Last Updated May 7, 2008

Welcome to the community of culinary and food historians. On this page you will find news about culinary historian groups, food historians collectively and individually, across the U.S., Canada, and (we hope eventually, Mexico) and about the North American Culinary Historians Organization.

May 2008

May 7, 2008, 7:15pm.
Culinary History Enthusiasts of Wisconsin Meeting. Willy Street Co-op Community Room, 1221 Williamson St Madison WI.
"In a Pickle." Jerry Apps, author of the recently published "In a Pickle," will be CHEW's May speaker. Set almost 50 years ago, "In a Pickle" explores the still continuing concern of small farms being eliminated by factory farms and the impact this brings to rural life. Jerry Apps, born and raised on a Wisconsin farm, managed a pickle factory in the 1950s. He is Professor Emeritus at UW-Madison and an award-winning author of more than 25 books. See the website for more information.

May 10, 2008, 10:30 am.
Culinary Historians of Southern California.. Central Library, 630 West Fifth Street, Los Angeles, CA 90071-2002.
"From Tourist Traps to High Art: 100 years of Dining in L.A.'s South Bay Cities," Speaker is Richard Foss. For more information about the Culinary Historians of Southern California, see website or contact Susanna Erdos, 2054 Kenilworth Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90039, serdos@aol.com.

May 18, 2008, 4-6 p.m.
Culinary Historians of Ann Arbor Meeting. Ann Arbor Senior Center, 1320 Baldwin Ave,Arbor, MI.
"Double Digging Deep: The Story of Chef Alex's Organic Garden." Speaker: Alex Young, Managing Partner, Zingerman's Roadhouse, Owner, Cornman Farms. FMI see website or contact Carroll Thomson (734) 662-8661.

May 18, 2008, 2:30-4:30 p.m.
Culinary Historians of Washington, DC. Bethesda-Chevy Chase Services Center, 4805 Edgemoor Lane, Bethesda, MD.
"What Made You Interested in Culinary History?" Come prepared to share for a few minutes your story of how you became interested in culinary history. One of the many pleasures of CHoW is that members come from so many backgrounds and have such diverse interests. For more information on CHoW visit their website.

May 18, 2008,
Culinary Historians of Boston. Newbury College, Fisher Avenue Brookline, MA
Annual banquet. Theme is "Your Moment in Culinary History." This year's banquet is a variation on what the CHBoston used to do as a winter potluck. For this banquet, each member will make a double recipe of her or his favorite recipe from culinary history. This could be as recent as one's grandmother, or as ancient as you like. The only catch is you have to commit in advance so we know that we have enough appetizers, salads, desserts etc. FMI, see the website.

May 18, 2008, 12:00 Noon
Genesee Valley Food History Guild. Big Springs Museum, 3095 Main St., Caledonia, NY.
"Eating Your Way through the Phelps and Goram Purchase." Presenter: Lynne Belluscio (curator of The Jell-O Museum). FMI Pat Mead at 585-538-4396 or see the website.

May 23, 2008,
Peacock-Harper Culinary History Collection Committee. Field Trip to Surry, VA.
S. (Sam) Wallace Edwards, III will take attendees on a tour of his Virginia ham processing plant in Surry, Virginia. The plan is to overnight in Williamsburg the night before and take the ferry across the James River to Sam's plant. He will present a program on the history of Virginia ham. Afterwards, we will eat lunch at The Surrey House and then return back to SW Virginia. FMI see the website.

May 24, 2008, 10 a.m.
The Culinary Historians of Chicago. Chicago History Museum, Chicago, IL.
"Indian Curries" Speaker: Raghavan Iyer. Cost of the program is $10, $5 for students, and no charge for members of the Culinary Historians or members of ChicaGourmets! For directions to meeting, go to http://culinaryhistorians.org/ and click on meetings.

June 2008

June TBA
Culinary Historians of New York. TBA
"Tuskegee Experiment Station: Papers of George Washington Carver" Project. Speaker will be Elizabeth Simms, recipient of the 2006 Amelia Scholar's Grant.

