Upcoming Programs at a Glance

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Our events are typically at Weiss Memorial Hospital (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.

Culinary Historians of Chicago:
  • February 23, 2019: Currying Interest in Indian Cuisine From its Arrival in America to its Rise in Chicago with Colleen Sen @ Weiss Memorial Hospital
  • March 9, 2019: Heritage Baking with Ellen King @ Weiss Memorial Hospital
  • April 13, 2019:  Chef Dominique Tougne of Chez Moi will be speaking about French culinary history @ Weiss Memorial Hospital
Chicago Foodways Roundtable: 

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

Greater Midwest Foodways Alliance:
  • February 24, 2019: High Tea with Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II at the Highland Park Community House
  • April 6, 2019: Midwestern Apples with Lucy Long
  • July 13, 2019: Civil War Encampment Cook’s tour @ Lakewood Forest Preserve, Wauconda
  • September TBA, 2019: Heirloom Apple Tour

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

Currying Interest in Indian Cuisine From its Arrival in America to its Rise in Chicago

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Presented by Colleen Sen, PhD
Author, Culinary Historian

“The history of Indian food in America has been largely neglected, even though it is much older than Chinese American cuisine,” says Colleen Sen, PhD, one of our nation’s foremost authorities on South Asian food.

Please join us as Colleen regales us with a buffet of flavorful facts about one of the world’s greatest cuisines, and its long-simmering impact on our nation and our city. Continue reading →

Beholding a Grainy History: A Woman Named King is a Queen of Our Local Bread Scene

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Presented by Ellen King, Hewn Bakery
Historian/Baker/Author

 “The future of food actually lies in the past,” says Ellen King, co-owner and head baker of the nationally acclaimed Hewn Bakery in Evanston, where she creates hand-forged artisan bread. (www.hewnbread.com).There’s more than a grain of truth to everything Ellen believes in. A historian by training, Ellen joins us to share the history of heirloom grains, and her company’s commitment to furthering the local grain economies in the Midwest.  Continue reading →

Homard à l’américaine or à l’armoricaine? Cultural Appropriation, Collective Amnesia, and the Forgotten Haitian Origins of an Haute Cuisine Dish

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Anthony Buccini, PhD

Whether one prefers américaine or armoricaine is immaterial: both names are inappropriate and lack historical basis or even plausibility. — Alan Davidson

There are a great many famous dishes whose names defy legitimate historical or linguistic explanation. Of these, there are two primary sorts: 1) those with names that are in a basic sense completely transparent but, despite that superficial transparency, remain obscure, in that we have no idea why (and often also when and by whom) that name was applied to the dish; 2) those with names that from a linguistic standpoint are (or seem to be) opaque and resistant to linguistically sound etymologising. Continue reading →

Apples in the Midwestern Imagination

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Presented Lucy Long, PhD

Like many Americans, Midwesterners have fond memories of apples: family apple orchards are commonplace; cider mills used to be and are returning; apple butter is a traditional way of preserving the fruit; apple pies and pastries frequent many homemade and commercial tables; Johnny Appleseed is embraced as a hometown hero; and festivals frequently celebrate the fruit. These memories make the fruit a significant part of personal histories and local food cultures. Continue reading →