Category Archives: Podcast

The Endangered Art of French Hospitality

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Presented by
Chef Jacquy Pfeiffer
Co-Founder/Academic Dean for Faculty & Programs
The French Pastry School, Chicago

Podcast courtesy of WBEZ’s Chicago Amplified

In 2010, UNESCO declared “The Gastronomic Meal of the French” an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The meal, an elaborate celebration of good taste and togetherness, is often described as a ritual: the choosing of the aperitif, the four courses paired with impeccable wines, the desserts, the liqueurs, and the service is an art in itself. Continue reading →

Chicago’s Classic Restaurants: Past, Present and Future

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with Neal Samors and Eric Bronsky

Podcast courtesy of WBEZ’s Chicago Amplified

We will explore Chicago’s classic restaurants from pre-1900 until the present including classics like Henrici’s, Fritzel’s, Shangri-La, The Bakery, Le Perroquet, The Berghoff, The Pump Room, The Cape Cod Room, The Walnut Room, and Gordon among many others. Then, post-1970, Richard Melman and Lawrence Levy introduced a new type of fun restaurant atmosphere in Chicago restaurants that ranged from R.J. Grunts, D.B. Kaplan, and Fritz That’s It! to Lawrence of Oregano and Jonathan Livingston Seafood. Continue reading →

Some Sweet Talk: Discover how the Midwest refined the nation’s sweet tooth through a delicious mix of immigrant traditions and American ingenuity. 

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Presented by
Chef Jenny Lewis
Educator and author of
“Midwest Sweet Baking History/
Delectable Classics Around Lake Michigan”
and Chef Heidi Heidecker
Assistant professor/pastry chef instructor,
Kendall College of Culinary Arts

Podcast courtesy of WBEZ’s Chicago Amplified

Join us as Chefs Jenny Lewis and Heidi Heidecker dish out a sweet history of the Lake Michigan states of Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana and Michigan. Learn about Chicago’s dessert presence during the Columbian Exposition (where the brownie was born) and get the real skinny on industry giants like Kraft and Nabisco. Savor the stories of Whoopie Pies and Red Star Yeast, and discover how tainted food products propelled Chicago to become the Nation’s first city to pass food protection laws. Continue reading →

Come Where the Sacred Meets the Quivering Profane: Exploring the Public and Private Spheres of Lutefisk

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with Carrie Roy, PhD

Podcast courtesy of WBEZ’s Chicago Amplified

Join us for Carrie Roy’s lively talk, “Lutefisk Traditions in the Upper Midwest,” and showing of her DVD, “Where the Sacred Meets the Quivering Profane: Exploring the Public and Private Spheres of Lutefisk.” (If you think you’ve heard it all on the subject of lutefisk, you have not!) Continue reading →

On being a cook in the 21st century South

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Presented by
Virginia Willis
chef, author, producer

Podcast courtesy of WBEZ’s Chicago Amplified

According to Chef Virginia Willis, one of the South’s grandest culinary belles, Southern “exceptionalism” is the notion that the South is a place unique and distinct from the rest of the world. Is this an invention of the New South, Chef Willis asks, or is the notion based upon a history of economic, social, and moral differences? As a poor, agrarian society, the early American South differed from its urban, industrial Northern counterpart.  Continue reading →