June 4, 2008, 7:15pm.
Culinary History Enthusiasts of Wisconsin Meeting. Willy Street Co-op Community Room, 1221 Williamson St Madison WI.
Toni Brandeis Streckert, author of Potluck! Home Cooking from Wisconsin's Community Cookbooks. In addition to sharing her experience putting the book together, Toni hopes to persuade one or more of the recipe contributors to join us for the meeting. See the website for more information.

June 7, 10:00, a.m.
Historic Foodways Society of the Delaware Valley. Daniel Boone Homestead, 500 Daniel Boone Rd., Birdsboro, PA 19508
Mercy Ingraham presents a HANDS ON Flat Bread and Soup Workshop. Mercy will lead the group in preparing different types of flat breads using all types of flours (barley, rye, wheat, corn and so on) and baked in a variety of ways. Soups will also be served along with hot and cold beverages. $10.00 Members, $15.00 Non-members. Registration Due to Erika Keller NO LATER than May 23, 2008. visithttp://www.danielboonehomestead.org/

June 14, 2008, 10:30 am.
Culinary Historians of Southern California.. Central Library, 630 West Fifth Street, Los Angeles, CA 90071-2002.
"Slow Food's Salone del Gusto," Speakers are Allana and John Elovson.. For more information about the Culinary Historians of Southern California, see website or contact Susanna Erdos, 2054 Kenilworth Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90039, serdos@aol.com.

July 2008

August 2008

September 2008

September 20, 2008.
Historic Foodways Society of the Delaware Valley. John Dickinson Plantation, Dover, Delaware
Ron Carnegie of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation will be our guest speaker. Before portraying the Father of our Country Mr. Carnegie worked in the kitchens of Colonial Williamsburg and will speak about the foodways program for children as part of the School and Groups program. A tour of the farm will be available after the lecture. To find out more about the Plantation please visit: http://history.delaware.gov/museums/jdp/jdp_main.shtml. More information will be posted when details are finalized.

October 2008

April 2008

November 16, 2008, 11:00 a.m..
Historic Foodways Society of the Delaware Valley. The Old Barracks Museum, Trenton, NJ
Ron Carnegie of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation will be our guest speaker. Before portraying the Father of our Country Mr. Carnegie worked in the kitchens of Colonial Williamsburg and will speak about the foodways program for children as part of the School and Groups program. A tour of the farm will be available after the lecture. To find out more about the Plantation please visit: http://history.delaware.gov/museums/jdp/jdp_main.shtml. More information will be posted when details are finalized.

Network News

Peacock-Harper Collection's Ten Most Wanted

Peacock Harper Collection at the Virginia Tech's Newman Library in Blacksburg, VA, has a list of their "ten most wanted" historic cookbooks. If you are breaking up your collection or just have extras of the books they would like to add, consider sending them along to the library.

Ma Gastronomie, by Fernand Point
The Dinner Year-book, by Marion Harland
National Cook Book, by Marion Harland
The New England Cook Book, by Marion Harland (co-authored with Mary J. Lincoln and Maria Parloa)
Being an interesting collection of directions to guide in the preparation [sic] of Virginia cooking containing receipts of more than one hundred years ago. Printed by Whittet & Shepperson, Richmond VA. 1939, by A. Brown and G. Drinker
Cooking of the Old Dominion prior to 18--; being an interesting collection of directions to guide in the preparation [sic] of Virginia cooking; containing receipts of more than one hundred years ago; to which is added, the observations of publishers whose name follows herewith, Richmond Hotels, Inc., Richmond VA.. 1939, by A. Brown, G. Drinker and Richmond Hotels Inc.
First editions of M.F.K. Fisher's works.
First editions of Elizabeth David's works.

You can contact them at Special Collections, Newman Library, P.O. Box 9001, Blacksburg, VA 24062-9001.

So You Wish You Had a Food History Group, Too.

