The Pleasure of Pasta

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Food writer Nancy Ross Ryan will conduct a live interview with John Coletta, executive chef-partner, Quartino Ristorante Pizzeria Wine Bar, and author of the new 250 True Italian Pasta Dishes.

Quartino
626 N. State St. (at Ontario), Chicago

Podcast courtesy of WBEZ’s Chicago Amplified

Italy is arguably the most fiercely regional country in the world where culinary traditions are concerned. Before 1861, when it was unified, Italy was a collection of 20 separate kingdoms (ruled by disparate foreign invaders) and each kingdom had its own culinarytraditions and variations, among them pasta. These traditions and the arguments that surround them persist today.  Continue reading →

The View from the Kitchen: An Upstairs-Downstairs Look at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Most Famous House

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Presented by
Suzanne Martinson, Author, Food Editor, with
Linda Mitzel, Photographer

Podcast courtesy of WBEZ’s Chicago Amplified

Not every historic house has its own cookbook, but Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater has Elsie Henderson to tell tales about the iconic house built over a waterfall in Pennsylvania. In “The Fallingwater Cookbook: Elsie Henderson’s Recipes and Memories,” the cook, now 96, chronicles the history of the house and its owners, Edgar and Liliane Kaufmann, the millionaire Pittsburgh department store owners, and their son, Edgar jr. (It was an avant-garde family – on her first day of work, Elsie saw them swimming in the stream. Not every cookbook author gets to use the words “buck naked” in her book.) Continue reading →

Chicago’s Second Greatest Fire: UNION STOCK YARDS FIRE OF 1934

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Presentation by
Jeff Stern

With less than four inches of rain having fallen since the first of the year, and temperatures hitting 92 degrees on May 19, 1934, Chicago was vulnerable. It took only a carelessly tossed cigarette in the Union Stock Yards that Saturday afternoon to set off the most destructive blaze since the Great Fire of 1871. Continue reading →

A Treasure Trove of Thai

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Presented by
Nancie McDermott
Author, Cooking Teacher

Podcast courtesy of WBEZ’s Chicago Amplified

Join former Peace Corps volunteer Nancie McDermott on an armchair tour of the traditional Thai kitchen, with a focus on regional distinctions, religion, and a taste of Southeast Asian history. Nancie will elaborate on the role of particular ingredients and kitchen equipment in the traditional cuisines of the Thai kingdom, offering a context for the extraordinary dishes and flavors that have earned Thai food a permanent place on the restaurant scene throughout the United States. Continue reading →