Category Archives: Chicago Foodways Roundtable

Paris à Table, circa 1846

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Presented by Joe Weintraub, PhD

Paris à Table: 1846 is the first English translation of an essential text in the literature of gastronomy. Written by the journalist and critic, Eugène Briffault, the book takes readers from the opulence of a meal at the Rothschilds’ through every social stratum down to the student on the Left Bank and the laborer eating on the streets. The author surveys the restaurants of the previous generation and his own–from the most elegant to the lowest dive–along with the eating habits of the bourgeoisie, the importance and variety of banquets, and even the plight of “people who do not dine,” offering the reader, according to Le Monde, “the richest view of Balzac’s time seen from the table.” 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 →

Community Cookbooks: Inspiring Twain Restaurant’s Midwestern Menu

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Recipes served:
German Sausage Salad
Granny’s Orange Cake
Mom’s Gingerbread
Lily Salad

Join husband and wife team Chef Tim Graham and Sommelier Rebekah Graham’s of Twain (2445 N. Milwaukee Ave.). Logan Square’s new Midwestern-inspired restaurant, as they discuss community cookbooks with Greater Midwest Foodways Alliance. Influenced by the couple’s extensive collection of spiral-bound women’s club cookbooks from the 1940s through the present as well as Tim’s central Missouri upbringing, Twain marks passage from the past to the present with family recipes passed down through generations focusing on delicious, approachable dishes with modern twists and fun presentations. Named after prolific author Samuel Clemens’ famous pen name, Mark Twain. Continue reading →

Family Heirloom Recipes from the Illinois State Fair, An Illinois Bicentennial Project

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Presented by Catherine Lambrecht
Vice-President, Culinary Historians of Chicago

Come join us as the Culinary Historians’ own Catherine Lambrecht dishes on her upcoming book, Family Heirloom Recipes, an Illinois Bicentennial Project..
The book is based on Cathy’s work through the Greater Midwest Foodways Alliance, and was also inspired by her own family’s heirloom recipes. Continue reading →