Upcoming Programs at a Glance

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Posted on November 22, 2015 by Catherine Lambrecht

Our events are typically at Bethany Retirement Community (directions and parking) on Saturday mornings from 10:00 am until noon. Occasionally, our event time varies or we meet at a different location. These variances will be highlighted below, though please read the full event notice for details. You can always join our email list to get this in your mailbox.

Culinary Historians of Chicago:

Wednesday July 15, 2020 @ 7 PM via ZOOM: John Ota, The Kitchen
September 2, 2020 @ 7 PM via ZOOM: John Tufts, Fat Rascals: Dining at Shakespeare’s Table

Chicago Foodways Roundtable:

TBA, 2020 via ZOOM: Istanbul and Beyond: Exploring the Diverse Cuisines of Turkey, Robyn Eckhardt

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

Greater Midwest Foodways Alliance:

September TBA, 2021: Heirloom Apple Tour – postponed from 2019.

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

The Most Loved Room In The House: The Evolution of the American Kitchen

Posted on July 1, 2020 by Scott Warner

Join us on Wednesday July 15, 2020 – ZOOM

Book cover of John Ota’s book, The Kitchen

Presented by John Ota,
Author, The Kitchen

John Ota was a man on a mission–to put together the perfect kitchen. He and his wife had been making do with a room that was frankly no great advertisement for John’s architectural expertise. It just about did the job.

Fat Rascals: Dining at Shakespeare’s Table

Posted on July 1, 2020 by Catherine Lambrecht

Postponed to September 2, 2020 – ZOOM

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.

Continue reading →

The Rule of Rum

Posted on June 18, 2020 by Scott Warner

The Rule of Rum

Presented by Cynthia Clampitt, Author

CulinaryHistory · The Rule of Rum

Watch this presentation on Facebook.

No samples available at this virtual presentation, though feel free to try these recipes.

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 home after the Caribbean: Australia, and how it affected culture and history around the world after that. Continue reading →

16,000 years of Global Potato History

Posted on May 27, 2020 by Catherine Lambrecht

Presented by Raghavan Iyer
Author, Teacher

No samples available at this virtual presentation, though feel free to try these recipes:

Chocolate Sweet Potato Cake
Hasselback Potatoes with Cardamon Butter
Potato Leek Pie
Ultimate French Fries

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:

Continue reading →

When Potato Fields were Prisons: Unfree Farm Labor in McHenry County during World War II

Posted on April 5, 2020 by Catherine Lambrecht

Presented Samuel Klee, Ph.D. candidate
(Program in conjunction with the Highland Park Historical Society)

During World War II, some farmers in Marengo, Illinois negotiated with a large food corporation and federal agencies to make local farm fields into restricted, prison-like spaces. When the Curtiss Candy Company brought Japanese-Americans from the Tule Lake Internment Camp in California to cultivate and pick potatoes in 1943, the Marengo community struggled with the federal government and the candy company to eliminate the outsiders’ presence.