Upcoming Programs at a Glance

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Almost all our programs are presented virtually via Zoom on Central Time. We offer live and virtual programs. Please read the full event notices for details because days and times often vary. You are encouraged to join our email list to receive advance notices followed by day-of-meeting reminders with the required Zoom link. You are always welcome to become a member.

Culinary Historians of Chicago:

  • Thursday, November 14, 2024 @ 7 pm:  Jacque Ottman, Unpacking NYC’s Historic Meatpacking District and One of its Marvelous Meat Purveyors

Chicago Foodways Roundtable:

  • Tuesday, December 3, 2024 @ 7 pm via Zoom: Colleen Taylor Sen PhD on The Story of Chicago’s South Asians and Their Food
  • Tuesday, January 7, 2025 @ 7 pm via Zoom: Rick Rodgers on Mit Schlag: How Vienna Changed Baking Everywhere
  • Saturday, January 25, 2025 @ 4 pm Delafield, Wisconsin: Raccoon Dinner
  • Saturday, July 13, 2024 road trip to DeKalb, Illinois: 1 PM @ tour of Food: Gathering Around the Table @ DeKalb History Center, 5 PM: Church Supper at Kingston Methodist Church – postponed due to illness.

Find Culinary Historians of Chicago and Chicago Foodways Roundtable on Twitter or Facebook.

Greater Midwest Foodways Alliance:
  • Wednesday, August 6, 2025 @ 3 PM Indiana State Fair: Family Heirloom Recipe Contest located in the Indiana Building.
  • Friday, August 8, 2025 @ 10 AM Illinois State Fair: Family Heirloom Recipe Contest located in the
  • Saturday, August 9, 2025 @ 3 PM Missouri State Fair: Family Heirloom Recipe Contest located in the 4H building
  • Sunday, August 31, 2025 @ 1 PM South Dakota State Fair: Family Heirloom Recipe Contest located at the Women’s Building

Find Greater Midwest Foodways on Twitter, Facebook or our website.

Unpacking NYC’s Historic Meatpacking District 

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Come join us as Jacquelyn Ottman, a fifth generation member of New York’s “meat royalty” as she serves up a beefy history of Ottman & Company; her family’s storied meat purveying company supplied some of NYC’s top restaurants, and was considered the “Tiffany’s of the meat business.” Ottman’s also pioneered many of the packaging and prep innovations still used in our kitchens today.  Continue reading →

Leftovers A History of Food Waste & Preservation

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Presented by Eleanor Barnett, PhD


A third of all the food we produce goes to waste globally, and if all this needlessly discarded food were a country it would be the third largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world after China and the US! How did we become such a wasteful society? What can we learn about building a sustainable food future by looking to the past? Continue reading →

The Glory of Chicago-Style BBQ

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Chef Dominique Leach

Podcast

We’ve all heard of the classic BBQ styles from regions like Kansas City, Memphis or Texas. But what about Chicago-style BBQ?

From rib tips to hot links to mild sauce and more, Chicago chef and pitmaster Dominique Leach of the black-women-queer-owned and award-winning restaurant Lexington Betty’s Smokehouse (plus the 2023 winner of the Food Network’s hit show BBQ Brawl), is making it her mission to further define this unique style and put it on the map in 2024. 

Continue reading →