with Robert Dirks, PhD
Podcast courtesy of WBEZ’s Chicago Amplified
Tracing the course of the history of cooking and dining in McLean County, Illinois and the Bloomington-Normal area takes us back 180 years. Early settlers from the Southern states and parts of the Northeast brought with them divergent tastes, but irrespective of their culinary leanings they generally made do with foods they either raised or collected themselves. Continue reading
with David Strauss, PhD
Podcast Courtesy of WBEZ’s Chicago Amplified
As journalist Lucius Beebe remarked, it had taken “a stout heart and a sound stomach” to create a magazine of good living in 1941 as the Depression ended and Americans entered World War II. The success of Gourmet, however, depended even more on sound strategizing. Among potential readers, the staff targeted those who would replace the recipes of the ladies magazines, based mainly on processed food, with a mix of traditional American cooking and classical French cuisine. This reformulation of gourmet dining was timely in view of the Franco-American collaboration against the Nazis. And, it presented a great opportunity to staff and readers alike to devise a food regime based on un-rationed, mostly American, ingredients, which was far more patriotic than the government’s own rationing program.
David Strauss taught U.S. history, with an emphasis on cultural and diplomatic themes, from 1974 to 2002 at Kalamazoo College in Michigan. In addition to his most recent book, Setting the Table for Julia Child: Gourmet Dining in America, 1934-1961 David Strauss has also published Percival Lowell: The Culture and Science of a Boston Brahmin and Menace in the West: The Rise of French Anti-Americanism in Modern Times.
Program hosted at Kendall College.
Presented by Lori Grove, President, Maxwell Street Foundation
Maxwell Street cul-de-sac
South of Roosevelt Rd., ½ block west of Halsted St.
Chicago, IL
The Maxwell Street Market, created by a city ordinance in 1912, transformed an early residential street into a thriving marketplace for nearly one century in Chicago. Although its geographic boundaries shifted over time due to urban renewal and expressway construction, the informal bartering on Maxwell Street and discount shopping on Halsted Street remained constant. Continue reading
Interviewed by Louisa Chu
Podcast courtesy of WBEZ’s Chicago Amplified
Ken Hom – the Chinese-American chef, television personality, best-selling author, philanthropist, and world traveler – grew up extremely poor in Chicago. He started working at 11 years-old, washing dishes at King Wah restaurant. It was there on Chinatown’s Wentworth Avenue that the owner – a family friend he called his uncle – first taught him to cook. Continue reading
Presented by
Mr. Javant Sukhadia
Sukhadia’s
2559 West Devon Avenue
(southeast corner of Devon and Rockwell)
Cost: $5 per person to the restaurant
Podcast courtesy of WBEZ’s Chicago Amplified
If you’ve been on Devon Avenue lately, you may have noticed the profusion of snack and sweet shops. South Asians love to snack, and the region has one of the world’s great street food traditions. But the sheer variety of savory and sweet dishes, reflecting different regional traditions (North Indian, Gujarati, Bengali, etc.) can be confusing. Continue reading