We now see fifteen culinary historian, foodways, or historic cooking guilds in North America. There are culinary historians groups in Ann Arbor, Berkeley, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Madison, WI, New Orleans, New York City, Toronto, and Washington, DC. The Austin, TX, Delaware Valley, and Maryland groups and the Genesee Valley in New York State, and. the Catawba group in No. Carolina use the term. foodways, food history or guild in their names. The term guild in connection with foodways or food history seems often to point to a group with a large proportion of historic cooks and living history people in it.

If you wish there were a group near you, but there isn't, start one. Here is some advice:

How to Find Members: Often groups coalesce around a culinary collection, usually in an urban library, where people bump into each other doing similar research and realize they would like to explore food history together. Occasionally a cooking school or a course is the starting point. Beginning can be as simple as inviting a few foodie friends over to your house for a pot luck supper.

So far, existing groups seem to have catholic interests: any ethnicity, any time period, including sometimes very recent past. Some groups tend to feature local businesses. A couple groups consist primarily of hands-on historical cooks, though all the groups seem to have a large component of members who like to spend time in a kitchen, and not just think about food.

It seems to help to be in an urban or suburban setting, with a larger population to draw members from. Otherwise, you will need an active communication network to keep like-minded people in a larger region connected and enthusiastic.

Mechanics: The key to a successful and growing culinary historian group appears to be regularity in meeting place---a "home" if you will, and time---the same day of the month and hour of the day. There are exceptions, of course: Culinary Historians of New York and the Foodways Group of Austin do not have their own regular meeting places. (But, of course, New York has lots of good places to get together).

The average dues for membership is in the vicinity of $25 to $35 dollars for a household membership. In addition to membership, some groups have per meeting charges of $15 to $20 dollars or so, which seem to cover the higher costs in their places. The dues usually pay for whatever rent for the space is required, or modest honoraria for speakers, the cost of refreshments, mailings, etc.

Some have a two tiered membership, depending on location; within a certain radius of the city meeting place, the membership is a tad higher because those are the folks most likely to attend and benefit. The lower tier entitles them to the printed newsletter and essentially is a subscription membership.

Speakers typically do not get much for speaking, maybe a $100 honorarium, and dinner out. Out-of-town speakers are usually put up in members' homes. There is some variation in when and on what day in the week the groups meet. Some meet on weekend mornings or afternoons, others pick a weekday evening. Boston, for example, meets in the evening, and some members take themselves and a speaker out for Dutch treat supper ahead of time at a inexpensive place, except the group pays for the speaker. Some groups have food at the event, often refreshments related thematically to the speaker's topic. Many have special dinner events, either seasonal holiday or annual banquets; some have a summer picnic.

Other Approaches: Over the years, I have heard about some very interesting ways that some people have taken to explore food history without the benefit of a formal organization. Suppose you find yourself fascinated by food history but as far as you know, you are the only one. Or maybe you know one or two others. Consider inviting some friends over to enjoy an historic meal you cooked for them, and tell them a little about what you learned about the food. If some seem susceptible to an interest, set up a little pot-luck supper club based on cooking historic dishes with each member describing their dish and giving its history.

Another approach is to read a work of literature and prepare a meal based either on the book or the period in which the book was set. Some books are more full of food references than others --- Jane Austin and Charles Dickens, for example. Or select a work of history --- anything from Henry Louis Gate's Classic Slave Narratives to David McCullough's biography of John Adams, and recreate mentioned foods or cook recipes from the eras and places described.

You can also try having a food history book club, too, with everyone reading the same work of food history and getting together, with or without food, to discuss it. If you already belong to a book club, introduce them to works of food history when it is your turn to choose a book.

Even more simply, invite friends and neighbors to a potluck, and ask them to bring a dish from their own family's past to share, together with a story that may accompany it.

