Recipes served:
German Sausage Salad
Granny’s Orange Cake
Mom’s Gingerbread
Lily Salad

Join husband and wife team Chef Tim Graham and Sommelier Rebekah Graham’s of Twain (2445 N. Milwaukee Ave.). Logan Square’s new Midwestern-inspired restaurant, as they discuss community cookbooks with Greater Midwest Foodways Alliance. Influenced by the couple’s extensive collection of spiral-bound women’s club cookbooks from the 1940s through the present as well as Tim’s central Missouri upbringing, Twain marks passage from the past to the present with family recipes passed down through generations focusing on delicious, approachable dishes with modern twists and fun presentations. Named after prolific author Samuel Clemens’ famous pen name, Mark Twain.

Married in 2010, Tim and Rebekah Graham are industry veterans. Tim’s eyes were first opened to his passion for the restaurant industry at Les Bourgouis, a small French istro attached to a winery located on the bluffs of the Missouri River near his hometown of Columbia, Missouri. He worked at Tru, where in five years he climbed the ranks to executive chef, earning a 2008 StarChefs Rising Stars Award. He then left Tru to work with renowned Chef J. Joho at Brasserie Jo and Paris Club before moving on to open Travelle in The Langham Chicago.

Rebekah, originally from Salt Lake City, moved to New York in her twenties where she took her first mesmerizing sip of wine. Relocating to Chicago in 1999, she continued her journey through the beverage landscape, focusing on beer, before travelling to wine country in the United States and Europe and working at a winery in Tuscany, Italy. She also became interested in spirits as well, working in Taos, New Mexico where she designed her first cocktail program. Upon returning to Chicago in 2006 she worked at the legendary Pump Room before joining One Off Hospitality and opening Publican in 2008. Eventually going on to manage the highly lauded beer and wine program at the restaurant, she left in 2016 to open Twain with Tim, which is their first restaurant that they are operating together.

This program is hosted by the Greater Midwest Foodways. To reserve, please e-mail: greatermidwestfoodways@gmail.com.

The Greater Midwest Foodways Alliance is dedicated to celebrating, exploring and preserving the American Midwest’s unique food traditions and their cultural contexts.

Image by Mike Gebert of Fooditor.com