and who really said “yo, ho, ho” (not the pirates), but also explains how rum was involved in uniting the 13 Colonies, why it was one of the issues that led to the American Revolution, how it also led to a revolt in its next hom...

Chicago's Live Poultry Shops, FoodCultura - University of Chicago, Fall, 2019 Paige Resnick exploring Chicago’s live poultry shops and the many issues associated with selecting and preparing one’s own chicken. There was a technical error in audio recording affecting its quality. It is posted to maintain the historical record of this event. The collaboration included Foodcultura: The Art and Anthro...

Comparative Food Choices, FoodCultura - University of Chicago, Fall, 2019 Cleo Schoeplein and Liz Rice present their work comparing food choices in South Shore and Albany Park, two very different Chicago neighborhoods. There was a technical error in audio recording affecting its quality. It is posted to maintain the historical record of this event. The collaboration included Foodcultura: The Art a...

16,000 years of Global Potato History Presented by Raghavan Iyer Author, Teacher Our speaker, Raghavan Iyer, is the author of “Smashed, Mashed, Boiled, and Baked–and Fried, Too!: A Celebration of Potatoes in 75 Irresistible Recipes.” And he’s going to have one heck of a spudworthy program for us. Here’s his tater-tot preview: “The fourth largest crop in the world, next to wheat, rice, and maize, t...

Día de Muertos - Day of the Dead, FoodCultura, Fall, 2019 Eli Bec’s discussion of ofrendas prepared for Día de Muertos (Day of the Dead altars) and her own personal ofrenda The collaboration included Foodcultura: The Art and Anthropology of Cuisine, a team-taught course offered during the autumn of 2019 at the University of Chicago. The students, individually or in groups, proposed projects using...

Roeser's Bakery, FoodCultura - University of Chicago, Fall, 2019 Yoon-Jee Choi’s analysis of cakes from Roeser’s Bakery through the eyes of a Bauhaus historian. The collaboration included Foodcultura: The Art and Anthropology of Cuisine, a team-taught course offered during the autumn of 2019 at the University of Chicago. The students, individually or in groups, proposed projects using approaches o...

Cotton Candy as Art, FoodCultura, Fall, 2019 Alana Ferguson’s musings on cotton candy as an art form. The collaboration included Foodcultura: The Art and Anthropology of Cuisine, a team-taught course offered during the autumn of 2019 at the University of Chicago. The students, individually or in groups, proposed projects using approaches of anthropology and/or art and carried out extensive fieldwo...

Public and Private Dining Experiences, FoodCultura, Fall, 2019 Maisie Watson and Daniel Simantob explored the intersection of public and private dining experiences at Sinhá, a Brazilian home-restaurant in Chicago and in their own apartment. The collaboration included Foodcultura: The Art and Anthropology of Cuisine, a team-taught course offered during the autumn of 2019 at the University of Chicag...