Communicating: There is terrific variation in how these groups communicate. Some have an email-only way of informing members about meeting times, places and topics. Others have simple mail-outs, either instead of, or in addition to, email announcements. Some have newsletters which vary from a few informal photo-copied pages to handsomely laid out, printed and stapled versions. Others distribute PDF versions of their newsletters. What you decide to do will depend a great deal on the energy and finances of your group, and whether or not there is a member willing to take on the considerable responsibility for obtaining articles and editing it. Similarly, some groups have websites which depend on the talents of a willing member. Some websites are very elaborate with many layers and archives, others are a simple page or two with links.

Whatever you decide to do, there is considerable satisfaction in finding others to share food history with. The expanded opportunity to learn about other peoples' food history experiences, opinions, and perspectives is terrifically valuable and just plain fun.

Culinary Historians of Ontario Announce....

Culinary Historians of Ontario President Fiona Lucas and long-time CHO member Dorothy Duncan are on the short-list for the Canadian Food Culture Category of the University of Guelph/Cuisine Canada Culinary Book Awards! According to an announcement from CHO, three books best illustrate Canada's rich culinary heritage and food culture, and two of them are Canadians at Table: Food, Fellowship, and Folklore: A Culinary History of Canada by Dorothy Duncan (Dundurn Press, Toronto) and Hearth and Home: Women and the Art of Open Hearth Cooking by Fiona Lucas (James Lorimer & Company Ltd., Publishers, Toronto). The winners (gold, silver, honorary mention) will be announced on November 2 at a special reception at the Delta Chelsea Hotel, in Toronto. CHO members are invited to the celebration at the reduced price of $30 per person. Please join other CHO members to celebrate the occasion, which also marks the tenth anniversary of the Culinary Book Awards. Tickets are going fast, so you are advised to reserve your ticket asap by emailing Jo Marie Powers at jmpowers@sentex.net.

NACHO Gathering at Ann Arbor

Members from twelve out of the fifteen North American culinary history groups ate lunch together on Saturday, May 19, during the Second Biennial Symposium on American Culinary History. Highly informal and with no set agenda, conversation turned to how to help new groups form, how to develop a resource list of people and their expertise, and how better to communicate with each other across the country.

We are blessed with young, technically savvy members who have agreed to turn their imaginations towards better, well in fact, any, communication. Catherine Lambrecht, of the Culinary Historians of Chicago and Chicago Roundtable, and Jennifer French and Lezlie Lee-French from the Southern California Culinary Historians have swapped email addresses and are going to mull over some version of a list serve or broadcast email system.

Lezlie also took time to walk yours truly through this website to explore ways to make it easier for NACHO members to use (as well as other improvements.)

Robert Pincus and his wife, Bobbi from Hunting Valley, Ohio, announced their interest in starting a Culinary History group in their area, leading to a discussion of how to help new groups become established. To that end, Shirley Cherkasky suggested that we add to this page a piece which ran in FHN a few years ago with advice about getting a group started. Several people voiced their willingness to share by-laws in case a new group wished to go that route.

For some time there has been a desire for a comprehensive directory of people knowledgeable in various food (history) topics. Various individuals observed they get calls from the press with food questions, or wish to explore some topic and wish they had a list of names and special expertise. Shirley Cherkasky who relishes compiling information - witness the Museum Directory on this site - offered to begin a list. We have yet to determine how and how much information will be disseminated on individuals, but participation would be voluntary, privacy respected, and this site may very well host that information, too.

With the development of a clearer and stronger NACHO page, will come more comprehensive information about the particular groups who comprise the network.

Announcing the Genesee Valley Food History Guild.

A new food history group has formed up in western New York State. Deanna Berkemeier wrote us to announce the existence of Genesee Valley Food History Guild. We are so happy to see this group appear. Deanna said, "We organized a little over a year ago, after a group of us hearth cooks at Genesee Country Village saw your article/note in FHN on starting local culinary history organizations. It took us quite a while to get our acts together and get organized, but we did and have been meeting since! We have a basic website that tells about us at http://www.geocities.com/denrie13/gvfhg . Check it out, and add them to your rolodex or your Blackberry or whatever it is you have.