WBEZ 91.5 Chicago

Getting lunch for 20 hungry cops who have been riding around in the freezing Chicago winter or blistering summer heat requires a remarkable degree of diplomacy, grit, and street savvy. Seriously, these folks are armed!

Odd bits, offal, or variety meats—whatever you call them, they have had a chequered history. Prized by early man, enjoyed at Roman banquets, and feted by the Elizabethans, they are viewed today in most of the English-speaking world as not worth cooking or, worse still, too disgusting to eat.

In 2010, UNESCO declared “The gastronomic meal of the French” an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

With Neal Samors and Eric Bronksy as our guides, we will explore Chicago's classic restaurants from pre-1900 to 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 othe

In first decades of the twentieth century, no issue inspired more acrimonious discussions and heated editorials than tipping. The American middle classes, eager to participate in the burgeoning restaurant culture of American cities, resented paying gratuities.

Join us for Carrie Roy’s lively talk, “Lutefisk Traditions in the Upper Midwest,” and a 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 no

Tracing the course of the history of cooking and dining in McLean County, Illinois and the Bloomington-Normal area takes us back 180 years.