Category Archives: Culinary Historians of Chicago

Alex Prud’homme, Dinner with the President

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Presented by Alex Prud’homme

Podcast

Links to Recipes:
Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Reverse Martini
Lady Bird Johnson’s Pedernales River Chili
Martha Washington’s Preserved Cherries

You all probably know of Alex Prud’homme as co-author of Julia Child’s best selling memoir, My Life in France. Come join us as Alex takes us into the White House to talk about his latest book, Dinner with the President. Alex will serve us a capsulated history of American food and politics, from the grim meals eaten by George Washington and his starving troops at Valley Forge, to Donald Trump’s burger banquets and Joe Biden’s “performance enhancing” ice cream—what they ate, why they ate it, and what it tells us about the state of the nation. Continue reading →

Colombian Exchange Hit World Like Culinary Comet

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Presented by Bill St. John, Journalist, Culinary Historian
Podcast

What we call the Colombian Exchange was that vast interchange of foodstuffs (and peoples, non-edible plants, technology, cultures, diseases and various animals) between the New World and the Old World that began in 1492 A.D. when Columbus “reunited” those two hemispheres. Continue reading →

Bitter Sweet: A Wartime Journal and Heirloom Recipes from Occupied France

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Presented by Kitty Morse

Podcast

Links to recipes
Civet de Lapin au Riesling – Rabbit Stew with Riesling Wine
Cruchades de Maïs – Fried Cornmeal ‘Coins’
Chocolate Almond Salami

In our speaker’s own words: “I’d never come across another suitcase quite like it. But what was the tattered black leather valise doing there, hidden behind a crocheted comforter on the top shelf of my late mother’s closet? The tarnished brass locking mechanism had already been sprung.” Continue reading →