Presented by
Francois de Melogue
Chef, Author

He may be a native Chicagoan, but no one personifies French cooking more than Chef Francois de Melogue. And he’s here to share his love of the south of France and its Provencal cooking and history with us. He will talk about how this Mediterranean region was influenced by several cultures to produce “Cuisine of the Sun,” which happens to be the title of his soulful cookbook. (He calls it his” edible love letter to the south of France.”)

And although Francois was born in Chicago, as his name implies, he’s got a core of French running through him. His late French-born father, Real Begin de Melogue, helped found and taught at the Alliance Francaise de Chicago, and his mother instilled in him a reverence for the French table with her free-form French cooking.

Francois recalls his earliest attempts at cookery started with the filleting of his sister’s goldfish at age two and a braised rabbit dish he made with his pet rabbits at age seven. He eventually stopped cooking his pets and went to the highly esteemed New England Culinary Institute where he graduated top of his class in 1985.

Francois began his career in a number of highly acclaimed kitchens, including Chef Louis Szathmary’s legendary restaurant The Bakery in Chicago; Old Drovers Inn, a Relais and Chateaux property in New York; and Joel Robuchon’s Gastronomie restaurant in Paris. He returned to Chicago to open his award-winning restaurant Pili Pili, rated in the top ten new restaurants in the world by Food and Wine magazine in 2003.

In 2014, François left the professional ranges and moved to Oregon to spend more time with his family, and work for Foods in Season selling hyper seasonal, wild foraged and fished foods.

He says his greatest pleasure is rediscovering food through the eyes of his five year old son, Beau, who has proclaimed himself the family saucier. You can follow Francois’ blog athttp://www.eattillyoubleed.com/.

Saturday, August 6, 2016
10 a.m. to Noon
Kendall College, School of Culinary Arts
900 N. North Branch Street, Chicago
(Located just north of Chicago Ave. at N. Halsted St.)
Free Parking in lot on north side of school

Cost of the lecture program is $5, $3 for students and no charge for CHC members and Kendall students and faculty.
To reserve, please e-mail your reservation to:Culinary.Historians@gmail.com