Category Archives: Chicago Foodways Roundtable

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

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Join us on Sunday, April 5, 2020

German prisoners of war stationed at Fort Sheridan, ILL. raise their own vegetables on a four-acre tract of land at the fort where they have own camp including auto repair garage, and facilities for cabinetmaking, painting, electrical repairs and general labor. June 1, 1944 (Signal Corps photo)

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.

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A Taste of FoodCultura, Part 2

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Presented by Students in
Foodcultura: The Art and Anthropology of Cuisine,
University of Chicago, Autumn 2019

In November we were treated to Maggi Galaxy, a presentation by Stephan Palmié, Professor of Anthropology at the University of Chicago and Antoni Miralda, Barcelona-based artist and founder of FoodCultura. The artist and anthropologist are collaborating on a Chicago-focused project exploring the intersection between food, art, and other forms of cultural exchange. 

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A Taste of FoodCultura

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Presented by Students in 
Foodcultura: The Art and Anthropology of Cuisine, 
University of Chicago, Autumn 2019

Matzoh ball and turkey ball soup
FoodCultura – Persian Matzoh Ball Soup with a Turkey Ball

Persian Matzoh Ball Soup

In November we were treated to Maggi Galaxy, a presentation by Stephan Palmié, Professor of Anthropology at University of Chicago and Antoni Miralda, Barcelona-based artist and founder of FoodCultura. They are collaborating on a Chicago-focused project supported by a Gray Center Mellon Collaborative Fellowship, exploring the intersection between food, art, and other forms of cultural exchange. Continue reading →

A Culinary History of Downeast Maine

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Presented by Sharon L. Joyce

Maine’s Downeast culinary history begins well before explorers arrived in the 1500s. Some of the food preparation and preservation techniques used by the Wabanakis and early colonists are still in use today. Lobster and other seafood from the Gulf of Maine and the area now known as Acadia National Park paved the way for a vibrant tourist food scene. Continue reading →

Maggi Galaxy

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Presented by Stephan Palmié, Anthropology Dept. at University of Chicago
Antoni Miralda, Artist and founder of Food Cultura, Foodcultura*

Image by Peter Engler+

Haitian Djon-Djon Rice

The Reader’s Mike Sula weighs in on Maggi

As part of the Living Together Performance Series which took place in Little Haiti, the Haitian neighborhood of Miami, 2018, The Maggic Banquet, a participatory food-performance by the internationally acclaimed Miami- and Barcelona-based artist Miralda, celebrated Miami’s diverse cultural heritage by tracing the culinary history of Maggi, the ubiquitous and universal seasoning brand. Continue reading →